How to buy a car?

OK, so I am dead-set on buying a car when I come over. Despite the hassles of car ownership in London and the UK in general:
-I have been driving for 16 years and can't imagine life without driving
-I am a bit of a "petrol-head", even though i'll probably end up in a damn diesel
-My job is out in the countryside which will need multiple train transfers and a minimum commute of 1hr and if I happen to miss those few trains in that time window it could be as much a 2.5hrs, doesn't sound fun.
-I'd like the freedom to explore the country and Europe at my leisure.

So help me out.

It's Monday morning, I just landed at Heathrow, I have 7000GBP ready to spend, but it is probably in US$ in a bank account in the US. I have no bank account in the UK, and I am staying in a hotel so I have no permanent address as yet. I have my work visa, the offer letter from my company stating my salary, and a song in my heart.

What do I need to do to be driving my own car by the end of the week?

Hi,

Is £7000 your budget, or are you intending some or all of that to be a down payment? 

Assuming you don't have a credit history in the UK, getting a loan from a UK bank is out, so if you want to use the £7000 as a down payment on a larger loan, you'll have to see if your US bank is willing to loan you money for a UK car.  I know at least one bank that will (USAA), but you have to either be in the military or have been in the military to bank there.  Other banks may be willing to do it, but I don't know.

If £7000 is the total budget, then you just need to get the money to the UK somehow, and all of the ways I know to do it will have fees attached.  You could get a UK bank account on your first day in the UK, and start a transfer from your US account, which would take about 5 days via XE.com.  There's no fee from XE, but they give you a slightly worse exchange rate and make their money on the difference.  There may be wire transfer fees from your US bank.  (There are other money-transferring services, which you can find on here if you look in the Money Matters section of the forum.)

You could write a check from your US bank account and deposit it into your UK bank account, but you'll probably have to pay a fee for depositing a check written in foreign funds.  At Lloyds TSB this fee is around £20 or so.

You could use a debit card connected to your US bank account to pay for the car, but there may be overseas transaction fees.

That's all I could think of.  Hopefully somebody else will chime in with some ideas.

good luck,
Carl

Hi Chadwyck,

As Comascato has provided soem info on getting the money across for your car purchase, can I ask what kind of car you're thinking of going for?

"Damn Diesel" - be careful! thats Fighting talk!
I'll presume for a second that you've not driven a Diesel car recently. Nowadays, a modern Diesel is every bit as capable as it's direct petrol equivalent. Of course, they dont sound the same and the Diesel do still have the 'clatter' - however, with use of genuine or high quality parts and oils, they can be 'quietened' a little, certainly from inside you'd probably not realise it!

For your £7K or thereabouts, you can pretty much go for any type of car - small hatchback, medium size saloon/sedan or hatcback, large exec car, sports car, wagon/estate, SUV, van etc etc.

As you say you'll be in the countryside, then you might enjoy the 'twisties' and as such maybe will want to go for a higher performing and handling car. As me and Comascato drive E39 BMW's, and having had these all my life, I'm biased to BMW's - but also take a look at a sportline Audi - these cars make driving in country roads/twisties immense fun!

Plenty of places to look, Autotrader, car supermarket websites, private sellers, specialist magazines, ebay, specilaist websites and dealers.

Hope the above helps!
Cheers! DtM! West London & Slough UK!

The 7000GBP would be my total budget, I just want to buy a car cash and get it over with, I may end up only staying for 18 months so I also want to buy something that will be an easy sell when my time is up, and a quality reliable car while I have it.

I have been looking on UK autotrader and for 7000GBP these are the cars I have seen that I would interested in:
2004-2005 3 series,
2004-2005 Honda Accord (some with leather and navi which I really like),
2004-2005 Lexus IS 2.0,
2004-2006 VW Passat,
of all varying diesels and petrol engines.

I even saw a Nissan 350Z which is what I have here for 5000GBP but that price looks fishy since it's a 2006, and all the other 350Zs where 9000GBP and up even for the 2003 models. Either way I am sure running a 3.5 liter petrol V6 2 door sports car is probably like asking the UK govt and gas station owners to work you over with no vaseline, so I am resigned to giving up my beast.

DtM the last diesel car I drove was years ago that is true, and that metal box of screwdrivers rolling down a hill engine sound is quite, um, unattractive to a petrol head who has been used to the gutteral growl and smooth delivery of a big Nissan V6 for the past 6 years. But when in England I guess....

