Walkerhome

Has anyone heard of or used Expat Ride?
Any feedback appreciated as we have been recommended to use them.

mhynne

Hi we have also been referred to them. although Im still in the process of getting a quote. so far they seem like a big company but I do get a bit annoyed as I always have to follow up with the agent when Im waiting for him to get back to me. Intl Autosource has been fab service wise, but they have very limited options.

I be interested to see what others might be able to share re Expatrides

Walkerhome

We are at the same stage then, requested a quote and now waiting

mhynne

thats great. the agent told me that we will be getting the quote early this week.. so far still waiting...
Intl Autosource gave me my quote the next day...
If only I didnt really want a CRV... but we will see if their price is good.
If not, I might go with Intl Autosource as their quote was really good.

Wibblypig

We always had to chase Expat Rides, in the end their quote was ridiculously high and they wanted a HUGE deposit too so we politely told them where to shove it.

We went with International Autosource (via AIG Travelguard) in the end who were fantastic They beat any other quotes we got, the deposit was low and oddly when we got the car the monthly payments that they had quoted dropped by another $70!! They can be limited depending on what visa you will be on, we were coming over on H1B/H4's but had a letter from the company saying they would be sponsoring us for green cards which meant we could choose almost any car we wanted

In the end we went for a Ford Escape (high end model with sat nav etc) and it's costing us $248 a month over 27 months

HTH

mhynne

Ive just asked Intl Autosource for a quote on a Ford Escape.
Still not heard from Expatrides. =(

Yorkieabroad

I've always been curious about the Intl Autosource - we got here before I heard about them, so missed out, but have since seen a lot of people who are very happy with them, although I've never seen any numbers mentioned. Would you mind sharing what sort of discount to MSRP they are working on for whatever you are looking at?

Wibblypig

I gave our monthly figures above. We paid a $1000 deposit, paid for tags etc on collection and they sent us a check for 3 months payments as they originally quoted 24 months but Ford Credit changed it to 27 months. HTH

Yorkieabroad

So you got a new Ford Escape for 7700 all in? That must be a lease right - do you know what price the purchase option at the end is?

Wibblypig

Yes it is a lease, but good for us as we usually swap our car every 2 years

I don't know the exact purchase price off hand but we know it was high, a lot higher than you would expect back in the UK. We also worked out that we would be paying less than the depreciation value of the car.... don't know why but we weren't going to argue

The original payments were were given were $319 per month over 24 months, goodness knows how and why it changed to $248 over 27 months....although we were told about the 20 months before we picked the car up, we didn't receive the letter from Ford saying that the payments had dropped to $248 a month until a couple of weeks later...odd that!

Yorkieabroad

Interesting. I was just curious because I was reading something online that lease deals were good at the moment due to the unusually high value on second hand cars, so the depreciation element is lower than "normal" - ties in with what you have seen. We just bought a new F-150, and got a smidgin over 24% off MSRP, so was curious what Intl Autosource rates were like as a comparison.

Steve2.0

I've just had a few quotes through from Int Autosource, have to admit I am not sure how "good" they are compared to what might be achieved haggling at the dealership.

e.g.
2012 Chrysler Town & Country Touring-L $33,876.00 (MSRP $36,518.00)

Now the big question I have is how good is the loan interest rate being offered, anyone have any idea what, if any, loan rate I'd be offered in WA with zero credit history? Purchasing through Autosource would get me 6.5% which by UK standards isn't too bad.

Steve

Yorkieabroad

When I bought my truck last week, I dealt purely with the internet salesmen - I have a deep loathing for the car purchase procedure here which is a total waste of time with all the lies, posturing and stage acting.

Apparently the internet guys are bonused on volume rather than margin, so what I've done the last couple of times is to email all the brand dealers in a 75 mile radius and ask for their best price on the specific model and options I want. They have got back pretty quickly with their best offers so its easy to whittle down to the best deals. On my truck (Ford), the discounts varied from 10% off MSRP to around 24% off MSRP.

You could do the same to get an idea of what price would be available locally - just don't tell them you are a new arrival. However, the crunch may be the availability of credit....I've no experience, but I suspect you may find it hard to match that rate "fresh off the boat", if indeed you can get a loan at all.

Bink

Nice! Enjoy the F-150!
As Yorkie says, the sales process here is not great. Beware the finance guy, they won't give you the total cost unless you really push them, they'll be all about the monthly payment to hide what they've added in (warranty, extra special paint protection, roadside assistance, dealer added extras (mats, cross rails etc), gap insurance etc etc etc). Make sure they break everything down for you and just be blunt and take out what you don't want. They'll also probably be coy about the actual interest rate too, so be wary of that.

When I bought my first car here I got 9% with a 30% downpayment so (6.5% sounds pretty good by comparison). You'll probably need to be putting down 15-20% to get credit if you have nothing at the moment from a dealer and may struggle unless you go to a European brand (VW, BMW, Audi etc which all are at premium prices). I'm about to re-finance my car loans to a better rate and pay then pay them off ahead of time. Good way to build credit which is the main reason I financed my cars.

mhynne

does anyone know if the quote from intl autosource is negotiable still? or perhaps you can negotiate freebies?