I Bought A Car! What I Learned As A First-Time Car Buyer

So remember when I wrote a post 7 years ago saying I was going to be carfree for life? Well this is a great example of why I usually try to “never say never.”

I never would have imagined that I would want to move close to my Partner’s family and as a result live in a rural town in Upstate NY, which unfortunately has no public transit and requires having a car. So here we are 🙂 .

• Carfree For Life

However, as I hypothesized in my homebase post, I have now confirmed that driving through rolling green hills on country roads with no traffic in sight is a completely different experience to the long, miserable commutes on Atlanta’s huge and ugly highways that I was looking to avoid in the above post 😉 . The experience of driving in Upstate NY is so different in fact that tourists come to this part of the world just to drive through the changing fall leaves because it’s so beautiful. Atlanta wishes 😉 !

Also as I mentioned in my post explaining why I got a homebase after 5 years of being a full-time nomad, I did carefully choose our new apartment so I can live there without a car and I am able to walk to everything I might need including a grocery store.

• I Got A Homebase! (But Will Still Travel 1/3 Of The Year)

However, the one pattern I’ve seen in myself in retirement is increasingly valuing comfort over cost – and walking to the grocery store in the ice and snow of a NY State winter is not comfortable 🙂 . A car also unlocks being able to leave our small rural town to visit all the family we have in the area that don’t live right in town, and the ability to go on adventures around the state, country and continent with my Partner!

So we bought a car together. We’re splitting it 50/50 like we do everything we share and in preparation for this decision, I of course went fully down a research rabbit hole to prepare for something I’d never done before: Buying my first car!

Choosing A Car

In my research I read countless articles about buying a used car (though the below is one of my favorites from my friends at BGR). I also talked to everyone I could about this decision to try and make a good one and choose a car that would last.

• Buying a Car with the Bitches, Part 1: How to Choose Your Car by Bitches Get Riches

Originally I was firmly on the Toyota train. When my Mom was looking into buying a car years and years ago, she asked her mechanic, who she trusted, what to buy and he said “Toyota. I rarely see them in my shop.” And that turned out to be sound advice 🙂 .

We’ve been a Toyota family ever since so I started looking in that direction. However, from talking to my Partner’s family that lives in Upstate NY and has experienced many NY winters compared to my Mom’s warm Georgia weather 🙂 , they suggested buying a Toyota, Honda or Subaru.

So I had my ideal brands, but had to decide what kind of Toyota, Honda or Subaru we should get. To figure this out I looked back on my habits – every time we’ve done a road trip, which is usually 1-2 times a year, we rent a car. And every time we rent a Toyota RAV4, Honda CR-V or equivalent mini-SUV because we both find it the most comfortable.

I prefer driving a vehicle that’s a little higher off the ground, it has more space than a sedan so it’s more comfortable for road trips and my Partner is on the tall side so most sedans are not comfy for him, especially for longer journeys. So I had my ideal car types: a Toyota RAV4, Honda CR-V or Subaru Forester with less than 100,000 miles.

The Budget

Based on my research I wanted a 2013-2018 Toyota RAV4, Honda CR-V or Subaru Forester and we were willing to pay up to $14,000 for that car. I have been all over sites like Kelley Blue Book for months looking at fair market value for cars like this and that seemed do-able. So we had our max budget.

And in case you’re worried that this large purchase will explode my retirement budget, don’t worry 😉 . I’ve mentioned before that I’ve actually been way under budget in retirement overall.

The below chart shows my over/under for every year in retirement and cumulatively I’m $9,277.96 under budget. So my half of this max $14K budget is only 75% of this leftover amount. I’m good to go 😉 .

The Timeline

I mentioned how our apartment’s location is perfectly livable without a car outside of winter. So our original timeline was to start seriously looking for a car in October and have it before the first heavy snowfall of the year.

However, similar to us ‘accidentally’ getting an apartment half a year ahead of schedule, the same thing happened with our car 🙂 . A great deal popped up so we took it!

This was after doing more than 100 hours of research on used cars in the area and calling dealerships to assess if I wanted to work with them and how this entire process would work since at the time I was still a Washington State resident. I was pretty nervous about working with a dealership because I hate negotiating and also how opaque the entire car buying process seems.

In the end, I didn’t need to deal with a dealership at all. My Partner’s Mom’s friend mentioned that she was about to try and sell her car and it fit all my criteria for a good price so we jumped at the opportunity.

