I’ll be moving back to North America later this year and so need to go on a house-hunting trip a month or two in advance of the move. I’ll eventually need to buy a (used) car, but it would be nice if I had one already lined up on the day of the move, rather than having to look for one afterwards. Should I schedule an extra few days during the house-hunting trip for finding a car?
The complications here are that (1) according to local law, I don’t think I’ll be able to register the car, even with temporary plates, until I’ve actually moved, and (2) in any case, I won’t have anywhere to put the car until I’ve actually moved. If I buy a used car from a dealer, how likely is it that they’d agree to keep the car on their lot and let me pick it up one or two months later? Is that sort of arrangement common or is it something the dealer would likely refuse?
I think the only other possibility would be to buy the car, find a paid long-term parking spot with some degree of security, and have it towed there, but that will probably be expensive. (Come to think of it, maybe dealers have special plates that let them drive unregistered cars, so in that case maybe I can get the dealer to drive it there. But I’d still end up having to pay for a month or two of parking.) Also, will a long-term parking garage even accept a plateless, unregistered vehicle? I suspect that garages nowadays have automated registration that requires you to enter a licence plate number, so the garage might end up towing a car found on the lot that doesn’t have a plate to match against their records.
Some self-storage places have facilities for vehicles. This might be preferable to keeping it on the used car lot - I imagine the dealer, if they agreed to keep it after you buy it, might not accept liability for loss or damage.
No, that is precisely what I am trying to avoid. I want to personally inspect the cars and test-drive them. (And in case I buy from a private seller rather than a dealer, I might also want to take the car to a mechanic for a pre-purchase inspection.) Since this process can take several days, I want to know if I should book a longer trip to accommodate both the house-hunting and car-buying.
I bought my first BMW on the way through the nearby big city to a European vacation - so I signed, paid, etc. a day before leaving on vacation and would pick it up from the dealer on the way home two weeks later. (Too far to drive home) My father-in-law in the insurance business says “you own the car, does the dealer’s insurance cover it if something happens?” We did the registration and insurance stuff before leaving on vacation, so it was covered regardless. They just sold a new car, so two weeks was not a stretch for them to store it…
If you’re going to be going back and coming back in a few weeks, what does long term parking at the airport cost? (Not to mention saving the taxi fare to the airport) Can you register the vehicle if you don’t actually live there? I picked Chicago at random, and long term seems to be about $15 to $20 a day.
the other question of course is whether this cost is tax deductible as a moving expense?
Looks like it’s about $420 per month for surface parking, or $538 for a covered stall. Again, not sure if this would even work for a car without a licence plate.
No. I need to present proof of residence to register the vehicle. I don’t think they’ll accept a rental contract dated 1 to 2 months in the future.
No, in the jurisdiction in question moving expenses are not tax-deductible. My employer might cover parking fees as part of the relocation package, but I’d have to ask.
Yes, but are you sure that residence has to be in the place where you are registering the vehicle? Most US states allow non-residents to register a vehicle - I’m a resident of NY, but if I buy a car to keep at my property in Florida, I can register/insure , etc that car in Florida even though I don’t have a Florida license and am not a resident.
Just to double check, you need a car for a few days while you house hunt, and then want a car when you are moving in? If this is the case, wouldn’t it be far cheaper and easier just to rent a vehicle for the times you are in country, and then do a proper car search after you have your house?
Yes, I want a car while I house-hunt, and am planning to rent one for that purpose. But when I actually move, I will need to start working full-time right away (not to mention doing all the other activities one has to do when setting up a new household). It would be nice if I could get the time-consuming “buy a car” task out of the way earlier, on my house-hunting trip, rather than leaving it until after the move. If this turns out to be too impractical or expensive, sure, I will rent a car for a second time, and then use it to drive to work during the day and to look for a new car in the evenings.
Where are you moving and what is your budget? If it’s in your budget going to a dealer and buying a CPO vehicle is probably your best bet. You could do it all online if you have an idea what you want. There are also brokers who will shop for you for a fee.
Maybe one of the car buying services like Carvana would work for this? Pretty much everything is done online and then they deliver the car to you. I would assume you could arrange the drop off date. Carvana even has that car dispenser where you pick up the car yourself. If you don’t like the car, you can return it.
Perhaps a national used car dealer like Carmax might also be a possibility. You could look at the cars at your local Carmax and then have Carmax ship that car to your new house. You’d have to pay for the transfer, but it’s something that Carmax is already set up to do. I might also guess that you could have a Carmax lot in your new city store your car for you. They would charge you, but I would guess that they have the facilities to keep a car for a month or two.
You could always just pay to transfer the car yourself. Have the car shipped to a distribution center near your new house and pick it up when you get there.
Moving to Winnipeg. Looking to spend up to $15,000. I don’t think buying a car online would work in my case: I haven’t owned a car in almost 25 years so I really have no idea what sort of cars made in the last ten years or so would suit me, particularly physically. (I’m very tall and have been in cars where no amount of adjusting the seat and steering wheel seemed to make me comfortable, or even let me see the speedometer.) So I think I would need to do some actual test-drives in person. I suppose I could try out some used cars where I currently live, but that would just be wasting the sellers’ time since I’d have no intention of actually buying here.
As I mentioned in the OP, I’m moving to a new continent. There are no car dealerships where I live that also have branches where I’m moving to, and even if there were, shipping a car overseas is prohibitively expensive.
In that case, call around to the largest car lots in Winnipeg and see if any of them would be willing to store the car for you if you bought it from them. The larger the lot, the more likely they are to have the space to keep your car.
I wouldn’t try to buy a car from an individual. Too many unknowns and too many opportunities for complications or delays. Even in the best circumstances, buying from an individual can be a hassle. This doesn’t sound like the time to be dealing with all that.
Just don’t do it. You don’t want to buy a car sight unseen so wait until you get here and rent a car until you find one. Buying a car without seeing it, and being unavailable to take delivery leaves you on the sucker’s seat. It’s almost a guarantee you’ll be delivered less than what you paid for and you’ll be stuck between taking that and no car.
A man walks into a bank and asks for the loan officer. He tells the loan officer that he is going away on business for a month and needs to borrow $5,000. The bank officer tells him that the bank will need some form of security for the loan, so the man hands over the keys of his used Honda parked on the street in front of the bank. He produces the title and everything checks out.
The loan officer agrees to accept the car as collateral for the loan. The bank’s president and its officers all enjoy a good laugh at the man for using a $25,000 Accord as collateral against a $5,000 loan. An employee of the bank then drives the car into the bank’s underground garage and parks it there.
A month later, the man returns, repays the $5,000 and the interest, which comes to $15.41. The loan officer says, “Sir, we are very happy to have had your business, and this transaction has worked out very nicely, but we are a little puzzled. While you were away, we checked you out and found that you are well off. What puzzles us is, why would you bother to borrow $5,000?”
The man replies: “Where else can I park my car for a month for only $15.41 and expect it to be there when I return?”
In most states, you can get a temporary tag from the County, just like a dealer would give you, if you are purchasing from an individual. You normally would have 60+ days to fully register it with the county, file the title paperwork, pay the sales taxes, etc and receive a permanent plate. But ever since the pandemic, I see cars driving around with temporary tags from 2021 and 2022. There are a lot of people that aren’t in a big hurry to fully register their vehicles. And the local LEO’s are pretty thin and aren’t that hip on enforcing the tag laws, unless they are pulling you over for some sort of moving violation.