Car for the USA

laissez-faire

laissez-faire

laissez-faire

Soldato
Joined
23 Oct 2002
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Edinburgh/Southampton
I'm doing a GAP year in the US next year and will be looking to buy a car. I want an SUV because I'm doing a ski season and in Tahoe it can easily dump 2 feet of snow in one night. A lot of the American SUVs are either FWD or RWD though so would be hopeless! Looking to spend about $10k.

If you want to put snow chains on a 4x4 do you put the chains on all 4 wheels?
 
I think you put snow chains on all 4 wheels regardless of whether it's a 4x4 or not.

Anyway most of the decent 4x4s you can get over here are also available over there (though frequently under a different name), as are most of the pretend 4x4s you can get over here. In addition to a bunch of Ford/GM/Chrysler crappy things.

So why not tell us what 4x4 you'd like over here and someone can tell you what it's called in the US and if it's available.
 
I can't see a Wrangler getting phased by the snow, but they seem a little overpriced (kinda like defenders are here). That said, a 6 year old one for 10k would be unlikely to lose too much value in 6 months and they are so mechanically simple I doubt too much would go wrong. Only thing that worries me is the fabric roof. If a couple of feet of snow was on top of that I can see it caving in!
 
Ask on a US forum. There are very few people here who will know the US used car market. I believe their market is also very localised due to distances involved, ie, prices vary a lot state to state.
 
Does it really need to be a full-on SUV, or would something like a Subaru Outback and some decent winter tyres be suitable?
 
jellybeard999 said:
Out of curiosity, why ?
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non national driving license......Do you think people with Nigerian licenses pay the same insurance rates as those with British licenses in England?

When I first moved and tried to get insured I couldn't actually find someone to insure me until I'd got my US license.
 
Killa_ken said:
non national driving license......Do you think people with Nigerian licenses pay the same insurance rates as those with British licenses in England?

When I first moved and tried to get insured I couldn't actually find someone to insure me until I'd got my US license.
Click to expand...

Well I have 3 reasons to believe otherwise,

Firstly the fact that insurance in the US usually covers the car and any driver, hence why all my friends will willingly toss me the keys to brand new Mercs whenever I go over.

Secondly a British friend recently bought a car and didn't have much trouble

Thirdly, when I broke my elbow I phoned up RAC to put to my American flatmate with an American licence on my insurance policy. They didn't even make a charge!
 
laissez-faire said:
Well I have 3 reasons to believe otherwise,

Firstly the fact that insurance in the US usually covers the car and any driver, hence why all my friends will willingly toss me the keys to brand new Mercs whenever I go over.

Secondly a British friend recently bought a car and didn't have much trouble

Thirdly, when I broke my elbow I phoned up RAC to put to my American flatmate with an American licence on my insurance policy. They didn't even make a charge!
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Well good luck then. This was not the case for me. Your also incorrect about covering any driver. They take into consideration who will be driving, this is the reason adding my sister put the premium up and having a 3.0 GPA will push it down.

Also a lot of top end cars have limits on who can drive with most of them being that you need to be over 25.
 
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laissez-faire said:
I'm doing a GAP year in the US next year and will be looking to buy a car. I want an SUV because I'm doing a ski season and in Tahoe it can easily dump 2 feet of snow in one night. A lot of the American SUVs are either FWD or RWD though so would be hopeless! Looking to spend about $10k.

If you want to put snow chains on a 4x4 do you put the chains on all 4 wheels?
Click to expand...

When I was in Tahoe summer '07 we had a Ford 4x4 of some sort. Other common 4x4 / SUV's were lots of GMC Yukon's and Chevrolet Tahoe's :p around.... and of course as it's Cali there were also quite a few Ford 4x4 Hybrids and Lexus RX400H (But I'd guess they'll be out of budget).
 
Just to back up what Ken said - insurance is pretty expensive for a non-American.
When I moved here and was using my English license and then my newly issued U.S license insurance was about $1400 for the first 6months I think it was!!
You'll have no problem finding a cheap 4x4 though as this market is worthless right now :D
Specially if you buy a U.S made one!
 
Killa_ken said:
non national driving license......Do you think people with Nigerian licenses pay the same insurance rates as those with British licenses in England?

When I first moved and tried to get insured I couldn't actually find someone to insure me until I'd got my US license.
Click to expand...

No, but then I doubt you need to do more than sit in the car to pass a Nigerian driving test. As the british test is fairly strict, I'd have thought it would be similar to a US license.
 
jellybeard999 said:
No, but then I doubt you need to do more than sit in the car to pass a Nigerian driving test. As the british test is fairly strict, I'd have thought it would be similar to a US license.
Click to expand...

You'd think that but no. When I tried to swap my license for an American one they wanted me to retake the whole test including written.
 
From what I've read, though it varies from state to state, the US driving test is far from comprehensive. One person reported that their test was a right turn out of the test centre, 4 right turns at 4 crossroads then a right turn back into the test centre.
 
I have a US license from Florida. The test took about 15 mins and required me to drive around a retail parks car park with other traffic and then park the car. 30 Mins later I was driving a CLK 55 amg
 
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