cost of cars in canada
May 4th 2009, 6:32 pm
#16
Sawdust making harpy
Joined: Sep 2007
Location: Alberta
Posts: 11,291
Re: cost of cars in canada
Yes I don't think it would last too long but when I sold my car the person who bought it wanted it right away - so I was left without wheels for 3 weeks.
I don't ride a bike, so bought the Pug and flogged it for 125 day before I moved.
I don't ride a bike, so bought the Pug and flogged it for 125 day before I moved.
May 5th 2009, 12:43 pm
#18
RETIRED Realtor
Joined: Aug 2006
Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba
Posts: 2,087
May 5th 2009, 2:48 pm
#19
BE Forum Addict
Joined: May 2007
Location: MB rural.
Posts: 1,001
Re: cost of cars in canada
couldnt have put it better stewart, at least dick turpin wore a mask..
back in scotland 200gbps fully comp 2yr old 1.9 diesel.
mb. $1100 ,2million cover, 4yr old car 1.5 toyota.
and thats with merit points.
back in scotland 200gbps fully comp 2yr old 1.9 diesel.
mb. $1100 ,2million cover, 4yr old car 1.5 toyota.
and thats with merit points.
May 6th 2009, 2:10 am
#21
BE Forum Addict
Joined: May 2007
Location: MB rural.
Posts: 1,001
Re: cost of cars in canada
sorry for not getting back quicker, its $500 deductable the usual amount with MPI.
May 6th 2009, 2:59 am
#23
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 3,054
Re: cost of cars in canada
We have an suv and the insurance after doing research was roughly 200 pounds more than the UK.But then you do not pay road tax,which in the UK on the same vehicle as our's is 215 pounds.And fuel is half the price than the UK,so overall i find running a vehicle much cheaper here in Canada.
Apparently you can save a couple of hundred if you insure the comprehensive through Canadian Direct - basic has to be ICBC.
Overall cost of motoring is cheaper. Petrol is cheaper, even parking is cheaper. I almost had a heart attack when i paid for parking in Manchester that last time i was there. Last saturday, i paid 4 dollars for all day in downtown vancouver at the pacific centre mall. New vehicles are way cheaper than the UK. Not sure why beaters are expensive here. Maybe no MOT means that they are more appealing and can be run into the ground? I've sure seen some very tired looking cars on the road here. more so than the uk.
Last edited by dboy; May 6th 2009 at 3:04 am.
May 6th 2009, 4:10 am
#24
Pea Brain
Joined: Jun 2005
Location: TBD
Posts: 6,005
Re: cost of cars in canada
I found the same thing, not sure why everyone assumes its more expensive here I just insured my 2003 audi a4 for 1600. As you point out no road tax also no mot. The a4 in the UK is group 15 with 220 pounds road tax.
Apparently you can save a couple of hundred if you insure the comprehensive through Canadian Direct - basic has to be ICBC.
Overall cost of motoring is cheaper. Petrol is cheaper, even parking is cheaper. I almost had a heart attack when i paid for parking in Manchester that last time i was there. Last saturday, i paid 4 dollars for all day in downtown vancouver at the pacific centre mall. New vehicles are way cheaper than the UK. Not sure why beaters are expensive here. Maybe no MOT means that they are more appealing and can be run into the ground? I've sure seen some very tired looking cars on the road here. more so than the uk.
Apparently you can save a couple of hundred if you insure the comprehensive through Canadian Direct - basic has to be ICBC.
Overall cost of motoring is cheaper. Petrol is cheaper, even parking is cheaper. I almost had a heart attack when i paid for parking in Manchester that last time i was there. Last saturday, i paid 4 dollars for all day in downtown vancouver at the pacific centre mall. New vehicles are way cheaper than the UK. Not sure why beaters are expensive here. Maybe no MOT means that they are more appealing and can be run into the ground? I've sure seen some very tired looking cars on the road here. more so than the uk.