Here is my question though. So I get my 7000GBP into a useful position, in some UK bank account. I find some bloke or some dealer with a car I want to buy. I cut them a check. What then?

I have only ever bought new cars from the dealer over here so it was no muss no fuss, sign this stuff, call your insurance company and tell them to put this car on your policy, enjoy the 15% depreciation as soon as you drive off the lot.

I would imagine I would need to have insurance in place? pay some sort of registration? I mean you guys tax everything, I am sure I'd have to pay some Car Buying Tax or something on top of the cost of the vehicle.

I would imagine I would need to have insurance in place? pay some sort of registration? I mean you guys tax everything, I am sure I'd have to pay some Car Buying Tax or something on top of the cost of the vehicle.

I've only ever bought from a private owner (second-hand), but I believe there's a registration form you have to fill out to register it/transfer ownership. See here for details on how to register your car: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/BuyingAndSellingAVehicle/RegisteringAVehicle/index.htm

In order to drive the car legally, you'll need to get a road tax disc to display in your car and car insurance. The tax you pay will depend on the type of vehicle you buy and how old it is. For cars registered before March 2001, tax is £125 per year for engines less than 1549 cc and £190 for engines bigger than 1549cc. For cars registered after March 2001, the rate you pay is based on CO2 emissions, which could be anywhere from £15 a year to £390 a year. You can apply for the tax disc online (http://www.taxdisc.direct.gov.uk/EvlPortalApp/) or I think you can get a form from the Post Office as well. You can find out more about how to tax your car here: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/OwningAVehicle/HowToTaxYourVehicle/index.htm

In terms of insurance, you will probably have to shop around to find good insurance. You may find that some UK car insurance companies will not insure American licence holders at all, some may charge higher rates than for UK licence holders and some may give you a good deal. Your insurance rate will depend on the type and age of your car, your age and probably your previous driving history as well.

Bear in mind also, that you can only drive in the UK on your US licence for 12 months from the date you arrive in the UK. In order to drive after 12 months are up, you need to have taken and passed the UK driving tests (theory test, hazard perception test and practical driving test). If you do not manage to pass your tests by the time the 12-month period is up, you will no longer be able to use your US licence and will be treated as a learner driver - you will not be allowed to drive alone and you must be accompanied by a UK licenced driver at all times (over age of 21, who has held a UK licence for at least 3 years). It can take a while to pass the tests (not many pass first time) so you are advised to start preparing sooner rather than later - you should probably allow a few months to get the UK licence.

Don't jump into anything you may regret later.
There are so many car rental companies in the UK that you could rent at a reasonable rent for a month while you get a better idea of the situation.
I once bought a car for $50 in Hawaii when I was stationed there. If it quit I could have bought another one at the same price. As would happen the old Hudson just kept going.
So you could buy a very cheap car for just just about nothing and then walk away from it when it quits. While your driving that you could be looking around for a perminant car.

In addition to what ksand24 has mentioned, there's also an MOT test that's required every year.  It's a fairly intense safety check to make sure the car is road worthy (intense compared to the ones I remember in Texas and Virginia, anyway).  The test itself runs around £40 depending on where you get it done, but if they find anything wrong with the car, you'll have to pay to get it fixed before it'll pass.  (For example, I had a broken rear spring that had to be replaced, so my £40 MOT test wound up costing me about £300 in car repairs.)  So make sure you take into consideration when the car's MOT is due when you're looking at buying.

The test itself runs around £40 depending on where you get it done, but if they find anything wrong with the car, you'll have to pay to get it fixed before it'll pass.

The cost of an MOT is a standard rate and shouldn't depend on where you get it done (it'll be any repair work required that varies in cost). For cars more than 3 years old, it is currently £54 (http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/OwningAVehicle/Mot/DG_4022514).

So make sure you take into consideration when the car's MOT is due when you're looking at buying.

Good point. If you're buying second-hand/privately, it's also a good idea to check things like when it was last serviced and also if the car is already taxed. Some owners will sell you their car with several months left on the car tax disc, so you won't have to renew it until the expiry date on the disc. It's also wise to get a full service history of the car so that you are sure that you know exactly what you are buying and that it hasn't been messed around with service/parts-wise.

