UKC

I have been using Craiglist and doing other net searches for information about buying a car in the States for an ice climbing road trip. I will also be heading to Canada.

I’d like to hear from some one who has bought a car in the States with any useful information about their experiences.

Any good hints, tips, pitfalls and so on……

Which insurance company did you use? Inspection ticket (MOT) tips? What car did you buy? I’m looking for something that would be okay in the snow and be used at times for sleeping in. So far the Subaru Outlooks get a decent write-up by many on Summitpost and Rockclimbing. How reliable are the American built cars!?

Cheers
Paul

In reply to Paul Winder: travelled round the states in a suburu loyale 4wd. Not exactly reliable, but then it had done well over 200,000 miles. Don't know how easy it is to buy a car and get insurance without a us address and driving licence (i had both). Triple a or other breakdown insurance is a must.

In reply to Paul Winder:

We bought one years back ($1000 for a huge Ford LTD) and sold it six weeks later for $700. But it was wildly illegal - not much in the way of paperwork, deffo no insurance and some pretty bald tyres. Certainly wouldn't do it again but we were on a tight budget!


Chris

In reply to Chris Craggs:
My understanding is that it's basically impossible to do this (legally) without a permanent US address. HTH.

In reply to amf37:

Well it was twenty years ago. We bought it off a Mexican taxi-driver in LA (for cash) and sold it to a light-house keeper in SF for cash.
I guess we were part of the black economy for a while!

Chris

In reply to Paul Winder:

You can't do it without a US address fro registration and insurance.

When I did a several month road trip we used a company that basically did a long term hire (bought the car and they guaranteed to buy it back at some later point, at any one of their offices all over the country). The company sorted out insurance (both US and canada).

I can't remember what the company was called, but I'm sure there must be a few similar things around.

In reply to Paul Winder:

http://www.wheels9.com/wheels9/bwb/Default.htm

In reply to Glen: Cheers for the info, I have an address in the US I can use.

In reply to Paul Winder: You do need an address, but it can be a friend or family member. Beware where you buy, getting registration and paperwork in some states is harder than others, notably California has strict emissions regulations. I bought one in Colorado and it was relatively straightforward.

In reply to Paul Winder:

http://www.sentry.com/DairyLandInsurance/Default.aspx

very cheap, have no problems with foreign & young drivers - they were willing to insure me in the states on a 250cc motorbike at the age of 21 for less than £200.

Stunning.

In reply to Paul Winder: Did this a few years back. Bought in San Francisco from someone found via the US equivalent of autotrader (think it actually is autotrader). We thought this was better than a cheap car lot because at least it was only likely to be an amateur rip-off rather than a professional one. Then had to get insurance and then register it. My mate sorted the insurance - it was a bit of a job finding cover for less than a year and I think the UK licence was also an issue but we achieved this in the end. Took a couple of days to sort though. Then I think we had to change the registration to our name (like sending off the logbook to DVLA but we did this in person in a town somewhere near Yosemite - I think there is an office that deals with this in most towns). This worked a bit like paying road tax here at the post office. I think we had to get an emissions test for the registration. This was easy - just went to a kwik-fit type place, ten minute job for about $30 or so. We were strongly tempted to just ignore the whole paperwork thing but ultimately felt that we would have a major guilt problem if we flattened someone and left them in the hands of the US health care system with no cash. Would be fairly easy I think though. I've no recollection of using a proper US address - we might have used the address of the hostel we stayed at in San Francisco. Sold to a random dodgy backstreet car dealer in Vegas for a lot less than we bought for but that's because the transmission was slipping. Van had been twice round the clock though. If it had gone two months earlier in rural Idaho then buying would have been a bit of a disaster. If it had lasted another 1000 miles it would have been a brilliant deal. As it was we saved money on renting but it still cost us a fair bit.

In reply to Paul Winder:
I did a similar thing, also from San Fran and it's really no big deal. Buy in the same way that you do in the UK and the transfer to the new owner is very similar - you get the slip and the dealer has to post off the main portion to get you as the owner.

Insurance was 200 quid per person for 6 months (I was there for the ski season so didn't need it any longer than that, it may be cheaper for 12 months.) I can't for the life of me remember the company but it was basically a flat rate for a foreign license driver and there weren't many questions asked beyond the normal.

Cars aren't cheap in the states, unless you're looking to buy an absolute dog. We got a '93 Ford Explorer and it was around 3 grand. We sold it back 6 months later for 1,700 but it'd had a hard 6 months sliding around Tahoe.

In Cali, you need a smog certificate and it's illegal to sell a car without one, so make sure you're not getting shafted on that. We almost did. They have an MOT equivalent as well but it varies from state to state and I don't know too much about it because we couldn't be fscked with it.

If you're driving on snow, get snow tyres. 4x4 you can do without, snow tyres you will need.

American cars vary in reliability from very to extremely unreliable. Get a Japanese car if you can.

I miss the car.

In reply to Paul Winder:

remember, if you choose the "no insurance" route you might be checked at the Canadian border.If you kill someone you will end up an an American jail with your very own proctologist. If you buy a car in the states and they think you will sell in canada you may be nailed for tax (probably only newer cars). If you buy insurance make sure it covers you to cross state lines and into Canada.

In reply to Removed User: No problems, I'll be doing it the legit way as it doesn't seem too much bureaucratic trouble and the amounts of money involved aren't a problem. I'm typical modern middle class climber type after-all!!!

In reply to Paul Winder:
No MOT checks out there, after a certain amount of years you need to get a safety inspection (12-15years old)to get insurance but this doesn't garantee much, we went through 3 veichles in our year out there and the most reliable was the $100 banger we used through the winter. Oil leaks can be a major problem and leaks in the radiaor system if previous owners haven't plugged their vehicle in when temps get below -20. Make sure you get good winter tyres or you won't be going anywhere.
Hunt around for insurance, you need a North american address, some will insure you as a high risk driver if you're from abroad, we went with rockie mountain agencies in Banff CA who didn't put us with a high risk firm and were a hell of alot cheaper!
Good Luck

In reply to matt perks: I got insurance for a year and cancelled it when I sold the car, and they sent me a refund. Bit of an outlay at first, but you get it back. Also a bit of a pain to have a cheque to deal with.