IA/ExpatRide or Dealer?
 

Hi there,

As this is my first post: hi all!

Anyway - I know this topic has been beaten to death - some of the answers were years ago.

I am being transferred on a L1b (that got approved and I am waiting on the passport to come through the post! woo!) to California.

I have been talking to ExpatRide, IA and straight to dealers and I am getting confusing scenarios out of all of them.

IA - expensive monthly payments and downpayment (3k down 350+tax monthly for a Ford Escape)
Dealer - called them up, said no problem on a L1, need SSN and to apply in person - 308$+tax same car. They did say it will have to be approved by Ford Finance
ExpatRide - my backup plan? Didn't get back to me with a quote yet.

I was looking at Escape, Focus or a Fiesta or something like a Tiguan from VW.

My main concern is monthly payments - I want to have the car, petrol and insurance for a monthly payment under 500$ and if the car is more than 300$... Turns bit impossible.

Has anyone gotten their lease straight from a dealer, being under 25 and straight off the plane?

Thanks!

Re: IA/ExpatRide or Dealer?
 

I don't think your age will come into it, more likely your credit rating will be the issue.

Do you have someone in the US who can co-sign?

Re: IA/ExpatRide or Dealer?
 

No, I will be on my own and no credit history.

I can transfer my Amex card to US but thats a charge card not a credit card.

Re: IA/ExpatRide or Dealer?
 

Personally, I'd be surprised if a normal dealer would give you a lease on a car with no history...but then stranger things have happened!

Re: IA/ExpatRide or Dealer?
 

The cost of insurance is going to blow your budget out of the water - insurance is expensive in the US, so consider yourself lucky if you can find adequate (state minimum liability cover can be rediculously low, so pretty useless if you ram someone's Merc or injure an executive) insurance for less than $2,000/yr, so about $170/mth, and it could easily be more.

Also, don't expect to reap a huge benefit from the cheap petrol - you will likely drive two or three times further than you did in the UK, and quite possibly more. When we moved over the price of petrol was about a quarter of that in the UK, but we drove four times as far as we did in the UK! :rofl:

BTW You will need to move quickly to get a CA drivers license. Technically you only have ten days, but you are unlikely to be able to take the road test within ten days, but you need to get registered, take the written test and apply for the road test PDQ after you arrive.

Re: IA/ExpatRide or Dealer?
 

My thoughts on that are - you know the price IA is what they will charge. The dealer you don't know. Until you are sitting in front of the dealers finance manager and they tell you what the finance will cost there is an element of doubt.

Re: IA/ExpatRide or Dealer?
 

VW have a foreign business professionals program that will lease or finance a car for you. Contact a dealership in the area to which you will be moving and ask for details.

Also Mazda self finance and have financed a car for new arrivals that I know of. Again, contact a dealership.

The downsides of the above are that you will probably need your social security number and an address before they can proceed - so you can't organise it in advance. However it's worth a try to see what is possible and also to negotiate with IAS. (and you really should negotiate with them)

Re: IA/ExpatRide or Dealer?
 

I'm same as you, L1B visa. had a rental car for 2 weeks whilst i got my drivers license and SSN, the longest part was the SSN coming through, it took 10 days.

After i got the above, i went to VW and leased a new golf. Can't fault VW - they went above and beyond to help me out. they do a manual verification of your job, employer, salary etc.

Re: IA/ExpatRide or Dealer?
 

Giving them SSN and address shouldn't be a problem, I am more worried about the monthly cost.

@Jack8602 - would you care to share how much did VW quote you for a lease for that golf?

Re: IA/ExpatRide or Dealer?
 

When it comes to insurance we found Liberty Mutual to be by far the cheapest as they accepted my English driving record.

Re: IA/ExpatRide or Dealer?
 

Your deal from IAS sounds about right.

We got a new mazda 3 last summer from dealership. With 3 yrs of previous car payments, 2 years of mortgage payments, a couple of credit cards ( ie really good credit score) the lease is $220 a month, no deposit, 15k miles and the insurance for a couple of middle-aged adults (no claims) and a 19 year old is $130 a month.
For your insurance, - yes Liberty mutual were the cheapest for us as well when we arrived and they accepted our previous no-claims history. Look into lowering your coverage but making up it up using an umbrella policy. ie. you insure yourself for up to say $50k for car insurance, you will need renters insurance as well so get the 2 together from a company ( cheaper to get bundles usually) and then top up the coverage to a much higher amount using the umbrella insurance. Most car insurance claims are on the under $50k level, so that insurance can be expensive, umbrella insurance is less likely to be used and the lower risk means lower premiums. Our umbrella insurance is $300 for six months but only because of the young driver, without her the premium would have been about $200 for six months.

We also used nationwide insurance this last year, they gave us a gadget to put in the mazda that sends driving information to them and this gave us a lower premium.
Petrol - I get through 10 gallons a week in the prius just for getting myself around and the kids to their various activities. I work from home so no commute. My OH uses slightly more on his 25 mile commute to the office and the running around he does. Cost for 10 gallons is about $20 here.

I think you are are unlikely to get a new car with insurance for under $500 a month. One of the guys here recently got a loan from ?Advancial ( they are very good with new expats) to buy a car. As a cash buyer you are more likely to get good deals at the dealership and gives you the option of buying a secondhand car as well. The interest rate wasn't great IIRC but he refinanced it after a year here with better credit score and got a much lower rate.

Re: IA/ExpatRide or Dealer?
 

Can I ask who your umbrella policy is through? All the ones I've looked at recently require the limits on the other policies to be maxed out?

Re: IA/ExpatRide or Dealer?
 

An umbrella must be with your existing insurer, they aren't sold as standalone polices, so they automatically kick-in when your basic coverage maxs out.

Re: IA/ExpatRide or Dealer?
 

nationwide.

All of our insurance comes through them so maybe that makes a difference?

I spent ages on the phone to our lovely rep going through different deductibles, limits etc to get the best coverage at the cheapest price.
I found out for example that the optimum deductible on the cars was $500. Having a $1000 deductible hardly lowered the premiums compared to the $500.

Re: IA/ExpatRide or Dealer?
 

As I understand it, an umbrella covers you on auto, homeowners/renters etc.

Are you saying that all the base policies have to be with the same company for the umbrella to apply?

I'd still be interested in knowing who provided the other chap his policies as the ones I were looking at required the normal policies to be maxed out.