Hello,

Am I able to lease a car when I move, I will be going over on a work permit but I am on the nomination programme applying for PR straight away?

Oh and is it ok to book a one way ticket on a WP as I have been nominated.

Yes

Yes

Most big financial services like Honda, Toyota, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, etc. will sometimes need someone to co-sign for you, as they "don't accept '9' social insurance cards."

However you will be able to finance a used car from a smaller dealership very easily. Just beware of very high interest rates for newcomers to Canada and people on temporary status.

I had no problem leasing on a work permit with Chrysler (Jeep). No co-signee, that didnt come up, I did however have to put a security deposit down and get a letter from my employer. Wasnt the best interest rate either, but I could probably have negotiated harder with hindsight.

The domestic big 3 are so desperate to shift vehicles you are in a decent negotiating position, but be aware the credit crunch is taking its toll on car leasing, apparently its going to be less common as a result.

That wasn't my experience - had no problem getting leases while here on a WP, both for business and personal requirements. Interest rates were below 1%, and no security deposit paid.

Well I do have a close contact who owns a car leasing company, so that'll probably help.

Thanks for the answers.

Was that throught the business or as a private individual? I would expect having a business behind you would make it easier.

I leased through my business, and also as a private individual. It didn't seem to make any difference to what was on offer - same haggling, negotiations and conclusions. Neither required any different sort of paperwork from me, just questions about income (no proof required) and bank details for the monthly debit to be set up.

We arrived on 13th October. We have a leased vehicle obtained as individuals two weeks later. After some shopping around.

Our Experience was that the North American Models GM, Chrysler etc were pushing their finance deals and not offering leases.

We then went to Toyota who were happy to offer a lease deal with a down payment.

As we did not want to pay a down payment we were given a number of a car dealer who had arranged car leases with no down payment for immigrants at my work. However due to the current economic climate the car dealer couldnt obtain a lease without a down payment.

To cut a long story short we went with toyota and if we had gone with them straight a way we could of leased a vehicle within 3 days of arriving.

I guess it depends on whether you are prepared to pay a down payment and if so how much much.

I wouldn’t lease get a loan and buy used save money better value

I don't get a loan I lease better tax break better car

I'm sure you would, given the link in your signature

I had no problem getting a lease with Honda on a TWP. In my situation, this was a much better option than a loan-financed second-hand purchase.

I was also able to lease with relative ease and that was with no employment history here (I hadn't even started work). They just wanted to see my work permit and job contract and wanted a down payment (which was about 15%).

They would only offer a lease period for the length of the work permit, which suited me fine at the time. I also thought leasing the best option as I knew my PR application wasn't guaranteed, so being able to hand the car back at the end in a hassle-free way was very appealing.

Most dealers will also discount leased cars, so it's always worth negotiating. You might be able to negotiate a set of winter tyres too, which you'll really need/benefit from if you're getting here at the start of winter. There's a $1000 rebate for Cars that do 50mpg+ highway, so look into that if you're into the green side of life.

Probably a good idea to get some insurance quotes while you're looking around for the car. Don't forget to bring original copies of your insurance NCD for house and car too. There are probably only 2 or 3 brokers around here who are helpful for new immigrants and do the best NCD conversions (the rest of them are blatant shitehawks) - let me know if you want any company names or contact details.

It depends. A year ago I would have agreed, but if you want a reliable late model Civic or Mazda 3 for example, the used prices for low millage ones are relatively high. A three year old Civic with 60-80k km on couldnt be found for much less than $14 to $16k!

I ended up leasing a new up scale one for $300 a month, and in three years will buy it for 11k ish. It made more sense to us to keep our savings and get a lease at 1.5%, and end up with a vehicle of known history, than to pay out now for an unknown quantity. We dont inted to keep leasing year after year.

Now, if you arent sure you are staying here, and are not looking at that particular scenario it might make sense to buy a beater outright.

The point is that getting a reasonable size loan with a reasonable rate is pretty tricky to do on a work permit.