Also, following on from what Jim said, don't rush into anything. I rushed into buying my Nissan in 2006 because I needed a car quickly, so I went with the first one I went to see (1995 Micra, second-hand, several previous owners, for £800) and it turned out to be a mistake. So far, it's broken down twice and both front windows have needed fixing (they came off the mechanism and fell right down into the door!). It's still running, but it makes a terrible noise when you drive it and is not very sturdy (although my brother owns it now). My other brother recently bought a cheap convertible sports car and then found out afterwards that because it was an import, hardly anyone would insure him on it - and the companies that agreed to wanted to charge him between £2,000 and £3,000 per year for insurance!! Luckily he hadn't actually paid for it at the time so he managed to get out of the sale. He now has a Peugeot 406 Coupe and is insured for only a few hundred pounds a year.

Thanks for the advice guys, I have my Jamaican license and I have driven there regularly (usually twice a year for 2 weeks at a time) even though I left when I was 19. In Jamaica we drive on the left side of the road, and utilize roundabouts and all the other quirks of British driving the average American might have trouble with. Also the licensing process is almost identical as the UK, granted I got my JA license when I was 17 which was 14 years ago, I did pass my first time then, so hopefully it will be a cinch now as well. I do plan to get that taken care of ASAP, if only to mess with the cops in Jamaica who do regular spot checks outside of my Mom's neighborhood when I show them 3 different licenses in one week, haha.

Also I am fairly well versed in cars, of course more petrol vehicles than diesel vehicles, but I know enough about cars that I won't just jump into a pretty looking junker.

Question though, in the US they have services where an impartial mechanic will inspect a car for you. Since the MOT is so intense, couldn't I pay a mechanic the standard MOT fee to inspect a car I am drop dead ready to buy to ward me off any potential imminent issues, it'd be worth the 54GBP to either find out before purchase that the car is a lemon, or feel secure that it will probably pass the next MOT since it already passed the unoffical one.

Jim, while that is a great idea, my days of driving bangers is over, my Mom bought me an old former Terminix pest control Chevy pickup truck for US$1500 affectionately known as "Big Rusty" to get me through college and I vowed NEVER AGAIN. As soon as I graduated and got a good job I sold it for $1000 and marched straight into a Nissan dealership and bought a brand new 350Z. I am just not a hoopty kinda guy, I'd rather come over there and buy a 4-5 year old nice vehicle and I get back most of my money when I sell it in 1-2 years, than buy a cheap car that makes me curse it's existence.

The cost of an MOT is a standard rate and shouldn't depend on where you get it done (it'll be any repair work required that varies in cost). For cars more than 3 years old, it is currently £54 (http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/OwningAVehicle/Mot/DG_4022514).

Thanks for that!  I learn something new every day.   Does that mean most of the places offering cheap MOT tests are shady, and will make up the difference by finding things wrong with the car?

Thanks for that!  I learn something new every day.   Does that mean most of the places offering cheap MOT tests are shady, and will make up the difference by finding things wrong with the car?

Not really. 

The standard rate is the maximum they can charge. 10 or so years ago there were loads of places offering free MOTs (I think even Halfords did) but I've not seen one for a while - market forces I guess.

That's not to say that some garages aren't padding the repair bill but I don't think you can tell from the price of the MOT.  Unless they are overcharging of course, in which case you could report them to the VOSA.

I've only ever bought from a private owner (second-hand), but I believe there's a registration form you have to fill out to register it/transfer ownership. See here for details on how to register your car: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/BuyingAndSellingAVehicle/RegisteringAVehicle/index.htm

If the car is already registered in the U.K. and running on British plates, then the transfer is quite easy.  The existing owner/keeper will have the V5C registration document.  You just fill in your name & address in the appropriate boxes with the date of transfer, both sign it, and send it off to DVLA in Swansea for the change to be made.  There's a green tear-off slip which you also complete which acts as your temporary registration until DVLA sends you the new certificate with your details (which can take several weeks).  Incredible as it may seem, there is no fee for this part of the procedure!    

It will only become more complicated than that if the car is not already registered in the U.K., or if the current owner has a personalized number which he is retaining, etc.

In order to drive the car legally, you'll need to get a road tax disc to display in your car and car insurance. The tax you pay will depend on the type of vehicle you buy and how old it is. For cars registered before March 2001, tax is £125 per year for engines less than 1549 cc and £190 for engines bigger than 1549cc. For cars registered after March 2001, the rate you pay is based on CO2 emissions, which could be anywhere from £15 a year to £390 a year.

Or if you like classic vehicles, pre-1973 cars are tax-free. 

