Parisangel

The thing is, we're not coming over with loads of company support or hefty relocation, so to buy 2 cars outright is not possible. Can anyone give me some idea of what to expect to pay per month for leasing? Thanks so much for the advice.

Bayleaf_01

Will you have money for deposits? We worked out that the lease payment over 2 years was almost the same overall whether we out a big deposit down and had a small monthly, or put the minimum down and had a bigger monthly. The total money spent over the 2 years was almost the same.
So we put down max deposits and pay smaller monthly.

For a Ford Focus we put down $4090 deposit and pay $90 a month on a 2 year lease with 12000 miles a year. We could have gone direct to Ford and got the a very similar deal, but when I mentioned this to the Travelguard (International AutoSource) agent, he beat the Ford deal.

don't forget insurance costs a fortune here. Expect to pay close to $800 to $1000 per car for 6 months!

Hope this helps

Bob

You don't need to buy out right though.

You can get a decent, 3 year old car that's still under warranty for not much money, hell, you can get a high end Audi for $25K second hand if you wanted.

Monthly payment would still probably be less than a lease and it will build up good credit history that isn't just a credit card.

Basically, either way, it depends on what you put down for a deposit, the length of the lease and what you want. You can get a small shitty Chevy for probably $100 a month and a BMW for $500, but the more costly car will cost a hell of a lot more to insure.

Parisangel

So could you get finance to buy a second hand car?

Bayleaf_01

Probably not, as you don't have any credit history

fatbrit

All the more reason not to get a millstone such as 2 car leases round your neck.

craigslist.org

Bink

You'll have to use a company that is used to working with expats with no US credit history. VW do it, as I believe do BMW and Audi. It's a specific overseas scheme. If you do a search for VW leasing on here, you'll see plenty of threads on that scheme at least.

You can pay almost as much or as little as you want. $300/month per car will get you something decent. It really depends what you go for. Obviously something like a Ford Focus is going to cost you less than a 3 series BMW etc.

Bob

Pretty easy, with letter of employment.

The rate will be shit without a decent deposit, but it's not like the lease rate will be much better.

All depends on what you want to get and how much you want to spend.

lucelib

Talking of International Autsource...I'm working with them now to find a car.

I've discovered that a lot of the makes listed on their website do not lease to people without a tier 1 credit history. I believe that VW and Audi are an exception to this, but certainly Jeep, Mazda, Ford and Nissan aren't available. Has anyone else found this? What vehicles did you go for?

donna1971

Using Enterprise car sales through travel guard we paid $4000 up front and $308 per month for a 2010 dodge avenger with 30k miles on the clock with an allowance of 15,000 miles per year for 2 years. Our insurance is $520 for 6 months for 2 cars. (we bought a 1996 tahoe for around $5k when we arrived)

Danishdynamite

Wow that is much better than they could do for us - 3500 down and 229 a month for a 2 year lease. How did you get a competative quote to show them? Any help is appreciated

Bayleaf_01

I contacted a Ford Dearlership in the US and asked for a quote. AI beat it!

Danishdynamite

Thanks that is useful - i tried the same (ford website) and the IA guy said that was not for an expat! I guess i have to play hardball!

Bayleaf_01

Find a dealership local to where you will be living, ours had an Internet sales person. I emailed her and explained situation and she honored ford website & put it in an email with costs. All she would have needed was visa and letter of employment to show we were in US for term of lease and had funds to pay. AI need to know you have actually been quoted costs, not just what website says, as website price is for good credit history, and we expats don't have any!
I also told AI I would not be using them as had cheaper quote - that's when they started beating deals. Play hard ball, it worked for me!
Good luck

Danishdynamite

Hmm strange i spoke to a few nice people at Ford dealers and none of them would quote me - the main one i contacted said he was not allowed to quote me without a SSN! You might have been lucky there! They said they most likely could lease to me but sounded a bit vague.
Anyway my search goes on - but i think i have to ditch int. auto they just seem too expensive for me.