LonelyCloud

Hi Guys,

Random Question time. The company I'm about to start working for wants to bring the family and I over to the main office in Oregon so that I can get up to speed on everything (will be for 3 months), before coming back to Europe to run an office here (UK Passport so not worried about that)

The question I have is around a vehicle, we have a 6 month old and while I am 'working' (in the loose sense, this is not a visa question) my wife will probably want to travel around etc.. We could borrow a car off family in the area, but that's a pain for them so I'm wondering how I could buy a cheap (no such thing I know) run around. I've looked at rental for 3 months and it's just not cost effective plus the long term plan is to relocate to the main office once the visa criteria is met, so we will be buying one anyway.

I don't see an issue with the family 'buying' the car and putting us on the insurance and there will be reasonably frequent trips back for meetings and such for which the family will probably come as well and we can store it on the families drive when we are not there.

Anyone else done this or have any other suggestions?

Michael

It likely won't make much sense to buy a car for three months and then sell it. First it may not be possible to register the car without being a US resident and insurance would likely be through the roof. Then trying to sell it, you'll likely lose a lot of money.

I'm not sure how it works in the UK but as an American, my car insurance covers rentals and my credit card covers the deductible so it doesn't cost me anything extra for insurance.

Budget has lower rates if you rent the car for 4 weeks or more at about $165 per week instead of $220 per week including fees and taxes for an economy car in Portland with unlimited mileage.

http://www.budget.com/budgetWeb/home...PS_abccampaign

If you were to buy a car, pay taxes and registration fees, insure it, and then sell it, I suspect it would cost your more than renting a car from Budget for 12 weeks plus a lot less hassle.

Edit: I misread your post since you plan to keep the car but I don't believe it is legal for your relatives to purchase a car and put you on their insurance if you are the main driver. If you have an accident, the insurance company may not pay off. Also I suspect adding you to their insurance would likely cost about $200 per month for the two of you since you won't have a US driver's license and an additional cost for them since they'll be insuring another car as the primary drivers.

LonelyCloud

The intention would be to buy it and use it every time we were over until the move was permanent as your right, it makes no sense to buy then sell after 3 months (should have made that clearer)

Your also right we can't register the vehicle, hence why the family would do it and we would use it as 'tourists' when we visit.

I have looked at the long term rental and it works out at around $2,500 inc taxes depending on the company, which I just think is a lot, especially if we have to rent every time, where as we are only looking for something with 4 wheels which has to last 18 months tops until everything is sorted.

Michael

I update my last post after I realized that you were going to keep the car so read it again.

Budget is $1951 including taxes for 12 weeks. You may also be able to find something cheaper if you look for coupon codes for other rental companies.

Michael

About 2 weeks ago, I rented a full size car from Budget in Minneapolis for a week for $110 per week plus taxes so I thought the rates were higher in Portland. However now when I check Budget, the rate for a full size car is $163 plus taxes in Minneapolis. I guess they raised the rates for the summer.

LonelyCloud

Thanks Michael.

I kind of guessed that prices would rise for the summer and since I don't have a fixed date yet, I've gone with what I've got. I'll keep an eye on the prices and if it looks like being a Fall/Winter Trip it maybe the best option.

Also had a hunch about the buying part, but if you don't ask....

Pulaski

I'm not sure exactly what age of vehicle you'd consider but if a six-ten year old vehicle would be something you'd consider, you might try looking at the cheaper end of the used car dealer business. They will sometimes finance cars themselves (on their books, not signed up with bank or finance company for a loan). Typically you would then make the payment directly to the dealer each month. Such arrangements are obviously not tied to having a good credit score, and are often focussed on selling cars to Mexicans and other minorities.

If you/ anyone default(s) on the loan they will come and repossess the vehicle, assuming they can find it, give it a wash and interior cleaning, change the oil and put it back on the forecourt to sell again. A small dealer can selling the car multiple times over several years, pocketing the down payment and several months of installments each time.

