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Hey everyone! I posted this in the NYC section as well, but figured it can't hurt to post here as well where it seems as if more people are reading.
I'm debating making a move from the Virginia suburbs of DC to Brooklyn (Park Slope to be specific. I'm having a hard time however figuring out the cost and practicality of bringing my car up to New York. I know that car insurance is much more expensive, but it seems impossible to find a place willing to give me a quote; and I realize that since there are so many different factors to take into account when adjusting a person's insurance such as driving record, type of car, age, neighborhood, etc., but could someone give me a general idea of how much insurance will run? I'm 25 years old, drive a '97 Ford Taurus with 130,000 miles on it, with a near spotless driving record (ticket for running a stop sign when I was 18, and a minor fender bender a year ago). Here in Virginia, I have my insurance set up so that I pay twice a year around $415 every six months, so a total of $830 a year. This just went down due to my passing the 25 age bracket from around $960 a year. I called my melodramatic insurance agent today and she said that insurance could be "two, three, four thousand dollars" but I don't think she has a clue what she's talking about, so without exaggerating could anyone, preferably someone who's lived in Brooklyn, give me some sort of idea as to how much insurance would run me (or how much they paid)?
I'd also like to hear about the "hidden" costs of changing residency. What's the fee for registering a car? Is there a car tax I'll have to pay? License plates? Any sort of safety/emissions testing? The cost for a new driver's license? Or any other hidden tax/cost that arises when moving to New York (related to cars or otherwise) that I should know about. I know that's a lot of information, but I've been trying to research the cost of such things and have been coming up blank and figured that most likely someone who is a New York transplant themselves, has a good gauge on the cost of these things. I just don't want to be surprised by any "sudden" exorbitant expenses if I decide to move up there.
I know that I probably shouldn't bring my car. I went to college in New Jersey and am somewhat familiar with the New York area so I realize how easy it is to get around without a car. However, I have friends from college scattered across the Tri-State region, and think I would like to visit them from time to time, and just feel that a car would be so much more convenient rather than two hour train rides. I just don't know if it's worth it though, in terms of finding parking on a daily basis, the cost of parking, and the cost of having a car in New York period. I'm debating bringing my car up initially while keeping it registered in Virginia, maybe for a few weeks or so, and just sort of seeing how it goes in terms of the practicality of owning a car in Brooklyn, and if it's just ridiculous, will then drop my car off at my dad's or someplace in Virginia and live out the rest of my one year lease without a car. I don't plan to sell my car because I only plan to stay in Brooklyn for the year, and after that year is up, I'm sure I'll need the car again.
Any advice and information would be greatly appreciated.
If you are only going to be in Brooklyn for a year, don't bother with the car. Having a car in NYC is about as much work as having a child, what with alternate side parking, etc. etc., not to mention having it on the streets of NYC for a year will put wear on it that takes 2, 3 or more years just about anywhere else. My insurance agent told me that Brooklyn has the highest auto insurance rates in the country due to fraud. When my girlfriend and I bought our car it came out cheaper (by a very big margin) to register it in Manhattan rather than in Brooklyn, believe it or not (she lived in Bkln, I lived in Manh.). We park it in a garage in Queens and only ever use it for getting out of town. It's a 40 year old car, and I'm a 40 year old guy, so my rates wouldn't be comparable to what yours will be. It's as much a hobby as transportation, otherwise I wouldn't bother with it (and when I add up how much it costs every month to keep the car I always consider selling it...). You'll have so much going on living in Brooklyn you won't ever go visit your friends in the area (they'll want to come into the city!) and the the car will really just be a headache. And even if you do go visit, how many times would that be in a year? Two, three, four? The inconvenience of a two hour train ride that many times will pale in comparison to the daily hassle of NYC car ownership! Leave it in VA and it will be in good shape when your stay in NYC is over.
As well, if you are only going to be here for a year I wouldn't bother with the NY license and all that- what's the point? You'll just pay all the fees, etc., and then have to pay them all again wherever you end up afterward. Heck, I was in NYC for 5 years before I switched my license from where I was before (I didn't plan on staying this long...). Yeah, I know they SAY you're supposed to do it within six weeks of coming here.....
Last edited by honeychrome; 06-20-2006 at 07:12 PM..
Thanks for the advice honeychrome! Believe it or not, with that one post, you seriously told me more than I had figured out from hours of online research and conversations with my insurance agent.
I don't think I'll bring up my car to New York for many of the same reasons you cautioned against it. Namely, it will just be too much of a hassle and too much of an expense. And while I may think that I'll be needing my car, that's more likely than not just the byproduct of growing up in autocentric America and feeling like you need your car at all times. I guess if I really need a car that badly, I can always rent one.
The whole thing may be a moot point as the whole Brooklyn deal sort of fell through today. Long story, but I might not even be moving to New York at all, and if so, it will more likely be Queens. I don't know if that would change my car decision. I know Queens is cheaper and parking slightly more plentiful (depending on the neighborhood) than Brooklyn, so I'd probably take it up for one month or so to see the practicality of it, most likely would realize the ridiculous hassle then after a few weeks and drop it off back in Virginia.
