Boylerz

Hi Folks,

Greetings from the NW. All is going well for me here. Found a nice appartment and am likeing the job. Of course it is pretty cool that my girlfriend is a 3 hour drive away in Seattle rather than a 10 hour plane journey!!!

Anyways I have had a car rental paid for by the company for the last 2 months which will run out in 2 weeks time. I am only now in the position to do the driving test beacuse I have received my first utility bill for my poof of address which is needed. So I have called the DMV and will do the written part tomorow and will then have to schedule the driving part of it which will take 2 weeks or so. I seems like some states you only need to do the written part? But in Oregon it is both. If my rental is finished by the time my test comes around I guess I will rent one for the test.

Next up then will be purchasing a car and getting insurance. I am pondering getting a Ford Focus (seem to be as cheap as hell along with the Taurus). As some of yee guys advised me already it would be best to pay for the car in cash. I feel I should be able to pay about half in cash and the rest in a loan. Guessing I will pay about 7k in total. Is it best to get finance through the dealer or apply yourself through Capital one or some of them? Would they even touch a person with no real credit history just yet? You see in my job we get a car allowance of $550 a month which we only get when we purchase a car and provide proof. The only thing is that the car need to be no more that 7 years old. So i cant pay for a complete scrapper with all cash!

Also I got an internet quote form Geico and Progressive insurance and both were coming in at about $1,400 which to me sounds a bit cheap after reading about some of the quotes that people on here got. Maybe they will bunk it up when they check my credit history? A Dutch co-workr of mine gave me the name of a guy at country financial insurance and he said I would be paying about 2k for insurance. I am 26 yrs old so seemingly it is still high in the 25-30 yr old zone.

Any help or recommendations would be great!

I love hearing bout yee guys past experiences!!!

Conor.

Octang Frye

Check out Esurance.com.

They give really good rates. I've used Traveler's, Progressive but Esurance is the best.

I insure a 94 Camry and 2006 VW TDI for $570.

Irn-bru

I thought if you were interested in building up your credit history you actually wanted to take out a big loan even if the interest rate was terrible and you could pay cash. But I suppose you have to weigh how much you can afford and what is important to you right now.

Ray

The insurance quote may be for 6 months ...not a year ...

Irn-bru

oh and our insurance quote was so way off as to what they actually eventually charged me, so left them pronto.
I think that is also quite common delberately giving you a low quote to go to them and finding out the sad truth later hoping you couldn't be bothered changing companies

Bob

that quote is probably for basic coverage but try local brokers and get written quotes, will help you find a better deal, especially as you can then find out what you'll be covered for.

and finance, you want to get it, and keep it going for at least 6 month, but pay most of the car in cash, it'll get you a good start on credit history.

rincewind

Geico tried to charge me $1400 for six months for my first policy. But State Farm quoted me $600 so I went with them

Manc

No it isn't. basically the agents in difficult cases such as new immigrants will try and get the best price for the customer and help them as much as they can.

Unfortunately, underwriters don't seem to give a toss, and the policy is issued at a higher premium.

scrubbedexpat099

Its mostly not a subjective issue, you put the right data in you get the right price.

The usual reasons for a higher price include people 'forgetting' past accidents and points.

Manc

true, I get a lot of those "how did you 'forget' about the DUI you had in May???"

but, sometimes agents and I've done it myself, just mess up. and think clients may be eligible for discounts not otherwise entitled too.

is quote is not binding unfortunately.

Maz

Conor, see what your state's laws are regarding the level of insurance you are required to carry. Here in Illinois, if you do not own the car outright, and therefore possess the title, you must have comprehensive coverage. After that you can go down to 3rd party and add some riders (so it's more like 3rd party, fire & theft). That insurance quote is probably for 6 months, too.

As for the type of car, I've only driven a Focus once, and that was in England when we rented one for a few weeks. Loved it to bits! I have a Ford ZX2 but I don't believe they make them anymore. They're smaller, more zippy and are a 2-door. They're also designed to be manual transmission, and I would have had to pay nearly $1K extra to get it in manual. LOL!

Good luck!

gsnichol

If you have an Oregon licence then getting car insurance will be easier than if you had a UK licence; it means you can shop online with ease for one thing. I pay about $180 per month through Farmers but I have a rather high excess (also a 26 year old driver, and they assume we've never driven a car before, so it's like being 17 again).

You should be able to get a canny car with that allowance.. I drive a 2 door Focus too. I like driving it and the fuel economy is pretty good (35-38mpg with A/C switched on). It's also a manual as I don't like automatics and I think its easier to get manual transmission cars from foreign/imported brands rather than the through and through American ones. You may find if you want, say, a Pontiac manual then you will pay more and have to wait. I have the ZX2 and I just bought it in June.

AdobePinon

Try calling Farmer's (not to be confused with State Farm - different company). When I lived in Eugene they charged me $750 a year "fully comp"* for a brand new Civic with $250 deductible and no previous insurance history. The next nearest quote was $2200.

* yeah, yeah, yeah....

Sally

The focus is a nice budget car.

Irn-bru

well it wasn't for me! Even though both of us had a clean driving license in the UK it didn't make any difference here which is fine but the insurance knew we were brand new to the country and gave us a very high price which we took (being the best price) then it jumped to $328 higher than their quote for 6 months I don't care whose fault it was in the insurance company it was plain wrong.