In the UK I had an Impreza WRX, insured for GBP250 p/yr with full NCB. Here I've a Forester turbo, which costs $1150 p/yr with full NCB. Both rural addresses, similar mileage commutes and restrictions on drivers. Even taking into account the lack of road tax here, it's more expensive in BC.
I run an F150 truck for work purposes (insurance similar to the Forester) - it's the smallest vehicle I can get away with for towing. Gas mileage is lousy (c 18mpg), so even if fuel's half price here, I'm using at least 30% more that I did in the UK when I used a diesel SUV (Pajero) for towing - so no saving there. And the Pajero cost less than half as much to insure.
Distances travelled here tend to be much greater, so it's easy to burn through a couple of tanks of gas in a day.
May 6th 2009, 4:29 am
#25
Arrived 12th March 2009
Joined: Feb 2009
Location: Nanaimo BC
Posts: 38
Re: cost of cars in canada
Hi Preludefan,
Me and my wife have just moved to Vancouver Island and can share our experience of buying a car in Canada.
We hired a car for 2 weeks when we arrived and started looking at car dealerships in the local area. We found out quite quikly that we would not be able to get finance as we had no credit history in Canada.
That gave us the option of buying for cash. We found a nice 2002 basic model ford focus on sale for $4888 (cheapest car we had seen!) It had done 143k (relatively low milage for Canada). We agreed the sale and after fee's and taxes were added we ended up paying nearly $6000. We had sold 2 similar cars in the UK one 2 years newer and both with full service history and lower milage - the money we received for both of these did not cover the cost of the Focus!
Next came insurance. I'm not sure what it is like where you are planning to move to, but in British Columbia insurance is arranged through ICBC, a provincial company. You can not chose to use independant companies for basic coverage, so there is no competition and therefore prices are extremely high. We paid $1000 for 6 months coverage (that is all they would allow us to take on a monthly plan without a Canadian history)
We took the advice from the WIKI section here and got letters of proof of no claims discount from our insurance companies in the UK before we left. ICBC did not recognise these letters as they did not have a start date and end date and our full names (they stated the number of years of discount at the date the insurance was terminated and used first initial and surname - apparently this is not good enough for ICBC!)
All in all it cost us $7000 to put a 2002 basic Ford Focus on the road for 6 months, and we have been told we got a good deal on the car!
Expect to pay a lot of money for a second hand car here.
Hope the above experience helps and good luck with your moving plans.
Mark & Libby
Me and my wife have just moved to Vancouver Island and can share our experience of buying a car in Canada.
We hired a car for 2 weeks when we arrived and started looking at car dealerships in the local area. We found out quite quikly that we would not be able to get finance as we had no credit history in Canada.
That gave us the option of buying for cash. We found a nice 2002 basic model ford focus on sale for $4888 (cheapest car we had seen!) It had done 143k (relatively low milage for Canada). We agreed the sale and after fee's and taxes were added we ended up paying nearly $6000. We had sold 2 similar cars in the UK one 2 years newer and both with full service history and lower milage - the money we received for both of these did not cover the cost of the Focus!
Next came insurance. I'm not sure what it is like where you are planning to move to, but in British Columbia insurance is arranged through ICBC, a provincial company. You can not chose to use independant companies for basic coverage, so there is no competition and therefore prices are extremely high. We paid $1000 for 6 months coverage (that is all they would allow us to take on a monthly plan without a Canadian history)
We took the advice from the WIKI section here and got letters of proof of no claims discount from our insurance companies in the UK before we left. ICBC did not recognise these letters as they did not have a start date and end date and our full names (they stated the number of years of discount at the date the insurance was terminated and used first initial and surname - apparently this is not good enough for ICBC!)
All in all it cost us $7000 to put a 2002 basic Ford Focus on the road for 6 months, and we have been told we got a good deal on the car!
Expect to pay a lot of money for a second hand car here.
Hope the above experience helps and good luck with your moving plans.
Mark & Libby
May 6th 2009, 10:39 am
#26
Forum Regular
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 175
Re: cost of cars in canada
www.trader.ca
Better sit down when getting quotes...we dream of UK level premiums. As a newcomer expect to pay a couple of $k a year. After over ten years now I am down to about $900!
