Just moved to UK...need to buy car

Hi everyone,

My husband and I just moved to the UK and now we need to buy a car. We have valid US driver's licenses and I have heard that we are okay to use those for the first 12 months that we live here. Is that right? Do we need to do anything else before we buy a car, or can we just go and purchase it? We're thinking of getting a used car and have heard that qualifying for a loan as non-citizens is difficult, so we will likely pay cash. FWIW, we both drove stick shifts in the US and are totally comfortable with continuing to do so.

Help is much appreciated.

Thanks!

Yes, you can buy a car no problem.  I did before I had my UK license.  Do shop around for insurance...  You may find it is VERY expensive before you have your UK license.

Check AutoTrader for secondhand cars.

It's not so much that non-citizens can't get a loan -it's that your credit history is "non-existant".  (You can build this up and qualify for loans later on down the line- I have)
 
When I moved here (almost 6 years ago), I bought a car for cash for that very reason -no credit history.  

You can just go and purchase it - once you buy it, you'll then need to go find insurance and get your proof of insurance before you take it off the lot.  

I used my US driving record (got a letter from my insurance company) to use as a no-claims discount - and got a better deal on insurance. That went way down once I passed my UK driving test.  

And be warned -- being a US driver in the UK, you may not be able to get insurance for certain cars at all! We bought a used car with a modest (by U.S. standards!) 2.0L V6 engine and I could not be insured to drive it. Insurers tend to treat drivers with no UK license as they would a new UK driver, and won't insure you to drive what they consider a "powerful" car.

So check before you buy the car; you don't want to end up with something you won't be legally able to drive!

we bought ours off of Gumtree here- its used more than Craigslist.

Hi,

As per above, you'll need to research the type of car you'd like and evaluate the costs of ownership and running it of which part of it will be insurance costs and Car Tax discs (often referred to as road tax). The cost of insurance can vary enormously depending on a whole range of factors, age, postcode, make/model/type of car, overnight garaged or street parked, driving history/UK license holder ..  and so forth.

It essentially comes down to how deep your pockets are and only you know that! so, before going out to buy a car, do evaluate what you'd like, and check on insurance costs first. Perhaps then you can either re-evaluate the type of car you want and create a shortlist of various makes/models to see which one suits you the best in order to then purchase.

Cheers, DtM! West London & Slough UK!

Thanks everyone. Do you have any suggestions for insurance companies that are likely to cover us? It's my husband and I, just one car. I saw on another forum that rates were approx 3000GBP/year, but I don't know if that's for one person or two...Or what type of car they were insuring. I don't have any idea what to expect, cost-wise, so any help is greatly appreciated.

Hi,

Please do have a search around as some members have listed some insurance companies who've covered them without a full UK license. The recommendations have worked for some and not for others.

As per my response above, it's not possible to give a ballpark figure as there's so many variables involved, you need to begin the process by looking at your available disposable income and how much of it you'd like to allocate to running a car, then evaluating different types and their associated costs. Insurance can and does vary and sometimes by quite a lot for 'similar' people and some of those criteria I mentioned previously are the reason why.

Cheers, DtM! West London & Slough UK!