Insure the vehicle or the driver?

[Go Army!!]

What is the name of your state? NY
I've been a member of an insurance company for quite some time now and they've recently started calling and emailing me concerning the addition of my two children on the policy. Well they're 5 years too late because they started driving in 2000. My question to the auto insurance sages is..." do I have to add a member of the family to a policy as an additional driver if the vehicles are owned and registered to me and only me?"

My insurance company sent the following:

In response to your concern about your children borrowing your vehicles on an occasional basis, they would be covered as permissive users. No additional premium would be charged for this coverage. They would not need to be added to your policy because they are not members of your household or financial dependents.

Why should I be charged an additional premium if I'm insuring the vehicle and not the driver?
Any assistance in clearing the fog of insurance war will be greatly appreciated.

Go Army!!

[teflon_jones]

I'm not quite sure why you're posting a question here since you're not getting charged anything, but here you go...

You're insuring the vehicle against damages that the drivers could possibly cause. Hence, insurance premiums are determined by a combination of the vehicle and the drivers insured to drive them.

[ecmst12]

Right, if the kids drive the car regularly, that would mean you should add them to the policy and it will cost more.

Technically you're insuring the car, but as mentioned the premiums are determined in large part by the risk factors of the driver (driving record, age, etc).

[Go Army!!]

I appreciate the advice- even though I'm not being charged with anything, but please consider that I may be pre-empting the insurance company's first strike, and the website carries the moniker “Free Advice”. So if we could leave the creeping doubt and the second guessing of my motive out of the replies...I would greatly appreciate the effort.

The reason I'm pursuing this is they (the insurance co.) consider my adult children's summer visits as more than a temporary arrangement, we're talking two months plus or minus a week, and are aggressively pushing me to add them to my policy even though they have insurance of their own- hence the question of insuring the vehicle or the driver. Yet when I posed the question of letting my neighbor use my vehicle for a period of 10 days while her husband was deployed...they didn't have a problem with it.

I can't get a straight answer from them even though I've been over my policies with a fine toothed comb and have been very poignant. I feel it's just a ploy to dig a little deeper into the consumer's pockets under the guise of insuring "family members". I’m just looking for a little impartiality in their bylaw. My posting is for information gathering and maybe an insight to a little known law case or law that addresses this very subject.
Thanks...

[ecmst12]

If they have their own insurance, then they shouldn't need to go on your policy at all. They must have their own cars and only use yours once in a while right? But, I guess if it doesn't cost you anything then it doesn't hurt.