vitch

Hi,

I'm a UK citizen who has just moved to Canada on a one year working holiday visa (organised via Bunac). I'm currently in Toronto and had the following slightly niave plan before arriving in Canada: Arrive in Toronto, buy a car, drive around eastern Canada for 3 months before driving across to Vancouver and settling there for 6+ months.

After arriving here I exchanged my UK license for an Ontario one. Then I found out how each of the provinces has different rules and regulations re. owning and insuring cars. It seems that cars (and especially insurance) are really expensive here in Ontario. Plus, when I go to BC it seems like I would need to re-register the car over there - or at least pay for a safety check and stuff...

So I'm starting to think that it might be a better idea to make our way to BC first and purchase and insure the car there and re-arrange our travelling so that we are based in BC and aren't taking the car out of it's "home province" for over 90 days at a time.

Does anyone have any experience with this and any suggestions for what we should do... We are looking for a cheap (<$2K) car so the extra safety check fees etc would be quite a big proportion of the total cost if we did need to register it in different provinces...

Thanks in advance for any advice,

Kelvin

GavinR

Cars are definately cheaper in BC and usually in far better condition because of the lack of salt used on the road. Insurance is probably less to with ICBC though not by much. I think this is your best choice.

Danny B

You'll be lucky to buy a car for less than $2k that will get you out of BC let alone 5,000km around the country.

Insurance is expensive over here, expect to pay at least $1k if you have 0 years NCB.

BC Hopefuls

I think I am correct in saying that if you intend to move to BC with an out of province licence that you have held for less than 24 months then you will have to take the BC driving test to get a BC drivers licence. You won't be able to swap your new Ontatio licence for a BC one.

We looked at the option of swapping our UK licences for Alberta licences then swapping those for BC licences in order to avoid the BC drivers test. I don't think it can be done.

I may be completely wrong, in which case someone else will be a long soon to put you right.

dbd33

What I would do is to buy the car (I saw a presentable Four Runner offered for $1500 obo yesterday) wherever I was, get it plates and insurance and just drive as a tourist everywhere else. I'm actually doing this at the moment with a car on plates from elsewhere. Yes, there's a technical offence in driving for more than n days on this basis but the risk of being prosecuted is miniscule. I think the bigger problem is that to get insurance and a safety certificate for a cheap car in Ontario will be infeasibly expensive, I doubt BC is much better.

vitch

Thanks for the replies everyone - some great information in there

Cool... I rang the ICBC and they quoted me about $1,200/ year for insurance on an "average old car" which definitely seems like it's quite a bit cheaper than the $3,000 cheapest quote I got in Ontario so far...

$1k sounds cheap compared to the above! Can you recommend your insurance company? I'm hoping a letter from my UK insurance company will help convince a company to give me some NCB but I guess that might be wishfull thinking...

I actually spoke to the ICBC about this before and what you say is true... Since the Ontario license was only issued recently then that is as far back as your driving history goes. And of course you had to hand in your UK license to get the Ontario one... In my case I'm lucky because I also have a New Zealand license from 5 years ago when I lived there. The woman at the ICBC said that with that as additional proof I would be able to convert my Ontario license to a full BC one for a nominal fee (something like $30 if I remember correctly).

Yeah - this seems like the easiest idea... I guess the question now is just whether cars and insurance are considerably cheaper in BC in which case it might work out if we wait until we are there...

Thanks again for all the advice, any further thoughts would also be appreaciated

R I C H

He uses ICBC, just like everyone else has to in BC.

Surrey Expat

Be aware ICBC basic insurance comes with only $200,000 liability. You may want to consider increasing that (many carry $5m now), if you choose collision and comprehensive that comes over and above the basic. Increasing your deductible can help bring the cost down a bit too.

A letter from previous insurers would need to be up to date, without gaps and indicate that you have had no claims in XX years together with the dates they insured you. Proof of no claims discount is not accepted by ICBC anymore

vitch

Sorry - my bad... I didn't notice him saying he was in BC...

Cool - thanks for the info. I'm hoping that my letter from the English insurance dated three weeks ago will be worth something...

Thanks again everyone for all of the information