Better sit down when getting quotes...we dream of UK level premiums. As a newcomer expect to pay a couple of $k a year. After over ten years now I am down to about $900!
For example I am just turning 35, UK licence since 18, (previously held AB licence for 2 years) wife is 36, AB licence since 18 and we pay $130 a month for a 2000 Expedition and a 94 Escort both fully comp. This was taking into account 7 years full no claims from UK.
We have only been back in the country since Dec 08
May 6th 2009, 1:36 pm
#27
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 3,054
Re: cost of cars in canada
Not necessarily an assumption, it's often a fact that insurance and motoring is dearer here.
In the UK I had an Impreza WRX, insured for GBP250 p/yr with full NCB. Here I've a Forester turbo, which costs $1150 p/yr with full NCB. Both rural addresses, similar mileage commutes and restrictions on drivers. Even taking into account the lack of road tax here, it's more expensive in BC.
I run an F150 truck for work purposes (insurance similar to the Forester) - it's the smallest vehicle I can get away with for towing. Gas mileage is lousy (c 18mpg), so even if fuel's half price here, I'm using at least 30% more that I did in the UK when I used a diesel SUV (Pajero) for towing - so no saving there. And the Pajero cost less than half as much to insure.
Distances travelled here tend to be much greater, so it's easy to burn through a couple of tanks of gas in a day.
In the UK I had an Impreza WRX, insured for GBP250 p/yr with full NCB. Here I've a Forester turbo, which costs $1150 p/yr with full NCB. Both rural addresses, similar mileage commutes and restrictions on drivers. Even taking into account the lack of road tax here, it's more expensive in BC.
I run an F150 truck for work purposes (insurance similar to the Forester) - it's the smallest vehicle I can get away with for towing. Gas mileage is lousy (c 18mpg), so even if fuel's half price here, I'm using at least 30% more that I did in the UK when I used a diesel SUV (Pajero) for towing - so no saving there. And the Pajero cost less than half as much to insure.
Distances travelled here tend to be much greater, so it's easy to burn through a couple of tanks of gas in a day.
While your situation may be different, i still believe overall that it's cheaper to run a car here than in the uk, at least when comparing manchester to Vancouver.
May 6th 2009, 7:03 pm
#28
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 789
Re: cost of cars in canada
Hi Preludefan,
We took the advice from the WIKI section here and got letters of proof of no claims discount from our insurance companies in the UK before we left. ICBC did not recognise these letters as they did not have a start date and end date and our full names (they stated the number of years of discount at the date the insurance was terminated and used first initial and surname - apparently this is not good enough for ICBC!)
We took the advice from the WIKI section here and got letters of proof of no claims discount from our insurance companies in the UK before we left. ICBC did not recognise these letters as they did not have a start date and end date and our full names (they stated the number of years of discount at the date the insurance was terminated and used first initial and surname - apparently this is not good enough for ICBC!)
May 9th 2009, 10:37 pm
#29
Forum Regular
Joined: Feb 2008
Location: Aberdeen -> Calgary, AB
Posts: 162
Re: cost of cars in canada
I've been phoning brokers this week to get a rough quote for my Fiancee and I. We are looking at Mazda3-sized car so gave that as an example to see how it would pan out. The best quote I got was $126 a month for the both of us, with collision damage and home (contents) insurance for 1 year. This is with my no-claims discount from the UK, (however I didn't have my Fiancee's documents to hand, so she is down as a brand new driver in that quote. We are both 26 and I had 7 years NCD in the UK.
The deductible was $500, when they put it up to $1000 it only came down by around $2 a month, so just left it at $500.
I am happy to pay the amount above, given some of the other quotes I got! ($2000+) and some companies wanted me to sign up before they would confirm if my UK no claims would be accepted..
The deductible was $500, when they put it up to $1000 it only came down by around $2 a month, so just left it at $500.
I am happy to pay the amount above, given some of the other quotes I got! ($2000+) and some companies wanted me to sign up before they would confirm if my UK no claims would be accepted..
