Melee

Hi all.

Before I think about accepting this, can anyone tell me whether this is a good deal overall or not?

Car purchase

Ford Fiesta SE (2014), automatic gearbox.
$16,145 (MSRP $17,340)

$3,200 down payment.
$397 per month over 36 months OR $305 per month over 48 months.
(works out as 6.5% for 36mo, or 6.17% for 48mo)

Less an extra $500 if I confirm before a few days time.

Tax and registration fees for California (Santa Clara) will be about $1800.

NB - Loan purchase, not a lease! I've no US credit history so the rates don't look great, but the saving off the list price seems reasonable.

I absolutely don't *need* a brand new car (here I drive a 2002 Peugeot 206!), however the credit seems a) available and b) not unreasonable, and used cars don't really seem to be all that much cheaper unless I'm looking in the wrong places so better to buy new and get the warranty etc.?

Insurance
$606 (6mo) for the two of us +$400 initial AIG membership fee.

Sound reasonable for an 'off the boat quote'?

Any thoughts overall?

Thanks!

Hotscot

Looks good to me.
You may like to consider the Focus hatchback though, the Fiesta is underpowered and strains under rapid acceleration.

Pulaski

Looks reasonable to me too, especially the insurance, but you might want to check what is actually covered because state minimum insurance is often scarily bare-bones in its coverage. I also agree in looking at the Focus, because even that, by US standard is a very small car, in other words I wouldn't want to drive a Fiesta on the interstate or a major highway.

I expect Bob will be along shortly to recommend paying cash for a clunker and then driving that around for a couple of years until you have established a US credit history and driving record.

Melee

Forgot to copy/paste that bit. Here's the insurance coverage but I've not seen how it lines up with CA requirements yet?

"Bodily Injury $100,000/300,000 ** Per Person/Per Accident
Property Damage $100,000 Each Accident
Medical Payment $5,000
Uninsured Motorist BI $100,000/300,000 Per person/Accident
Other than Collision $500 Deductible
Collision $500 Deductible w/ waiver
Towing & Labor $75.00 Per Disablement
Extended Transportation $50 Per Day / Maximum $1,500"

The 'clunker' idea isn't a bad one but it seems I'd have to be looking VERY old with huge mileage to get prices down to the level I'm used to seeing 2nd hand cars over here! Given that the depreciation seems to be quite low the hassle of buying then reselling if/when moving back might not be all that bad and of course the convenience of having it all sorted pre-departure is great.

markwm

Hmm: I leased a new VW Tiguan for less than that when I got here. VW do a special for ex-pats - you can find info on various threads here. I felt it safer to start with a new car that would be far less likely to let me down and was covered by a decent warranty. BMW and Audi have similar deals but, I have to say, when I went to BMW the service was appalling. VW in Santa Monica were very good. Worth thinking about. I wasn't overly bothered about having to own the car - just wanted to get through the first year or so before making that sort of buying decision and I thought that as useful as the Intl Autosource might be, it was a touch too expensive.

lansbury

Unless things have changed since I purchased from them in 2006 that rate isn't good. Then they had an office in the UK and could get you an interest rate based on your UK credit history. Has that changed?

Bob

Sounds a bit high for a little dinky car...plus $1600 a year for insurance, once you add in the member fee is a bit high. That would be good on a decent car though.

Bob

The OP is looking to put $5K down in cash already, for a meh little car and with not a great rate.

If the OP is only going to be here for 3 and definitely leaving, then fair enough, but if there's any chance of staying, it's probably not that great.

I mean you can get a 5 year old Audi A4 for less than the cost of this Fiesta, with a much better spec and similar insurance and finance rate.

markonline1

2nd hand cars in California are ridiculously high! I paid 10k with taxes for a 2005 Mazda 3 S with 80k on the clock. That said, oil changes out here happen a lot more than back in the UK, and with a dry climate with no salt on the roads, you don't get rust problems generally. Depending on how much you got to spend, I'd look at buying something that will last you a couple of years rather than be stuck with the Fiesta for at least 3. I agree with the others, a Fiesta will feel very small over here.

Pulaski

Certainly cars seem to last a lot longer here than in the UK. Our 2003 Honda Accord is approaching 254,000 miles and is still on it's original engine, transmission, clutch, starter motor, alternator, shock absorbers (despite dealing with a level crossing an average of every 50 miles), radiator, water pump, fuel pump, the entire exhaust system (except for the cat) ..... essentially everything except the brake pads, the steering gators, the lambda/O2 sensor, and the catalytic converter. We put it's fourth set of tyres on it at 240,000 miles (the first three sets averaged 80,000 miles), and the cat was replaced at 200,000 miles.

All of the above has nothing to do with oil changes (about which a lot of twaddle is talked in the US), because we have only ever changed the oil (Mobil 1 Full Synthetic) every 10,000 miles (apart from the initial change at 3,000 miles and 8,000 miles).

Bob

Locally, I've noticed cars either "lasting" years, as in they're '99 or older and avoid loads of emissions and other safety requirements that would fail a car so people are able to keep them on the road longer and worth a "premium" because of it...or they don't last very long at all, 150-180K miles?

Then again, up in Maine, they could stay on the road for 200-250K miles, doesn't mean they're in good shape to safely do that but they're able to pass the lower inspection requirements

Hate to see the state of some of the cars from states without inspections like Florida and NJ

scrubbedexpat091

I would not pay that much for a Ford Fiesta.

Pulaski

Honestly with most modern cars I doubt it makes a scrap of difference, given that (i) the only thing that our Accord has ever failed on was emissions when the cat failed, and the steering gaiters were creacked after ten years, and (ii) almost everything else is original - in other words, after more than ten years and over 250,000 miles very little work has been done other than changing the oil and filters, and we haven't worn out much of anything.

Melee

Hmmm. A range of opinions as expected probably

I'm actually only on an 18 month placement, but am coming over with a very open mind re: extending etc.. which is why I thought the finance option might be better than leasing as at least this way I have some investment in the vehicle. Also, the advice I received from IntlAuto was that 18 month leases don't exist at this level of vehicle and 'breaking' the lease would be very expensive (i.e. paying up the remaining payments in full). At least this way if I do leave on time I'll be able to sell up and buy out the finance whenever the time comes to leave.

You're right though - we're putting down a fair whack of cash so if there was a, say, $7000 decent used car somewhere (I could always self-finance via 0% £ credit) that could be an option too.

By the way I got an insurance quote through for a 2001 model (i.e. 3 years old) - it was only $15 per 6mo cheaper. So it looks like I won't be saving on insurance by going with a 'banger', not initially anyway.

bod1984

For comparison:

I have recently (in the past 2 weeks) received a quote from Intl Auto source, the details are below.

2014 Ford Escape SE (plus extras that I chose i.e. larger alloy wheels, and a higher spec sound system, bluetooth phone and mp3 connectivity etc)

Invoice $25,387.00 (MSRP $28,388.00)

$4,000 Down Payment

48 monthly payments of $525 or 60 @ $435

Insurance for myself and wife was around $800 for 6 months.

For the difference in sizes of this car and the Fiesta, I would think you could get a better deal on a larger car.


I had also wondered whether this deal I had been offered was good or not, so any thoughts are welcome.