Garage & Dealers Insurance
Also known as Garage liability, garagekeepers, dealers open lot, dealers physical damage
The auto business runs on other people’s vehicles. This is the coverage built for the risk that comes with them.
Garage and dealers insurance is a specialized program for businesses that sell, service, store, or move vehicles, the exposures a standard general liability or commercial auto policy is not designed to handle. It pulls several coverages into one: garage liability for the bodily injury and property damage that come out of your operations and your use of autos, garagekeepers for damage to customers’ vehicles left in your care, and dealers physical damage, or open lot, for your own inventory of vehicles on the lot. If your business touches cars, trucks, RVs, or powersports for a living, this is the form that actually fits the risk.
Reviewed for accuracy by Mark Hutchings, Licensed Insurance Producer (NV #3600994, CA #6003400).
Who needs Garage & Dealers?
- New and used auto dealers, plus RV, motorcycle, boat, and powersports dealers, with inventory on a lot
- Repair shops, body shops, and service stations that take customers’ vehicles into their care
- Quick-lube, tire, muffler, and specialty shops that test drive or move customer autos
- Detailers, car washes, and valet or parking operations responsible for vehicles they do not own
- Towing and mobile-mechanic operations that transport or work on other people’s vehicles
What it covers
- Garage liability for third-party bodily injury and property damage arising from your premises, your operations, and your completed work
- Auto liability for the vehicles your business uses, including test drives, moving customer cars, and dealer-plated autos
- Garagekeepers coverage for damage to customers’ vehicles in your care from fire, theft, vandalism, or collision, in legal-liability or direct primary forms
- Dealers physical damage, or open lot, for your own inventory of vehicles against theft, weather and hail, fire, and vandalism
- Products and completed operations for claims that your repair or service work caused injury or damage
- Defense costs for covered garage and auto claims
What it doesn’t cover
- Injuries to your own employees, which are covered by workers’ compensation insurance
- Damage to your own building, tools, and contents, which is covered by commercial property insurance
- Employee theft of money or property, which is covered by commercial crime insurance
- Data breaches and cyber incidents, which are covered by cyber liability insurance
- The dealer license or motor-vehicle bond your state requires, which is a surety bond, not insurance
- Faulty workmanship on the specific part you worked on, depending on the form, as opposed to resulting damage
Real claim scenarios
The test drive that went wrong
A salesperson at a Reno used-car dealership takes a customer on a test drive and causes an accident. Garage auto liability responds to the third-party injury and property-damage claims, coverage a standard general liability policy would exclude.
The customer’s car in the shop
A vehicle left overnight for repairs is stolen off a Nevada repair shop’s lot. Garagekeepers coverage pays for the loss of the customer’s vehicle that was in the shop’s care, custody, and control.
Hail on the lot
An overnight hailstorm dents dozens of vehicles across a dealer’s open lot. Dealers physical damage coverage responds to the inventory loss, subject to the per-vehicle and aggregate deductibles.
Scenarios are illustrative; actual coverage depends on your policy terms.
How it’s priced
Garage and dealers coverage is priced around what your business does with vehicles and how many are exposed at once. Carriers weigh whether you are a dealer, a repair operation, or a service business, your payroll and number of employees, the count of dealer plates, and the typical number and value of vehicles in your inventory or care. Location, loss history, and lot security all factor in.
- Your operation type: dealer, repair or body shop, service station, or vehicle-service business
- The number of employees, your payroll, and how many staff drive or move vehicles
- The number of dealer plates and whether you test drive or deliver vehicles
- The typical number and value of vehicles in your inventory or in your care at one time
- Your location, lot security, and physical-damage deductibles
- Your claims and loss history
What to watch out for
- Garagekeepers comes in different forms: direct primary pays for a customer’s vehicle regardless of fault, while legal liability responds only when you are legally responsible, so match the form to your risk
- A standard general liability or commercial auto policy is not built for garage operations and typically excludes the combined premises-and-auto exposure, which is why the garage form exists
- Set your dealers physical damage limit to your peak inventory value, not an average, so a bad hail night or a theft is fully covered
- Watch the per-vehicle and aggregate deductibles on physical damage, especially for weather and hail in northern Nevada
- Your Nevada or California dealer license requires a separate motor-vehicle dealer bond, which is a surety bond we place alongside the insurance, not part of it
Garage & Dealers FAQs
Get Garage & Dealers coverage that fits
We’ll match your limits and endorsements to what your contracts actually require — across Nevada & California.