The tax disk belongs to the vehicle rather than the owner/keeper, so it can be sold with the car.  Private sellers will often leave a current tax disk with the vehicle, which can be a bargaining point on price for lower-value cars.  If the tax disk still has time to run when you take ownership of the car, you need do nothing until it's due to expire.  If there is no current tax disk, then you'll need to apply for one and pay the fee.  A dealer will often take care of this for you if you wish.

The cost of an MOT is a standard rate and shouldn't depend on where you get it done (it'll be any repair work required that varies in cost). For cars more than 3 years old, it is currently £54 (http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/OwningAVehicle/Mot/DG_4022514).

The official rate is the maximum that MoT-approved garages are allowed to charge for the test.  They are free to charge less if they wish, and quite a few do. ^*

The MoT (Ministry of Transport) inspection is required annually for all cars 3 years or more old.  When buying a car, make sure the previous owner gives you the current MoT certificate.  This can also be a bargaining point on older vehicles, since many people will look for a recent-ish MoT inspection when buying.

Insurance has pretty much already been covered, but be aware that the authorities here practically consider it a hanging offense to drive without insurance, even inadvertently.   You should have a policy in force before collecting the car. 

You will need to present proof of insurance, and a current MoT certificate if applicable, in order to get a tax disk (although if you tax the car online, this can often be checked automatically through the central database).


^* Cross-posted with PR on that point.

The standard rate is the maximum they can charge.

The official rate is the maximum that MoT-approved garages are allowed to charge for the test.  They are free to charge less if they wish, and quite a few do. ^*

Thanks for clarifying that - I'd forgotten that the £54 was the maximum amount not the fixed amount.

Hiya
I'm biased, so will say go for a good BMW from your shortlist! - you're currently on 350Z power so the BMW will be the closest ! of course, you need a good powerful BMW and that'd be a 330 or 330 diesel. Although a different style of car, a 3 series coupe wouldn't be 'too' far off a 350Z. That said, the Nissan would be quite good on fuel and not as bad as you'd think - although I do understand the vast increase in percieved cost coming from the USA! - that's why we don't drive the Harley F150 around so much nowadays!!

Not sure if you know, but the UK has a busy aftermarket for cars (like the US) and nowadays it's becaHiya
I'm biased, so will say go for a good BMW from your shortlist! - you're currently on 350Z power so the BMW will be the closest ! of course, you need a good powerful BMW and that'd be a 330 or 330 diesel. Although a different style of car, a 3 series coupe wouldn't be 'too' far off a 350Z. That said, the Nissan would be quite good on fuel and not as bad as you'd think - although I do understand the vast increase in percieved cost coming from the USA! - that's why we don't drive the Harley F150 around so much nowadays!!
The BMW will also potentially hold it's value relatively well too, in your shortlist, the VW, BMW and Lexus are good choices in that respect, the Honda is as well out of all the Japanese cars. The UK second hand market is substantially different to the US market for average values (too much to type here and this post) - if you do want something that'll basically be 'depreciation' proof, search out a good Alpina! some nice B10 and B6 examples around for that budget!!

Not sure if you know, but the UK has a busy aftermarket for cars (like the US) and nowadays it's becoming very common for owners to have their cars 're-mapped' for extra power and economy. I've just had my 530 diesel done again and the difference is staggering. 193 bhp to 235 bhp and with a 6mpg on average bettering of MPG. diesel cars benefit the most as they're turbocharged, normally aspirated cars get a milder increase but any engine flat spots and hesistancy is gone making the car much more driveable. As you in the area I know, whichever car you do go for let me know and I can get your car done by one of the most renowned tuners in the country for a very good price! for me, in 6 months time, I'll have re-couped the cost of the 're-map' ! so I'm very happy indeed!

As mentioned, the MOT charge does vary, it's not malpractice to see a lower charge - it's competetion driving pricing down and better. You wouldn't get an MOT inspector to look at any potential car purchase - for that, you can get an independant inspection done from the likes of the AA or RAC. do a search and you'll find specialist companies offering that as a service as well. I bought my 95 525i Sport in late 99 this way, got him to go out to a place the other side of Godalming and send me the report - I saw the car, liked it, rang up the following day, he went out the following day, I got the report the following day and I bought the following day! I paid for a higher service report at that time and it was like £140 - well worth it to me!

Hope the above helps a bit! Cheers DtM! West London & Slough UK!

DTM,
I noticed your license disc? is behind you RVM instead of the bottom of your windshield. Is that common? I though it would get you a ticket??