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Buying my first car / Getting a liscence
KiTA
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So here's where I'm at nowadays.
I currently live about 4-5 miles away from my college, after my roommate bought a house outside of town. It's bikeable, but not comfortably so, as there are no crosswalks, street lights, or sidewalks until I get closer to downtown. More than once I've come very close to being struck by a car while walking to/from places in this area. I could do it, however, if I had to.
My roommate/landlord and his wife (upgraded since I moved in a year ago) are also going to school, but want me to get a car of my own since they don't think they can help me with transportation anymore.
My classes begin on the 23rd, and involve a full load of 17 credits, one of which is a foreign language (Japanese), with Intro to Engineering and Pascal (which I already know) to offset it. I'm still anticipating my evenings are going to be rather full for the next few months.
I have passed the written, barely, as of a few weeks back. I have not done any practice driving in 14 years, however.
I basically have two options:
1. Go to the local driving school, which is $300, starts the week before class starts, and would go through the first month of classes in the evenings. It would, also, be very good for my insurance, as it's a "defensive driving" course. There are no other driving schools in the local area, so it's SOS or nothing.
2. Buy a car off craigslist and practice driving with my roommates for the next two weeks, culminating in, hopefully, passing the practical and getting my licence on or around the 20th, right before class.
I'm not sure which is a better idea, in the former I'm coming out ahead via the cheaper insurance, but I'd have to find transportation for the first month of school AND due to my class load, it would be a lot of extra stress on things. In the latter, I'd have to pray I can pass the practical after only 2 weeks of practice.
I have $5000 + my Unemployment ($5000 in the bucket + possible extension + WIA paying for tuition) to live on for the foreseeable future, but with a car a part time job may be possible. Either way, however, it does limit my car choices. The local Craigslist has a good listing of cars, not sure why there are so many on sale right now.
Without a licence, I do not believe I can buy from a dealer, so it's used from a private seller or nothing. A local friend has offered to help by buying it with my money then reselling it to me for a dollar, that way they can just transfer the title to me, but I'd rather not go through the hassle.
I've been told I want to get something that can tow or haul stuff, just in case. I've also been told to expect to pay at least $3000, more if I can, for a decent car, but I see a rather large number of cars under $2000 on Craigslist.
I've been told an Automatic is probably a much better idea than a Manual for my first car, and to make sure there's a title involved -- a friend wants to sell me his, but "there's a problem with the title..." Yeah, no.
That's about the extent of my car buying knowledge.
So, any advice for buying one's first car? I was probably going to have one of my more mechanically inclined friends come with and check them out as I go, but if there was an easy way to prune these craigslist ads so I didn't waste our time, or if I'm barking up the wrong tree with Craiglist, that'd be cool.
I currently live about 4-5 miles away from my college, after my roommate bought a house outside of town. It's bikeable, but not comfortably so, as there are no crosswalks, street lights, or sidewalks until I get closer to downtown. More than once I've come very close to being struck by a car while walking to/from places in this area. I could do it, however, if I had to.
My roommate/landlord and his wife (upgraded since I moved in a year ago) are also going to school, but want me to get a car of my own since they don't think they can help me with transportation anymore.
My classes begin on the 23rd, and involve a full load of 17 credits, one of which is a foreign language (Japanese), with Intro to Engineering and Pascal (which I already know) to offset it. I'm still anticipating my evenings are going to be rather full for the next few months.
I have passed the written, barely, as of a few weeks back. I have not done any practice driving in 14 years, however.
I basically have two options:
1. Go to the local driving school, which is $300, starts the week before class starts, and would go through the first month of classes in the evenings. It would, also, be very good for my insurance, as it's a "defensive driving" course. There are no other driving schools in the local area, so it's SOS or nothing.
2. Buy a car off craigslist and practice driving with my roommates for the next two weeks, culminating in, hopefully, passing the practical and getting my licence on or around the 20th, right before class.
I'm not sure which is a better idea, in the former I'm coming out ahead via the cheaper insurance, but I'd have to find transportation for the first month of school AND due to my class load, it would be a lot of extra stress on things. In the latter, I'd have to pray I can pass the practical after only 2 weeks of practice.
I have $5000 + my Unemployment ($5000 in the bucket + possible extension + WIA paying for tuition) to live on for the foreseeable future, but with a car a part time job may be possible. Either way, however, it does limit my car choices. The local Craigslist has a good listing of cars, not sure why there are so many on sale right now.
