buying a car in Florida !

[jimandiane]

Has anyone bought a car in Florida ? without having an american driving licence ? ... any thoughts on how to go about getting insurance.. have tried State farm no go ... thanks.. Jim and Diane

[esprit]

Think you can buy a car without any problem but you will not get it insured without having a Florida driving license. This now only lasts the length of your visa or visa waiver so effectively has to be renewed each time you visit.

Julie Carty

[blott]

I think... you can get around the driving licence difficulty by getting an International Licence (although it only lasts a year, you can get one and renew it in UK) but whether this would be accepted for insurance in Florida, I'm not sure.

Blott

[fiona]

A friend of ours bought one during the summer. As he paid cash there was no problem buying. Insurance - now that's another story!

Ok for that visit on uk licence. Next time he has to pass florida dl. Which will be interesting, as we all know, it's only valid for the length of your visa.

Insurance now lapsed.

It will be interesting to see what happens.

Personally I wouldn't buy until the situation is more certain.

Fiona

[athurstance]

We thought about buying a car but couldn't really see how it could be cost effective once you'd paid insurance etc. Also you'd have to get yourself from the airport to the villa every time so it seems far more hassle than it was worth. Plus the fact that you get a nice new one each time from the car hire firms.

Angela

[orlandobabe]

A friend of ours got a little beauty for $1000. Course this was pre Sept 11 and all of the changes.
I'll have to ask him how it all works out now as he goes for 8 weeks at a time.
As regards getting to the airport-he gets his friendly property manager to sort him out-there are some you know!

Orlandobabe

[blott]

OB

We looked into this and were told it wasn't cost effective compared to renting. Problem is that you need to have it insured all year even though you're only using it for x weeks a year.

Does your friend let guests use the car or does he just keep it for his own use?

Blott

[MMFAN]

I've thought about doing this also, and being American of course don't have the driver's license issue. It doesn't seem to make financial sense though. Here's how I figured it:

--Ford Taurus type car that won't break continuously and has a/c that works: $2500 (figure $500/year spread for 5 years)
--Car insurance: $600/year (remember you can't get just the minimum in liability insurance...you have a big asset right there in FL)
--License plate registration: $75/year
--4 return shuttle van trips from airport to villa: $200
--Minor repairs and maintanance: $200/year (not counting on major repairs due to low mileage added)

My approximated annualised cost: $1600

Ford Taurus rentals cost me $33/day plus tax at Hertz, so let's say $40/day total. Break even then is 40 rental days.




Edited by - mmfan on 19/09/2002 11:50:05

[esprit]

There is a whole thread on this on another forum where someone could not get insurance even with a Florida driving license because his license would expire every time he goes home. Appatently the insurers did not like this at all even if the car was stored away.

Julie Carty

[caribcelt]

My husband and I bought a jeep in Miami in May of this year. We just went out to have a look and ended up buying when we were not really prepared for the insurance problems. We found the salesmen very pushy, not at all like what we have been used to in the UK. After about 3 hours in the showroom, we decided on a jeep, then we were told about all the extras, $500.00 charged by the showroom for the sale, $150 for the licence tag, etc. etc. Also when you factor in the sales tax, the price really jumps up.

After buying our car, we were told that we could not leave with it until we showed proof of insurance. It took me nearly a week to find someone who would insure us to drive the jeep, as both of us have UK driving licences. I searched the web, made a lot of phone calls, made a lot of repeat phone calls and ended up using All State.

The price for the two of us is around $2000 a year. The reason it is very expensive is because we both do not have US driving licences. We were told that if we obtained US driving licences then the price would be half that. Insurance is quite high in the states because there are so many new cars on the roads and a lot of accidents.

We both have been driving for many years, but we found out that producing no claims letters from other countries and by producing evidence that we had never had speeding tickets from the police, did not matter.

We now have to both take US driving tests, ie the eye test, the written test and then the actual manual driving test. Both of us do not want this hassle, but we realise that we have to do it in order for our insurance to come down.

Also, our insurance is reduced each month when we phone them and tell them to reduce the coverage to just stationary coverage. That means that the car is going to be locked up in the garage, in a gated community. When we are going back to Florida, we phone them again and tell them to increase the coverage.

When we arrive now in Florida, we either pick a car hire up at the airport, and drop it off at a location near our house and on the way back, we would pick the car up at a location near our house and drop it off at the airport. We have also used a town car company to pick us up at the airport and bring us to the house. Both of these systems have worked quite well.

It is a dilema to be in but I have a green card and I hope to move to Florida permanently one day. Therefore that is why we bought a car. If I was just going once or twice a year I think I would just hire a car. We have learnt a lot from our experience and we are wiser now for the next buy caring experience.

Happy Car Hunting
Caribcelt