petitefrancaise

When we arrived 18 months ago in Austin tx, on the advice of this forum, OH got a lease car from IA (a ford focus sedan) and we used cash to buy me a car - like your wife I wanted a small, nippy car to get me around the 'burbs and into the city. I also wanted a car that my eldest daughter could learn to drive in. We bought a very low-mileage Honda Fit from Craigslist for $12500. So far so good, but we then had to pay 6/7%? sales tax at the time of re-registering..Insurance has been pretty pricey but we expected that (although using the expat service mitigated this somewhat)

18 months down the line.
The Fit is really too small a car for Texas. I feel somewhat unsafe on the roads surrounded by massive suvs and trucks and as Pulaski keeps saying (!!!) you end up doing more miles here than you expect and the fit is noisy and somewhat uncomfortable on the concrete highways.
The fit was also a manual car and there's really no point daughter learning to drive this.

To cap it all, the insurance difference between the fit and a bigger car is not enough to justify keeping it.

So...we're selling it and buying a bigger car. Welcome to Texas!!

markcst

Thanks. So for a few days of black looks from the good lady and several hissy fits, better to take the hit(s) and go straight for a small SUV like an escape then... Then later she'll accept I was right.

Ok I'll take extra paracetamol lol

Pulaski

Inside, maybe, but she'll never admit it!

petitefrancaise

Living in Texas, she will drive on "freeways" and those paths and sidewalks are fine but you won't want to walk anywhere during the day June/July/August and maybe september.

There's nothing stopping you getting a small car now if that's what she wants and feels comfortable driving and then changing it later. Part of our reasoning for buying me a small car was that we didn't really know how much it would cost us to live here and so we wanted to keep all costs as low as possible for a while. Insurance was definitely cheaper for a small car when we arrived and it costs me $20 to fill up the fit, enough for 5 days....350 miles.

London1947

Sorry I thought you were coming from US to the UK so ignore my last message.

Pulaski

And to be clear, 70 miles a day is very easy to do in the US. Even things in and around the city where you live are far enough away/ apart that you will soon be racking up the mileage.

Our local Walmart on the edge of town is more than seven miles away, so a "quick trip into town for groceries and a few things from Walmart" quickly becomes 25 miles. A trip to one of the larger malls becomes a 80+ mile round trip. A day at the beach, mountains or lake and you're talking 150-200 miles. The mileage racks up very very quickly. We have put almost 25,000 miles a year on our Accord over the past 12 years, and since little Miss P started school and we can't do a family car pool, we have been putting a further 20,000 miles a year on my truck.

MMcD

Spend some time on the following web sites:

Used Cars: For Sale, Appraisals & Certified Pre-Owned | Edmunds.com

New Cars & New Car Prices - Kelley Blue Book

https://usedcars.truecar.com/?tcref=tchome

Car Ratings - New & Used Car Research | J.D. Power

New & Used Car Reviews & Ratings - Consumer Reports

I just bought a car and found the info gleaned from the time invested at the above sites to be invaluable.

In my case I was buying a new car (so the considerations were a bit different) - but I've given you each sites links for pre-owned vehicles.

(Note: Consumer Reports is a subscription entity. The free info they give out to non-members is limited. However - it might be well worth your while to subscribe (it's very cheap) as they rate endless household items as well, every month.
They are unbiased (accept zero advertising) and totally trustworthy.

ps: The 1st and 3rd links don't seem to open - so do this instead:
edmunds.com and once it opens - click on used or pre-owned cars
truecar.com (same as above)

Bob

It's not always petty either. Worst case scenario and I know someone it happened to.

Got pulled over on the MA pike for a out light. Small ticket for that. Big ticket and points for driving on a non-valid drivers license. Not having a valid license voided the insurance, got ticket and points for driving without valid insurance. No valid insurance voided the car registration, got ticket and points for that.

Car got towed and had to have someone come pick them up on the side of the motorway and pay a hefty fee for the tow and impound fees.

License was lost before they even got it, when they took the test and they eventually got the license, it was already half full of endorsements and car insurance went even more through the roof. Several thousand out of pocket just because they couldn't be arsed to get a local license and ignored it.

To the OP. Depending on the state, there's going to be sales tax on the second hand car.

There might be a town/state excise/property tax on the car, even on a lease and in MA, this is annual at $25 per $1K mint book price of the car when you bought it.

You might have a fee for plates, $25-100 depending on state, one off.

Plate/car registration, same range, usually every other year.

Title fee, usually around the $25-50 mark and a one off.

Car inspection/MOT, $15-100, usually annual. Not every state has this.

If you're in a city and have street parking, you might need a permit. $30-600 a month if you're in a busy city, probably nothing else where, certainly in places without snow.

The tip above about Consumer Reports subscription, check your local library, they might have a subscription, ours does.

markcst

Thanks all. I will be definately sorting the license before the 90 day mark, probably after a few weeks of driving the roads near the test centre . We have a vacation booked in Florida and new employer (which is my current one) is honouring that. Would be nice to get a car hire on US basis (using my own car insurance in the US) rather than the usual hiked holiday rentals.

I'm looking at the agency mentioned for a new car, probably lease, as I'll take a intermediate SUV and persuade the good lady to drive it... She's starting to compromise now and we've got up to something UK mid mpv size like a Meriva (which I have now). I think as soon as she plucks up courage to drive there she'll change. Going to arrange driving lessons for her as me taking her out will lead to a rapid divorce lol

Pulaski

Good, and she'll discover that roads and junctions are so much bigger than in the UK, especially in the newer cities of the South East and South West (as opposed to New York and New England) that she isn't going need to squeeze onto roads in a small car.

When I first came over I found some junctions almost big enough to get lost in, with the exit points hard to find in the heat of the moment, especially at night because American junctions don't have those internally-illuminated bollards that show you where to drive. ..... It can be too easy to turn left just a little too fast and turn into the left side of of the exit road!