Quote:
Originally Posted by honeychrome
As well, if you are only going to be here for a year I wouldn't bother with the NY license and all that- what's the point? You'll just pay all the fees, etc., and then have to pay them all again wherever you end up afterward. Heck, I was in NYC for 5 years before I switched my license from where I was before (I didn't plan on staying this long...). Yeah, I know they SAY you're supposed to do it within six weeks of coming here.....
This is true. I guess I would just be concerned considering how out in the open my car would be with on-street parking in New York, that day after day, someone, whether it be just a particularly cantankerous neighbor, or a police officer who regularly patrols the area, would take notice of the Virginia plates on my car for month after month and issue me a ticket or citation for failing to register my car in New York. I've lived in other states and kept my Virginia registration but I wasn't in those states for a year's worth of time, and the parking situation was more, covert, so to speak. I'm not quite sure how strict the NYPD is with parking and car registration issues. You'd think in a large city like New York, that would be the last of their concerns, but you never know. My car is registered in one county in Virginia and I have been living in the neighoring county for the past few months and after only one month here, I received a citation for not having the proper county decal sticker displayed on my window. I never would've expected that to happen because I live in a quiet residential neighborhood, meaning the cops pretty much had nothing to do and must've gone down the street looking car by car to make sure everyone had proper plates and stickers; so I wasn't sure if such a practice happens in New York as well.
Well, as far as the ticketing because you have out of state plates I think in general you don't have to worry, as long as you avoid parking within a few blocks of a precinct station, etc. Traffic enforcers under the wire to meet their quotas (oh, riiiiight, quotas don't exist.....) will first look 'locally' to fill up the ticket book! I know someone with out of state plates who for a while was getting ticket after ticket at a location in Queens, though in fact they were legally parked (combination plates, which don't exist in NY but count as commercial, in a commercial zone or something like that). They took the tickets to the local precict and found out that there was some sort of training facility nearby and the tickets were coming from an officer who was attending the facility and not from the local precinct and didn't know the finer points of the local parking rules! I think the tickets were all waived.
More likely, if parked long term on the street, you car will become someone's house! A few months after moving to NYC I gave my old station wagon to a friend in LIC as I wasn't using it and there used to be a couple places there where you could park on the street for a long time. He left the car parked without moving it or checking on it for a couple months in the winter and when he came back to it someone was living in it. Said the guy looked like Nick Nolte on a really bad day but had set himself up quite comfortably in the wagon! The car was near the end of it's useful life (as a car) so he just left it to the street person until the spring when it was junked.
Last edited by honeychrome; 06-22-2006 at 09:01 AM..
I used to have a car in Upstate and was paying about 500 twice a year through Geico. When I checked the car (2003 mitsubishi lancer) with my Queens address, they quoted me about 1600 twice a year. I am a 24 year old male teacher with great driving record.
I decided I was going to sell my car when I moved into the city because of it. Besides, with the public transportation system, a car isn't needed. Metro-North RR runs up into Westchester/Rockland/CT and NJ Transit has trains and express buses too.
Thank you so much for the specific insurance quotes! I know that it's difficult to compare one person's insurance to another's but I would think that mine wouldn't be too different from your's based on age, driving experience and such. Interesting that this thread has been bumped up since I just returned back from New York the other day after visiting some friends. My specific plans to move up there fell through about two months ago and I haven't given things much thought since then, but I had such a great time up there, that I think I'm going to re-open that possibility. Most likely, I would move to a neighborhood in Queens or maybe Brooklyn. I doubt that I'd bring my car up now. It just doesn't seem worth it. I doubt that I'd sell my car but would most likely figure out some sort of alternative like storing it at a relative's place for awhile.
Another option you could consider.... <shhhh> is maybe keeping the car "registered/insured" at your parent's house or another relative. That would definitely keep the insurance down. Parking is, however, completely horrible in most parts of NYC!
Another option you could consider.... <shhhh> is maybe keeping the car "registered/insured" at your parent's house or another relative. That would definitely keep the insurance down. Parking is, however, completely horrible in most parts of NYC!
That is exactly what I would plan on doing. Unfortunately, New York is one of the few places in the US where you can get by easily without a car, meaning that since I don't know how long I'd stay in New York were I to move, it's best to keep the car in the meantime until I know what I'm doing or where I'm going next as most likely, it will require a car and I just don't want to deal with the hassle of buying another car. I would've thought that living in one state while having a car registered and insured in another would be illegal but I explicitly asked my insurance agent whether I could do that and she said that I could. Of course, maybe I should've asked as opposed to whether I could do it, whether or not it was legal to do so.
I would just add as an aside that Brooklyn has some of the highest rates in the country -- let alone NYC -- due to organized fraud rings that exist in the borough. To top that off, *because* of the fraud, you have a greater likelihood of having your car stolen there. There are various schemes, often including a team of people who work together to cause an accident with you.
My girlfriend works in insurance and cannot believe that they even allow insurance in Brooklyn for all of the money they lose from fraud there.
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