I can't believe some of these insurance quotes I hear... Sure, having it under your dad's name would be the thing to do (if he trusts ya), but of course you should still pay the bill.
For California drivers, a firm called Auto Insurance Specialists shops various insurers annually for the best rate for their customers. Not sure what you have available where you live. https://www.aisinsurance.com/aishome.aspx
BTW, I got a '03 Eclipse Spyder with 24K miles on it in '04 for $16K. With my time bomb of a trade-in worth $8K it was an easy sell for them. I'll be keeping it for a long time, but I've got my eye on an Infiniti G35 coupe next. Hopefully they're still around in 6-8 years.