Ask your agent to get the best idea and then do a cost / benefit analysis to see if it all of the other incidental costs (registration as an example) are outweighed by the savings or not.

 

In NY you do need to suspend your registration and turn in the plates, but there is no cost to put it back on the road in the spring. The remainder of your registration is still valid, as well as the inspection. The most I have ever paid is a $1 fee to turn in the plates. Picking up new plates in the spring is free if your registration has not expired. You can even turn in vanity plates and get them back in the spring.

 

Note that if you leased your car, you signed a contract to carry full coverage.

 

Same if you have a loan.

 

You are correct, and I misspoke. I should have said that those who leased have a contractual obligation to maintain liability insurance as well as collision/comprehensive, since the lessor is the owner, and must be protected from liability by the lessee's insurance.

 

In Colorado I left the plates on and parked it. My insurance company (USAA) even had a drop down option on the site that said something along the lines of "this car is in storage." It is a pretty common request from their customers so they make it easy.

 

I'm an insurance agent out here in WA. Check with your agent to see what he would recommend in your state (he would know the local laws better than I), but many of my clients (including myself) switch to comprehensive only while the vehicle's in storage. Comprehensive is sort of the "everything but collision" aspect of insurance (fire, theft, animals (say you live in alaska and a moose takes a liking to your ride), etc.). Out here we don't have to surrender our license plates when we cancel our insurance luckily, but i'm not sure about Ohio...

Hope this helps!

 

Several of us investigated this a couple of years ago and could not get an definitive answer. The Ohio BMV website stated that the law requiring liability insurance had a provision of cars that were stored. However, Ohio has a program to randomly mail forms to car owners requiring them to provide documentation of liability insurance. We could never get an answer as to what happened if you were selected for a random letter in the mailbox. If anyone has the facts, I'd like to hear what they are.