kins

My secondhand car cost the same in dollars as I would have paid in pounds in the UK.

I pay more to insure my more expensive car than my cheap car, and much more to tax it.

Bob

Wonder if that's due to rusty states v those where cars don't rust out?

Noticed our last car was able to get much more in Maine than it was worth in MA because of the difference in the inspections, was passable up in ME but not down here in MA where it was only worth scrap.

BritTeacher

Wow - thanks for all the replies. When it comes to the car - I had decided I would simply have to lease as I won't have any money up front to buy a car. I have a car here (worth about £3500), but I reckon any money from that is soon to get swallowed up in costs associated with the move and living expenses before my first pay check comes through.

I assume finance on a used car is out of the question as I'd have no US credit history.

Bob

It's one of the easy ones to get. Just would a bit of a poo rate without any credit history. If you can save to put as much as you can as a down payment, that'll help a lot.

Pulaski

You should be able to finance a mid-priced used car from a used car dealer. Some will use a finance company, and some smaller owner-managed dealers may even self-finance, either way you would probably have to visit the dealer every month to make your payment. The rates won't be great, but it can be done, and given that many of these dealers are, and/or cater to, Hispanics, you can probably imagine that many of their clients don't have any US credit history.

jeffreyhy

Not a problem - cars, unlike houses, are easy to reposses, so lenders will lend to you. As others have written, your lack of a US credit history will affect your rate, but on the plus side it will be a good start on getting a US credit history.

Regards, JEff

BritTeacher

A last question to factor into my decision - do lease deals (like often in the UK) include tax, service and repair? Presumably because it being a new car it's under warranty anyway.

Just crunching some numbers on everything from motoring to rent.

Bob

Depends, but usually not, certainly on the tax, title, registration, inspection costs. Higher end cars might include some regular service and some repairs though.

bewildering

Hey.

Leases are a complete rip-off and I've never understood why people take on a lease. If you sell your UK car that gives you about $5200, then buy a decent car for $2500. I drive an older honda, you can pick a decent car for around $2500 using autotrader.com/cars.com/craiglist. This is what a majority of students end up buying as their first car.

http://www.edmunds.com/car-buying/bu...nder-2500.html

The other option is buying, and if you can get a lease with no credit history, you'll be able to buy a car. I looked into both options when i first arrived, and found a letter from your employer helps a lot. The car dealers love people with shitty credit history as they can overcharge for credit. This was why i decided to just buy a second hand car, as I could see the gleam in their eyes when discussing my lack of credit history.

Anyway good luck. I had a similar starting wage in a more expensive area than NC 8 years ago. I had no problem getting a 1 bedroom place for my budget - remember you will have to pay one months rent as deposit and then a month in advance.
Good luck.

Pulaski

Personally I think that paying $2,500 for a car means you're just about scraping the bottom of the barrel. Repairs are likely to be an ongoing expense, with the perpetual threat of a major repair bill hanging over you. I have no doubt that many young people and new graduates buy and run such cars, but like most other things in life you get what you pay for, and you're not getting much for $2,500.

Bob

For a year old, defunct thread...all a bit pointless, but there you go.

$2.5K is in the realms of a 6 year old Saab with 70K on the clock these days, so there are some bargains out there as that's about 30K miles before any troubles are likely, though serpentine belt needs doing at some point in that range.

hungryhorace

I'm told by my colleague that this absurd situation exists because of the 'cash for clunkers' programme?

Bluegrass Lass

Couldn't the higher price of used cars here simply imply that (some) cars simply hold their value for longer here?

hungryhorace

Well, clearly they do..

I've also noticed people keep their cars for far longer than they would in the UK! 100k miles is nothing for most cars - apparently.

Bluegrass Lass

Yep. 100k miles is nothing here, given the distances that people may easily drive to work. The brand new car we bought on May 29th had about 7miles on it. After my hubby has driven back and forth to work for the past 7 business days (and we've run some errands around the city), we now have over 800miles on it. That's in about 12 days.