Without a licence, I do not believe I can buy from a dealer, so it's used from a private seller or nothing. A local friend has offered to help by buying it with my money then reselling it to me for a dollar, that way they can just transfer the title to me, but I'd rather not go through the hassle.
I've been told I want to get something that can tow or haul stuff, just in case. I've also been told to expect to pay at least $3000, more if I can, for a decent car, but I see a rather large number of cars under $2000 on Craigslist.
I've been told an Automatic is probably a much better idea than a Manual for my first car, and to make sure there's a title involved -- a friend wants to sell me his, but "there's a problem with the title..." Yeah, no.
That's about the extent of my car buying knowledge.
So, any advice for buying one's first car? I was probably going to have one of my more mechanically inclined friends come with and check them out as I go, but if there was an easy way to prune these craigslist ads so I didn't waste our time, or if I'm barking up the wrong tree with Craiglist, that'd be cool.
KiTA on
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If you never learned to drive and don't have family or friends who can do this, then I guess go to a driving school.
Don't you need a car to take the actual driving test, though? Kind of a catch-22. I'm sure you can buy a car from a dealership without a license, by the way. But...obviously, you can't legally drive it. I don't know. I don't think they check. This whole thing sounds like a pain. Fortunately, I did all of this when I was 17.
I don't know about buying from Craiglist. It seems like a way to go for cheaper cars. Many dealerships don't bother with cars in the $2000 price range. And those that do are perhaps places to be avoided.
Don't do that "buy for a dollar" thing. You wouldn't be the first person to run into legal problems over that.
Unless you're a farmer I don't know what you intend to haul. I've never hauled anything.
As for automatic versus manual, what country are you in? Your post seems to suggest the US. In that case, you only see manual transmissions on high-end sports cars. Everything you look at will surely be an automatic.
If you know somebody who knows about cars, bring them along. Failing that, bring the car to a mechanic before you buy it.
That or move into town.
If you must though, take the driving classes and then just borrow someone's car to take the driving test.
I would suggest learning with your friend if he is willing.
I don't have much more to add, but make sure you make the appointment for your driving test as soon as possible. I was in a similar situation to yours last year in that I needed a car and license for college, and unfortunately two weeks before classes started I was informed that the closest appointment I could make with the local DMV was a month later.
I had searched around on their website, and eventually found a slot open one week from then. At a DMV about a 3 hour drive from my house. It might not be an issue depending on where you live, but I would make that appointment if you haven't, now that you have your written taken care of.
Actually quite a few cars on the low-end of the spectrum are manual too - small Toyotas, Hondas, and GMs are often come standard as manual to squeeze out better millage and because it's cheaper. Both are dependent on one knowing how to drive manual, of course.
Regardless, I recomend a good bike for the OP. Why are you concerned about sidewalks? You should be riding in the street. Get a decent bike with good tires, a helmet, some lights, and you're set. $500 is a lot less than $5,000 you'll be spending buying and keeping up with a junker for a 5 mile drive.
And if you decide on the CL route, please take someone that knows something about cars, or take it to a mechanic to get checked before buying.
If so, I'd say biking / bus / carpool with a classmate? 5 miles isn't very far at all for a classmate / friend to come pick you up - particularly in your financial situation.
I guess I'm saying that I have little confidence in my ability to actually operate a motor vehicle. I'm terrified of borrowing a car due to the possibility of damaging it.
The biking might be an option, I just really don't know about how it would affect my studies.
This isn't my exact address, but it's pretty close. It's probably not feasible in Winter. A moped might be, if I go slow. Last few years, it's been pretty dry, on the whole.
There are a few paths.
Blue Lakes is the main drag of town, but past Kimberly road it turns into agriculture land -- no sidewalks.
Washington goes up to Shoshone Street, which is what passes for downtown. Washington is the industrial part of town, even the parts with no sidewalks do have gravel areas for trucks and whatnot.
I've taken both paths home before, and it takes about 90 to 120 minutes of a walk to do it. And I'm basically dead when I get there. Haven't tried to bike it in a while.
The town is basically designed to punish Pedestrians. Some of the roads don't have walkways, those that do are slapdash and horrible, etc etc. No public transport (of course).
I don't think you really need to worry about this, considering you've never owned a vehicle to this point. This sounds more like friends trying to tell you to buy a truck or SUV when you almost certainly don't need one.
That Civic looks like some kid spent the last few years beating the hell out of it.
That 1992 Saturn. 97k miles, looked great, drove great.
One of the dealers had a tan colored 1990 Pontiac Le Mans, didn't catcht the mileage, but Rob Green dropped the price from $2500 to $1000 like, instantly when I balked. I donno if it was the color, but it was kinda trashed inside. But for $1000, well.
