Buying a car after moving (Craig: sale, renting, car insurance)

[oakread2]

My husband and I are planning on selling our cars before we move and buying a new one once we get to Colorado. What kind of information do we need to have in order to do that? My husband will be transferrring for his job, so paycheck stubs won't be a problem.

Do we need to have anything that has our new address on it (don't know where that will be yet)? What about insurance? Our current insurer will not cover in CO so we would need a new company anyway.

[LeisureMan]

I've never heard of an auto insurer not covering in all 50 states. Who are you insured under currently, if I may ask?

[phetaroi]

I can only tell you this:

I moved to Colorado from overseas and needed to buy a car even before finding a house to buy. I still had my Virginia driver's license, but had no real address (I was staying in a hotel).

I'm not sure it should have all worked, but it did.

[oakread2]

We go through Wawanesa. It's a Canadian company that only has U.S. licenses in California and Oregon.


Thanks phetaroi. Since we may not have an actual address when we first get there, I was hoping it wouldn't be a porblem. It might not be such a big issue since there is a large military presence there with people constantly moving.

[Marcy1210]

If you plan on financing your car, then you will definitely need proof of insurace. I can't think of any lender who would allow a sale without proof of insurance that meets the state's minimum requirements. If you're paying cash for your car, you can arrange to have insurance after the purchase. For your sake, it should be all lined up and ready to sign when you close the deal on the car.

Again, if you're going to finance, the lender will need to know an address, how long you've lived there, place of employment, etc. You might call a bank and ask what their requirements are for lending; then call a dealershop and ask what their policy as to insurance, and so on, is if you're paying cash.

Just be prepared for anything and bring all the paper work you.

[lurtsman]

Good call Marcy, I never would have imagined that. I didn't fully comprehend the question I guess.

My advice was going to be:

"Buy a Toyota. There are plenty of cars on Craigslist." I never understood the desire to pay a 20-25% markup by buying at a dealer and then finance depreciating piece of equipment with a loan.

Of note: Rav4 seems to be a great choice for handling winter weather. If you want better mileage a camry, celica, or ... that other little commuter car they made. Celica's are no longer in production, which is a shame because it was a great vehicle. My wife and I went through a few very old vehicles while in college. We learned that the ones that retained their value and usefulness the best were Toyotas. They won by a landslide.

PS. None of your post was about what type of car would be good to have here. How did you find an insurance co that won't do Colorado? If you are eligible for USAA, get them. They have the best car insurance in America.

[Sixgunner]

We just purchased a vehicle for my son and paid cash. We were still required to show proof of insurance. We have USAA they cover us automatically when we purchase a vehicle.

[oakread2]

We've had a Rav4 in the past, but the carseat doesn't fit very well in it. At least the model we had didn't work well.

I hadn't thought about what we would need to finance a car. Just information a dealership would need.

My brother told us about our insurance company, who had heard about it from a co-worker. We're not eligible for USAA insurance.

We may have to rethink our plan of selling our cars here and buying there.

Thanks for all the information. It's a lot to think about.

[oakread2]

I think I've come up with a solution to the insurance problem. When we know we are going to move, I can change companies a few months before to one that covers in CO as well as CA. Then I can make sure that we will have insurance that will cover whatever we will be renting (truck, trailer) when we move and then have proof for if we need to finance.

Thanks, Marcy, for bringing up that point. We would have had a lot of trouble getting a car if it hadn't been mentioned.

[lockmart]

You won't be able to register it until you have a permanent address. I stayed in a hotel at first and I had to wait. I think two months temp tag is the norm though, at least what I got. If you plan on buying used I would say don't do it. I thought the same, I'll just buy a Jeep when I get out here and save the shipping. I usually have had good luck with used cars. The one I bought gave me nothing but headaches for months. It was not advantageous with a new job, new city to be dealing with car issues constantly.