Price of a car (Seattle, Bellevue: for sale, car insurance, how much)

[Chenebe]

People are telling us we need a him and her car when we go to live in Seattle. So how much does say one of those eco-friendly hybrids cost, and maybe something larger that can travel distances and can fit two car seats and some passengers?

Is car insurance high there? What else should I consider re car ownership?

[Ira500]

A lot of people do just fine in Seattle without a car, but it does get harder if you live outside of neighborhoods within a quick bus ride into downtown Seattle. A new hybrid will cost 25 ish thousand...But you also don't have to buy a new car. For the last 20 years or so I've been buying cars from the Murphy auction, fairly new low mileage government surplus vehicles. They are usually well maintained, but boring, and as a result of their boringness they don't get a lot of bidding.
Another option is Zipcar, formerly Flexcar, a car sharing service, also very popular. They use almost new cars that get very good gas mileage, and if you don't need a car every day, it may be a good choice.

[wannabeaTexan]

Don't you also get a tax break for a few years if you by a new hybrid?

[allforcats]

Do-it-yourself easy auto jigsaw puzzle:
Seattle area new, used, cars, trucks, motorcycles and RVs - NWautos

For example, Toyota Prius used possibilities today:
Cars - Search for Cars for Sale in the NWautos classifieds – NWautos

In the areas you are interested in, there is no Zipcar service. Closest would be downtown (office building locations) Bellevue.

[chris]

You can get a Prius base model for 18-19k on the south shore, make sure you shop around. Also do you research on the cost of maintaining one. The tax break I think was lowered recently.

Moving here from GA, my auto insurance nearly doubled. There's also one funky thing about insurance here that annoys me each time I renew it. Each vehicle is fully insured, so if you have more than two vehicles, you will be paying full insurance on each one. In other words, if you have two vehicles insured, and you insure a third, your insurance will go up 50% instead of say, 10% like most states.

It's just another subtle cost that adds to the cost of living, that is not appreciated by myself.

[FoxyKnox]

Zipcar can be fairly expensive. Do your research. Also, know that with a hybrid, you'll be saving over time on gas, but about every 5 years or so the main battery that keeps the hybrid part functioning (I'm not very car savvy, sorry) needs to be replaced, and those can be $4,000 to $10,000 depending on the car. Me personally, I'd rather dole it out evenly distributed than have to cough up $6k all at once.