We bought a 2016 Honda CR-V EX that has less than 90,000 miles on it for $13,000. It works great and has all-wheel drive, heated seats and a moonroof – fancyyy! Also according to KBB we did good 😉 :

The Purchase

The actual purchase of this car might have been one of the most chill transactions in the history of the world 🙂 . Instead of meeting a possibly sketchy person from Craigslist in a parking lot, I texted with the woman who wanted to sell her car. We agreed on a price (if I wanted to purchase it), and on a day for us to go on a test drive.

She brought the car over on that day and let us take it on a drive without her. The test drive went off without a hitch and I was actually surprised with all of the car’s fancy features, such as it sensing when the key is nearby and unlocking based on proximity. I was originally just looking at standard models of these possible car types so getting a higher trim was a nice surprise.

Once we were done with the test drive, my Partner and I decided to buy the car so we went to chat with the woman selling it and she had all the paperwork we needed, which was specifically:

1. Title Certificate
2. Bill Of Sale
3. Odometer Disclosure Statement

She filled everything out and we both signed all those documents. Then she handed me the keys, I handed her a check and we’d officially bought a car!

Maintenance & Repairs

The only thing we noted while test driving the car was that the Tire Pressure Light was on. I did bring that up with the seller before buying the car. She shared with me the actual receipts showing that the car had just had its tires replaced with All-Season Tires at an auto shop, so the tire pressure should be correct.

They had also checked with a Tire Pressure gauge and saw that the pressure was in the correct range so they weren’t sure why the light was still on. This is where my neurotic brain kicked in 🙂 . I had been starting to read the entire owner’s manual for this Honda CR-V before buying it and I was almost at the part that talks about indicator lights.

Apparently in this car you need to re-calibrate the tire pressure indicator after changing tire pressure, which they hadn’t done properly. So I re-calibrated it by holding down the tire pressure button and then the indicator light went off because the pressure was good. Nice!

The seller also told me about a remaining warranty on parts of the car, such as the brakes, rotors and calipers and gave me invoices for that in case I wanted or needed to contact that mechanic. There was also already a sticker on the car from the last oil change that indicated I’ll need my next one in about 10,000 miles. I told my Mom about that and she said that sounded like a lot unless it’s synthetic oil, which it is so all is well.

All indicator lights were off, I had all the paperwork I needed to get repairs done under warranty if needed and I was ready to hit the road. However, I’m now going to be researching regular car maintenance as well as how to maintain a car I don’t use super often because I have no idea what I’m doing 🙂 .

The below posts and videos are helping a lot (Yes it’s BRG again – they’re just amazing, deserve more love and had the most comprehensive and hilarious answers to all the questions I was looking for during my research):

• How To Maintain Your Car When You’re Barely Driving It by BGR
• How To Save Money With Affordable Car Repairs by BGR (video version below)

Insurance

I had already shopped around for renters insurance, which is required by my lease, and I’d gone with State Farm for $10.41/month. And I had heard that bundling my new renters insurance with car insurance would save me money so I went to State Farm’s website and clicked on “bundle auto insurance” to see what they quoted me.

However, when I tried to get a quote, the website said that I cannot get a quote online in New York State and that I would have to contact my State Farm agent directly. That’s annoying 🙂 .

State Farm Fail

So I put a note on my calendar to email them the next day and I went about my business. Then the next day, I get a call from State Farm saying that they want to provide me a quote for auto insurance. So seems like they were monitoring my website use and were reaching out to me first. Creepy 🙂 .

I gave them some information they requested over the phone, and they sent me a quote that was $153.37/month, which was surprising to me because I had checked out New York insurance averages across companies, which was less than $100/month and State Farm’s was 50% more than that.

I responded asking them which of the listed items were additional and could be removed and they said none – everything was required by the state, which according to the family members I checked with, was not true. So that was a disappointing interaction with State Farm.

When I was on the call with the State Farm agent, I was pleasantly surprised at how personable and helpful they were and I guess I now know why 🙂 – it was a trap.

State Farm seemed to be trying to seriously up charge me for absolutely no reason. That has soured me on the company, so I will be shopping around for another renters insurance provider when my current agreement expires and I will definitely not be using State Farm for my auto insurance.

Geico Fake Out

I went to other insurers and Geico quoted me about $50/month and Progressive quoted me about $100/month. So I was prepared to buy Geico insurance right after signing the Bill Of Sale.

