Pulaski

That seems reasonable, but our registration fee (in NC) is peanuts, and the property tax more comparable to the amount of the road tax for an average value car. FWIW the personal property tax on my 2003 Accord is now about $25.

Octang Frye

If it flies, floats or does what a lady does... rent it.

But yes, leases are dumb for most people.

tht

Octang Frye

Expedition is freaking huge.
Get a Suburban or an Excursion.

Pulaski

The Excursion went out of production in 2006. Please try to keep up.

Nutmegger

Octang Frye

Stop it with all this "4 x 4" business. It's an SUV or a pickup or a truck. "4 x 4" conjures up Daily Mail readers and their class envy because people drive Land Rovers "who don't need them".

Octang Frye

What about a Ford Bronco? I love those.

OP, for where you're going to be, I would suggest a PT Cruiser, or the highly capable Pontiac Aztek, or a Honda Emelent.
They're all ideal for dogs and crotch goblins and the occasional visiting relatives. There's also a Chrysler Town and Country.
And pretty much any Buick. Don't believe it when people say they're ugly or just for old people.

Olly_

That's lovely but if you're being relocated by an employer you likely don't have the choice of moving to "wonderful" North Carolina

tht

Pulaski

Correct. But it provides some context for why there have been discussions on BE about what sort of salary is required to make a posting in the NE/NYC area tolerable, and a few months ago, following some back and forth here on BE, someone decided to turn down an NJ/NYC post paying $200k as he realized that the numbers just didn't stack up. And I would agree with that decision, the cost of living in the NE is just madness, compounded by some off-the-chart property taxes.

Tanja87

Thank you all so much for your advice!

I've gone back to the IAS site to compare more prices and it seems there are indeed much cheaper versions for similar sized vehicles to what we were looking at. Of course I am only able to compare the MSRPs they list (which, I have noticed, are nowhere near what they end up quoting you with all the added extras and fees.....) but I would imagine that if the MSRP is, say, $8k less, the final quote should be that much lower too, right?

And we are re-considering also if we need an SUV for me and a pickup for hubby or if we should just get one big car for me to ferry the kids around (and go camping etc) and then get a smaller runaround car for hubby's commute.... Being sensible and all that

@Pulaski Yes, I've noticed the south is a lot more affordable but the job is in NYC and I can't deny that I am rather excited about that. In any case, it will be a massive adventure for us and I'm sure if we're smart and don't go "mad" right from the beginning (such as leasing an SUV and a pickup truck as soon as we arrive ) we should be able to have a pretty decent life up there too

Pulaski

No, he's being an @r$e, can't you tell? Nobody in their right mind would have recommended a Pontiac Aztec even when it was in production. It went out of production in 2005.

civilservant

GA has a $20 a year registration fee, that's it. You just pay 7% sales tax up front on the vehicle. There are some advantages of living in the south, like no yearly vehicle checks or emissions standards (unless living in ATL Metro)

Pulaski

The way MSRPs typically work is that a dealer will sell most cars for around 10%-15% less than the MSRP, although this is less true for new or especially desirable models, but if you go the manufacturers web site and "build" a car that comes up with a $40,000 MSRP then typically a dealer would have it listed on his dealer forecourt for around $35,000 …. then of course there would be some fees and taxes on top.

If you have a particular model and spec in mind, and are ordering a car 4-8 weeks ahead, then you should be able to push IAS to customer order a vehicle from the manufacturer - "No, we want that model and spec!" We did exactly that because we had a particular spec and colour in mind, and when IAS said "These are the models and colours we have available, you'd have wait for a silver Mustang GT with alloy wheels and manual transmission." we said "OK!" They told us it would take six weeks, but it was only about four weeks later when our Mustang came direct from the plant at Michigan. …. We still have that Mustang 17 years later!

A few years later we used a similar trick when we bought our truck - the dealers only stocked 4wd models with automatic transmission and the larger 6-7litre engines, which we didn't need and didn't want. After the dealer found that there were no models of the spec we wanted at any dealer in the state or six adjoining states he agreed to custom-order the truck we wanted - and I believe that it is close to unique - leather and AC, but the 5.4l V8 engine, 2wd, and "a stick". What we got was what looked like (at that time) "a $45,000 truck" but only paid around $32,000 for it - my wife's family were very impressed!
I'm sure you'll be fine, so long as you remember you can't afford everything that the American dream promises!