Another dealer had a 1989 Pontiac Grand AM, 168k miles, $1200. It's on sale cause they hadn't sold it in over a month, it was a trade in. Didn't have a chance to drive it but the engine sounded great.
My reclusive (never leaves the house without an escort) mother had advice: No buying of any car right now, instead go do driving school and... still don't buy a car even then. Instead, walk everywhere. When I get a job or go to school, just pack up my shit and move closer so walking remains possible. As for cars, nothing over $1000 and nothing over 50,000 miles.
Probably going to ignore her advice, to be honest.
Matchbox :P
That's actually really good advice she gave you. If you buy some piece of shit car, it's going to fall apart like a piece of shit. Honestly, I still can't fathom why you won't bike 4-5 miles or just move into town. You'll save yourself a ton of stress in the long run.
Not really, or at least it's unintentionally good advice. Without getting too much into my family situation... She's the kind of person who would only accept me buying a car if she hand picked the exact car and only told me about it after the credit card bill came in. Major control freak. Her favorite trick when I lived back in Yakima was to buy cars out from under me, and then resell them so I didn't have access to them.
Did that exact same trick 3 different times throughout high school / college, before I got tired of that kind of crap and moved 700 miles away.
And while walking and biking is a good short-mid term solution, walking in say, Winter isn't. Moving... Eh...
I can't just move closer every time I want to start going someplace regularly that's more than a few miles away. I think it's about time to be driving.
You're going to be in school. You won't need to move again for several years. So you move and it's a slight inconvenience for a week, but imagine the lesser level of stress you'll have. Being really close to school, saving a TON of money, not having to worry about what to do when that beater car you bought breaks down on you. Seriously. And when you're in the city, you can use public transportation. You won't have to move every time.
I would take the class and bike in the meantime, though. Those classes way more than pay for themselves through insurance savings, and considering you don't have much of a driving history despite your age your insurance could be pretty high (again, depends on your state).
You can find a decent car for $3k, no problem. Maybe even something with a limited warranty from a dealership. Just make sure you've got a handle on registration fees. In California, for example, registering a vehicle under your name requires you to pay a "use tax", so you can't sneak past paying sales tax on a car or motorcycle by buying from a private party.
My insurance quote was $40 a month, $100 for the first month. They told me that the driving school would only cut a few bucks off the insurance per year. I got a discount for having renter's insurance from them, and my parents going through them.
I can totally relate to your situation right now. Mostly thanks to my own screw ups and inability to save money, I didn't learn to drive till I was 21 I think. Before that, it was walking or the bus year round, and fuck yeah it's a pain. And fuck yeah I was glad to have a car as soon as I did.
However, the first two cars I bought for like 1k weren't good. The first one was a Nissan Maxima 91 with something like 150k miles on it. I think it lasted like two years and even then the transmission on it went out. The second one was a Nissan Altima that had a bent something or other that caused my tire to pop. And the AC didn't work.
I finally bit the bullet and bought a new car and I'm so much happier. Don't gotta worry about it breaking down, or not starting after I leave it park for a while, etc.
If you can, hold off on the car for a bit. Save as much money as possible and then get a car. I'm not saying new as I know tons of people rail against it, but used-new would be such a better idea than what you're wanting right now.
What kind of car did you get that quote for? You do realize that the quote will vary depending on what kind of car you get, right?
That is hells of low for a new driver! I've been driving for 15+ years, have zero accidents, a paid off station wagon, am a lady and mine is $40 a month
You might want to check that again and stress that you don't even have a license yet because I'm betting they didn't realize that part
Come to think of it, How did he get a quote without a license number? If the quote was taken from one of those sample rate charts, don't expect those rates to apply. I would expect a new driver's insurance rates to be a minimum of $1200 a year - and that'd be liability only on a pretty old, pretty plain car.
It was just for liability for the time being.
It's Idaho, and I imagine this is the lowest possibly liability limit.
Still, that's seriously low. Was the quote done assuming no previous driving record at all?
Yeah, one of my greatest life lessons from my Dad was that you only have to buy brand name for a few things: car insurance, ketchup, kleenex and tires. If you don't, you're hosed.
My insurance(liability only too) for my first two crappy cars was something like 55 a month, and I also had no previous driving record. Even now, with a Sentra 08 and full coverage it's around 95 dollars, so I really don't see what he got quoted as really low.
It's Allstate.
... Why brand name ketchup and kleenex?
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Best,
Leenie