stut

No need to apologise - I do rather like the villages around here, but really couldn't be bothered with the extra commute (and having to rely on a car).

Interestingly, the house price isn't as affected as you'd think. When I moved out of London, I managed to get a decent 3-bed a few minutes' walk from the station for less the 2/3rd the price of a 50m2 flat in SW8! I think it's far enough out (45 miles - it really is a very fast commuter line!) that it's off most commuters' radar. Which is no bad thing, as I always get a seat... But that does come at a price - £3500 a year for a season ticket (without travelcard). In Germany, that would get you a season ticket for the entire country.

And ajax, it's amazing how quickly you get used to a rural small town. Coming to London, even when I'm commuting, seems quite exciting, but everything just feels so painfully crowded!

rcspeirs

It'll depend on which engine is in the car you've been offered. But most of the Neon models were rather "un-green", they were rated higher than 200 on the CO2 rating.
That means annual road tax of £260.

For comparison, a new efficient model such as a Polo with CO2 rating below 100 will be charged nil road tax.

The used car market gets surprisingly hung up on fuel efficiency and annual tax charge - which means that cars like this do have a very low resale value.

teflon

If you're just shopping around for quotes, and not committed to buying yet, then it's often a good idea to use a false phone number - otherwise you'll be bombarded with calls offering you 'fantastic' deals.

Also, you may want to note that companies which offer to pay by installments will actually be setting up a loan for you for the term, which pays off the premium and you pay off through the year. Except they're sneaky, and often don't make this clear. Best to pay it off in one go.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/ins...-car-insurance is a good guide to finding the best deal.

mad_rich

For what it's worth, the company was Aviva. But I doubt that will help you or save you much time. I wouldn't necessarily expect them to be cheap again.

As well as basing their prices on risk profile, the insurers in the UK market (and presumably elsewhere) manipulate their prices wildly. If they are a bit heavy on 34 year old male drivers this month, they simply jack up the price to put themselves out of reach.

Another month, or with a tiny difference to the risk profile, and Aviva would have been way off the scale, and another insurer would come down in price.

Echo the advice to read the moneysavingexpert link that teflon posted. And use one (or more) of the price comparison sites to get as wide a range of quotes as possible.

pacer142

If you are on a tight budget and you don't plan to drive often, don't buy a car. The costs will not be worth it. Rent one when you need one, or use public transport, which even in rural areas will tend to be far better than what you probably expect from the US.

Neil

trueblu

I'm interested to hear back from the OP to see how things turned out -- did they buy the car, and if so, are they happy with the purchase, where did they get insurance (for future visitors' benefit) etc...

tb

kukukajoo

I did buy the car- her name is Esmeralda, Esme for short. She was already named by the elderly lady I bought her from. Was a steal at 500 GBP as she is MOT until August (I will be gone by then) and road tax due late next month, and had a full tank of gas.

She is a 96 Neon LX with just 18,000 miles on her, and had been bought used in 2000 with 12,800 so has barely been broken in, perfect in every way and still looks new inside and out. She had all maintenance records and was very well maintained.

I got insurance (finally) through one of the offsellers on internet. Was 527 GBP for a year if I remember right. When I leave I will get about half back. Was very hard to find one who would insure reasonably a foreigner.

Some tips for others with insurance, as it really doesn't make sense how they cost out the policies here (is slightly backwards!)
1. Full comprehensive coverage was much less expensive than the bare minimum, so plug in different types of coverage before you settle.
2. If you have a friend who lives here and will drive it occasionally, it may be cheaper to add them on as an occasional driver than just have yourself listed.
Worth it to have my friend drive it for me sometimes!!
3. What we call deductible in the US is called excess here (I thought it meant extra coverage at first!). Lowering your excess may not affect the policy price at all, and in some instances may lower it! I have zero excess and is cheaper than 300 excess!
4. shop around. The quotes varied wildly in price
5. You can haggle with quotes....
6. If you are making montly payments, don't accept the first interest rate. When I clicked on pay full amount, it offered me a rate of 5% instead of the 28% it had listed before, trying to get me to take the loan. Could save you a good chunk of money if this is how you pay.
7. Insurance is fully obtainable online!
8. Don't fall for the bait and switch. The lowest company tried to tell me I had ticked the box that said UK resident since birth and wanted to nearly double the policy. I knew I didn't make an error and went with the second company (which ended up being 20 GBP less!).
9. Be very careful when making purchases- some options are pushed on you that you may not need or want. Some you have to tick the box to delete, others you have to untick, so go slow and pay attention. Also, read carefully- it seems common here that you are automatically opted in to the junk mailings and to opt out you have to tick another box.
10. They may not take a foreign card for payment so be prepared to settle in cash in person or have another alternative to pay.