After buying the car I went back to that Geico quote and went through the entire process of purchasing their car insurance and even entered my credit card number and clicked “Purchase” only to see this:

Literally, what the fuck 🙂 ? They would have known that they couldn’t sell me insurance way before I entered my credit card so why did I have to go through their million questions and actually clicking “Purchase” before getting this message?

Since you can’t drive a car without insurance, we weren’t willing to wait for an antiquated paper application, fill it out, send it back and wait for Geico to (I suspect) then quote us a much higher number. And why isn’t this digital?! I felt like I’d stepped back into the 1800s.

I decided to go with another insurance provider that I’ll detail below, but to close this Geico saga, six days later I did receive their letter, which said the below:

Dear Applicant,

Thank you for expressing interest in GEICO. In order to be considered for an insurance policy, you must complete the enclosed application and submit required documentation. To prevent any delays in handling, the application and documentation must be retumed using the enclosed envelope and include retention number on all documents

In addition to the application, please enclose the following information:

1. A copy of the title and registration for all vehicles you are looking to insure. Registration must include the registrants name. If any vehicles are not titled and registered in your name, please provide a copy of the front and back of the title completed and signed and dated by buyer and seller. In the case of newly purchased vehicles from a dealership and you do not yet have the title, please send the Lease Agreement, Finance paperwork or the Bill of Sale.

2. If you maintain current automobile insurance, provide a copy of your current insurance declaration pages showing effective dates, coverages, and drivers. We are unable to accept ID cards or Binders, it must be a copy of your declaration pages.

3. Proof of residency consisting of two different forms of proof dated in the past 30 days. Acceptable forms of proof are:

• Full utility bill including usage and service address (land line telephone or intemet, electric, gas, cable, water/sewage).
• Complete bank, credit card, or tax statement showing transaction locations. Please black out personal information, such as account numbers and account balances.
• Verification of commute to work, such as train/bus tickets, monthly passes, or EZ Pass statement.
• Mortgage documents.
• A copy of military orders
• Pay stub showing name, address and tax portion.

Before submitting your application, please ensure that:

• All required documentation is enclosed. All questions have been answered.
• All areas have been signed, initialed and dated where required.
• All driver’s license numbers are correct. All Vehicle Identification Numbers are correct

Wow 🙂 . They want more documentation than the DMV and it seems completely unnecessary since I got insurance without needing to provide any of that information to the other company. I don’t know what that sneaky Geico gecko is up to, but I don’t like it.

Progressive To The Rescue

I looked into a few other car insurance providers, but this was a Saturday and the ones that required calling people were closed until Monday. So I started looking for insurance companies that didn’t require me talking to anyone, didn’t have weird bait and switches and just gave me my insurance at a reasonable price.

So I bought 6 months of Progressive insurance for $93.50/month. Hopefully I can get that monthly amount lowered when I reapply, but I get that I’m a weird enigma without any car insurance history at 35 – aka I’m suspicious 🙂 . So despite it being a saga, I finally had insurance and could drive our car with a clear conscience!

Registration

Before going to the DMV to get my car registration, I of course tried to do my due dilligence to make sure I had all of my paperwork so I wouldn’t have to return to the DMV a second or even third time like my FIL unfortunately had to earlier this year.

Luckily the NY DMV website has a questionnaire that appears to be quite clear about what forms you need to fill out and print before visiting.

However, as you’ll see, I did have to frantically fill out two another forms that weren’t listed on there while at the DMV, but I suspect that might have been related to changing my state of residency and unexpectedly getting a Real ID, not registering my car.

The Forms

To register a car I filled out and printed these forms:

• Vehicle Registration / Title Application (MV-82)
• Statement of Transaction (DTF-802)

And also brought these documents:

• Car Title Certificate 
• Bill of Sale
• State ID
• Proof of Car Insurance 

And to change my residency and get a REAL ID, I should have filled out and printed these forms:

• Application for Permit, Driver License, or Non-Driver ID Card (MV-44)
• Certification of Residency (MV-44NYR)

And also brought these documents:

• Old State ID
• US Passport
• Social Security Card
• Lease Agreement (or other proof of residency)
• Rental Insurance Agreement (or other proof of residency)

Phew! That’s a lot 🙂 . In case you want to check what documents you might need, the entire DMV Document Guide for NY State was unfortunately down as of this writing, but I’ll link the Guide landing page here in case it’s restored at a later date.