On this sort of arrangement you might put $1,000 down, make a couple of $150 monthly payments, then take the car back to the dealer and give them the keys. They'll just put it straight back out for resale, and unless you've put a lot of miles on it, they'll likely ask the same price having pocketed $1,300 for a three month rental. The risk you might be taking is that it suffers a catastrophic mechanical failure (I don't know what the dealer would do if you dropped off a non-operative vehicle and gave them the keys ), unless you can buy third party warranty coverage for the major mechanical components.

Brit In TN

Carhire3000 through their UK website will rent a Chevy Aveo type vehicle including all taxes and insurance (includes collision damage waiver and theft protection as well as 'normal' insurance) for 1,450 GBP. That is in Portland OR from June 21st to Sept 20th. I picked the dates at random to include peak season times.
If this is a business trip will costs not be refundable or at least tax deductible?

I've used these people before. They are brokers for the major rental companies. Never had a problem.

NB. Do not use their USA website, prices/services change.

Michael

Unless what they are doing is totally illegal, they can come after you for any costs that are incurred and they seem to keep adding fees on (repossession fees, cleaning and repair fees, reselling fees, advertising fees, agents commission, etc., etc.) and your credit score goes down the tubes.

I've seen people have their car repossessed and the fees exceeded what they owed on the car and the car was resold at a significant profit.

lansbury

A third party would have to buy the vehicle for the OP. Oregon has no sales tax and therefore requires an Oregon driving license to buy a car tax free. If you produce an out of state license they add the appropriate sales tax to the price, and remit it to that State.

When we came over my wife had to "buy" my Jeep and be the registered keeper as the dealer would not release the vehicle to me as I only had my UK license at the time of delivery.

Pulaski

What I am talking about is lower down the pecking order of car dealers. They're highly unlikely to be sophisticated enough to do any credit reporting, hëll, many of the customers don't even have a SSN. Fees? I doubt that too.

When you're running a bottom-feeder business chasing people through the courts isn't commercially sensible. Pocket whatever cash you can, and move on. If you can repossess a car and resell it, all the better, but the only paperwork worth completing is registering your lien with the DMV to stop someone selling it while they still owe money. Under these circumstances you need to ensure that you're getting your investment back with the down payment plus no more than 12 months payments, but you're financing over 48-60 months. If half all your clients make good payments, and half the remainder make some payments you'll be raking it in.

A collegue's neighbour owned such a low-end dealership, same business model, just not selling to Hispanics. He was buying big sedans (Caddies, Lincolns, Marquis's, Crown Vics, mostly) from a major auto auctioneer in Pennsylvania and then haul them down to NC. He'd clean them and polish them, put oversize wheels on them and sell them on finance. The ticket price was 2-3 times what he paid for them, he'd take a whopping down payment and often be ahead (in profit) after only 6 months payments, and exactly as I described, if you defaulted he drive around and repo the car (if he could find it), clean it up and stick it back on the lot. If the first "sale" had run six months of payments, the second down payment and all the finance payments were clear profit!

Michael

I agree that the bottom feeders don't want to go to court because of costs and they was likely breaking laws charging interest rates above allowable rates but they want as much as they can get and suspect they have drawers full of threating letters that they send out and when their salesmen are not busy, they are making threating phone calls. If they get 1/3rd of what they demand, they are happy.

Michael

Looking at my invoice, the cost for a full size car starting April 29th was $105 plus taxes and fees for a total cost of $170 for the week. For June 1st, the full size is $168 plus taxes and fees for a total of $255 per week and for June 22nd, the rate rises to $195 plus taxes and fees for a total of $291 per week. What is weird is that the full size for June 22nd is $5 cheaper than the economy and the compact is $12 cheaper than the economy.

When I booked for April 29th, the smaller cars were cheaper.

Maybe by September or October, the rates will be back down and make more sense.

Welshgator

Guy I work with, his ex-wife bought from a bottom feeder dealer. Apparently, the car had a device that would prevent the engine from starting if you didn't pay up on time every month. Guess you had to put a code in it that the dealer entered or supplied when you paid.

Michael

With all the technology today, the dealer probably could do that remotely.