I think that is all the adivce I have, can others add to it?

I am VERY pleased with the purchase and the freedom I now have. I am still getting used to drivng here, with the roundabouts and places where you crossover still a little scary to me. I am more used to the car now and locations of switches, knobs and all so that is helping me. I haven't gone far at all, and will never drive in London!

This has been a learning process for me, and a little stressful at times, but all worked out in the end and I am very thankful for all the advice on here, as you made it go much smoother had I been totally on my own. Actually, left to my own devices, I would never had attempted to buy a car here, so a huge thank you to all!!

trueblu

Glad that it worked out, and that insurance quote is extremely reasonable -- probably less than I would pay if I now returned to the UK. I love driving (especially in London if traffic light!) and really miss having a car currently. One can't beat the freedom (psychologically sometimes) that it allows.

Safe driving and enjoy!

tb

HIDDY

Indeed.....sounds like a bargain.

Very useful thread this actually. When we lived in the UK my wife sat and failed her test three times so we never managed to buy a car and just rented one whenever we needed it using her Argentine International drivers license. Unlike the OP we lived somewhere with excellent transport links to the city and within walking distance to the local Tesco so we didn't actually need a car on a daily basis anyway. Renting a car rather than buying one saved us money in the long run.

HIDDY

To be fair I think it's more out of habit rather than a case of being snotty or daft. They're probably so used to dealing with chip and pin cards that it comes as a surprise to them when you don't have one.

We've not had any problems using our old fashioned cards during our yearly shopping trip back in the UK.

marlborobell

Agreed. There are a few places that don't take non-chip-and-pin cards (South West Trains ticket machines are my usual bugbear) but mostly you just hand over the card and say 'it's a non-chip-and-pin card', you may get a funny look (especially because I have a perfectly 'normal' British accent, so why on earth wouldn't my card be chip-and-pin?) but they'll usually process it for you.

mad_rich

It's counterintuitive, but often true. I think the rationale is that anyone who is looking for third-party insurance is automatically a higher risk, and therefore the premium rises to suit.

Or, to put it another way, damned if you do, damned if you don't!

bensyd

I thought I'd ask the question here rather than starting a new thread.

I'm buying a van in the UK but will be taking out of the UK almost immediately (rally to Mongolia). Although I lived in the UK for a few years, I never had a car so I have no idea how insurance works and my only frame of reference is Australian (NSW) insurance which I'm sure is completely different, as these things tend to be.

So, question is, here as part of your annual registration, you need to purchase third party personal insurance (ie if the car is involved in an accident that causes someone to be injured there is insurance to cover that). On top of that you can either purchase third party property (hit another car and your at fault and that car is covered but you're vehicle isn't) and full insurance. Does UK insurance work in a similar way, ie you get some third party cover with registration that you then top up on or is it all up to you? We don't realy want to get anything above comprehensive third party, because we don't see the need.

Also, wrt to registering the vehicle, I assume I will need to provide a UK address, is there any requirement to show a utility/bank statement to confirm the address or can I just put a friend's address down? As I understand from this thread, there is no requirement to have a UK license.

Thanks for any help. Sorry, if this has been addressed in this thread and I've missed it.

ETA: For the sake of clarity, a friend in the UK has already bought the van for us, we just need to transfer title over to one of our names (I imagine trying to get a car across borders that isn't registered in one of the drivers' names is no easy task!).

stifle

You don't get insurance with registration here, nor do you have to renew your registration annually. You must have third party insurance (both injuries and damage) which you are free to get from whomever you want. You can pay more for fire & theft or comprehensive (covers damage to your vehicle that is your fault) insurance. "Comprehensive third-party" would be a contradiction here.

You don't need to provide evidence of address when you buy a vehicle privately, unless it has never been registered in the UK before. From a dealer, it would be up to the dealer's policies. For what it's worth, there is no problem taking a vehicle not registered to you out of the UK, although it would be best practice to have a letter from the owner authorising you to do so.

If you are exporting the vehicle from the EU immediately after purchasing, you may be able to avoid paying 20% VAT on it, or have the VAT refunded. I don't know if you'll be able to avail of that now though.

NickB

Some car dealers can provide short term insurance (a few days) for the buyer but that is far from systematic and, in any event, would not be relevant if a friend buys the van for you. It is also possible to buy short-term insurance separately (on a monthly basis). I recall that we had to do that last time we bought a car although I cannot remember why we needed to that.