The DMV

So I rolled up to the Albany DMV on a Monday, about an hour before they were set to close. Based on my previous less than stellar experiences with DMVs, I was fully prepared to wait in line for that entire hour and have to come back another day. However, I was pleasantly surprised 🙂 .

When I entered the building there was an orderly line of four people in front of me. Not bad! Two DMV employees at the front were checking that people had the correct forms and documents and then sending them into another room to continue the process with (I assumed) other employees.

When I got to the front, I handed over my printed forms and all of my documents. They asked what I was trying to do and I said register a car and change my state of residency. They asked if I wanted REAL ID and I said sure, but I thought I didn’t have all the documents needed and they said I did (sweet!) so we went ahead with that. They also complimented my organization of the paperwork and documents I did have, which I appreciated 😉 .

The employee took my new REAL ID picture right there and then I was asked to quickly fill out the Application for Permit, Driver License, or Non-Driver ID Card (MV-44) and Certification of Residency (MV-44NYR) listed above that strangely didn’t show up when I did the questionnaire. Luckily after that initial interaction, there’s a “chill out” area with tables and chairs for people to fill out forms before going to the next step in the process.

After I had filled out those forms, I entered the final line. This one was longer with six people in front of me, but it moved quickly because instead of two employees at the front there were many.

When I reached the front of the line I was directed to move forward and the DMV employee once again asked for all of my forms and documents. The employee then walked me through everything, which involved answering their questions verbally and answering prompts on a digital pad, which included registering to vote and becoming an organ donor as well as paying for my new license ($51.75) and car registration. Here are how those costs netted out for our $13,000 car:

• NY State, County & City Sales Tax (8%): $1,040
• 2 Year Registration Fee, Title Transfer Fee & Vehicle Plates: $141.50

I was also asked to read the first line on a Vision Chart on the wall, which was super easy (I was expecting a further down line 🙂 ). And then I was given:

• My Car’s New Registration Document 
• 2 License Plates (NY has them on the front and back of vehicles)
• 10 Day Inspection Extension Paper
• Registration Window Sticker

I was told that I would later receive my New Car Title in the mail. And in my case I also surrendered my WA license and got a Temporary NY License, which I’ll go into detail about in another post about changing my state of residency.

This entire process took a little less than a full hour, which I was very surprised and impressed by! After I got home I told the previous car owner that she can have her old plates back as she’d requested.

License Plate Removal & Application

Once again, my community saved me 🙂 . I didn’t have a screwdriver to my name at this point so my FIL put on the license plates for us and he ended up using a power drill (fun!) to make sure they were extra secure. Thank you – I appreciate you!

Just a heads up that he mentioned if a license plate is being stubborn and won’t come off, WD-40 can do wonders. Good to know for next time 🙂 .

Registration Sticker Removal & Application

I’ve never had to put on or remove a car’s registration sticker so I had no idea it was such a process 🙂 . And I guess the DMV assumes you own a razor blade because apparently that’s how you get these bad boys off.

Luckily my new community came in clutch once again. My BIL removed the old registration sticker on my car, slowly with a very sharp razor blade that he took out of a box cutter. He then stuck on the new one per the instructions on the sticker. If I’d done it I bet it would have been hella crooked and made me mad every time I saw my car 🙂 .

In case you’re a newbie like me, here’s how to remove any sticker and how to place on a new NY registration sticker:

Inspection

The NY DMV gives you 10 days to get your car inspected and replace the temporary inspection extension paper they give you to put on your windshield. That doesn’t seem like enough time 🙂 .

I started calling mechanics and the first one I called was booked for the next 34 days. The next mechanic also wasn’t available within my 10 day window and the last one I called didn’t even pick up.

So even though the DMV requires this inspection, it doesn’t seem like there are a whole lot of auto mechanics that do it in NY because they’re not incentivized to do so. It costs a set amount based on the type of vehicle that’s less than $30 per inspection.

So why would they want to waste their time doing that when they can make a lot more per hour doing literally anything else in a mechanic shop? So I had to look for another solution than the small, local mechanics I was calling.

Midas

Then in my frantic web searching I saw that a chain called Midas was not too far away from me. I went on their website and they let me click on a time range of two hours on a specific day to schedule an inspection. That’s what I’m talking about!

I picked a time and they sent me an email saying your appointment is not confirmed, but we’ll get back to you in 30 “business” minutes as in while the business is open. This was an hour before closing. However, I never heard from them again 🙂 .

By the next morning at 10am (2 hours after opening and the day before I was set to come in), I still hadn’t heard anything from them. I wanted to know if I had to keep looking for a mechanic to do my inspection so I called them.

Someone friendly answered and they said that they were actually emailing me at that very moment (really?). They said I would get a confirmation shortly that lists a specific time to be there. I said great and hung up.

5 hours later I still hadn’t received that email they were supposedly writing when I called 🙂 . So I called them again to confirm the time because I didn’t want to drive hours for no reason the next morning.

They answered and said yep – see you at 10am and I said alrighty. I arrived the next morning to an empty parking lot. I went to the front desk and they said they were ready to do my inspection. I sat down and they were done in 40 minutes and charged me $21. I made a note of that timing and cost since NY State requires annual car inspections.

At that moment I was impressed that despite the challenges with scheduling online, I was in and out fairly quickly and everyone was friendly when I did call with questions. I also enjoyed that they texted me a link to an inspection dashboard with pictures of what they were checking. The only negative at this point was that they incorrectly read my inspection sticker and said in the dashboard that I was delinquent with my inspection date when I was not.

And then the upsell began 🙂 . They tried to tell me I needed $1,079.92 of repairs that didn’t seem necessary or that I could do myself. Hilariously they said that I could “get on reddit with the people that basically live on there” (rude lol) and they would say it’s legit.

I later did just that and it was far from legit. In fact, I showed the list to my mechanic friend and he started laughing saying that some of these things he’d literally never done on a car because it’s completely unnecessary.

So that upsell was dumb, BUT they were very fine when I just said “no thanks” and moved on. I paid for my inspection and I was out of there. Given how much relatively easier it was to get an appointment in a short amount of time with them, I might use them for annual inspections going forward as long as I’m ready for an unnecessary upsell.

However, I might have better luck scheduling with Midas in the future because the guy upselling me said that next time I should just text them at number that sent me the inspection dashboard info because texts show up on all their computers and d0n’t go away until they deal with it while an email is something extra they don’t always get to. Good to know!

So we’ll see if I use them going forward, but overall I was grateful that I was able to get an inspection so quickly when I hadn’t had luck elsewhere.

New Title

At the DMV I was told that they would send my new car title certificate to me in the mail. According to their website, that can take up to 45 days and if it’s been more than 45 days you should email your DMV. I received my title in my mail as promised 26 days after visiting the DMV so I was good to go!

Overall

So that was a lot 🙂 . Let’s recap it all for you other newbies out there so this post can hopefully be helpful (as intended 😉 ) instead of overwhelming.

The Steps

Here are all the steps I went through to buy a car through a private sale in NY State:

1. Buy the car
   1. Fill out and sign:
      • Title Certificate 
      • Bill Of Sale
      • Odometer Disclosure Statement
   2. Exchange money
   3. Take the keys
2. Buy insurance
3. Go to the DMV
   1. Before you arrive fill out and print:
      • Vehicle Registration / Title Application (MV-82)
      • Statement of Transaction (DTF-802)
   2. And also bring printouts or hard copies of:
      • Title Certificate
      • Bill of Sale
      • Odometer Disclosure Statement
      • Proof of Car Insurance 
      • Your State ID
   3. Pay for taxes, a new title, registration and plates
   4. Receive the license plates and documents
   5. Later receive the new car title in the mail
4. Get the car inspected

The Costs

And here’s how our car purchase costs netted out:

• Car Purchase: $13,000
• NY State, County & City Sales Tax: $1,040
• 2 Year Registration Fee, Title Transfer Fee & Vehicle Plates: $141.50

TOTAL: $14,181.50

Not bad 🙂 . And here’s a recap of our new ongoing costs:

• Annual Inspection: $21
• 6 Months Of Progressive Insurance: $561

My half of all of that is still less than the amount I’m under my retirement budget and obviously having a car will move some of my regular transit budget to this new car budget since I’ll no longer have local rental car or ride share costs. But we’ll see how this all nets out in the end 😉 .

CONCLUSION

And that is the too long saga of what happened when I bought my first car 🙂 . I hope it was helpful to any other newbies out there. I was overwhelmed by this process when I first started researching it and others, like the posts I linked above, helped me wrap my head around it so I hope I paid that forward today. Good luck out there!