Moving To The States - Financed Car Qs
 

Hey guys,

I'm in the process of planning my move down to the states and have a few questions regarding my car that is currently being financed.

I'm looking at several different options on what to do with it

1) Sell it here
2) Trade it in for an automatic car
3) Drive it down with me

I've got a little under 2 years left of the financing and if I decide to sell it or trade it in, how does that usually work? Will the buyer of the car need to pay the financing instead of me or would they just pay in full and I can pay it off with that money?

The reason I'd want to trade it in for an automatic is because there are a lot of steep hills where I'm going and I kind of want to just drive automatic while I live there.

If I do drive it down with me, are there any taxes that I need to pay? I know when importing a car to Canada, there are a lot more taxes and fees. Does it apply going the other way?

Thanks in advance

Option 1... 9/10 times you can't just have the new buyer take over payments, they would need to pass a credit check and most lenders won't take on the headache as they aren't obligated to. If they need a loan they need to get approved for it and then pay you out for it from the proceeds of the loan so you can pay your loan off. If you are short, you have to pay off the difference yourself.

Option 2 & 3 - you can't take a car to the US you are financing. You need a clear title to export it which you can't get if you are still making payments.

Mark

Yes, you will need to pay taxes (state tax etc.) Depending on the vehicle and its age, you may need to pay duty on it as well and I believe A/C fees etc.

Make sure you have your insurance options sorted out if you plan on going this route. My personal suggestion is to sell it locally instead.

How long are you 'moving to the states' for? 3 month contract? permanent?

Lol! You drive manual but can't handle hills? Come on man
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Ahh that makes sense, I guess I'd have to pay off everything before I even consider bringing it with me.

That's kind of what I'm leaning towards right now. I may just sell it and hopefully I can find a buyer before I leave.

I found work there and it's for a permanent position.

:okay: It's not that I can't handle them... there just seems to be a lot of traffic and a lot of hills lol

Which state are you going to? Judging from your hill comment probably the SF bay area? Every state and sometimes even county has different laws. California you need to do an emissions check kinda like AirCare.

If you drive it down, you can use ICBC for 3 months than you need to get the state plates/insurance.
Also it'll be EXTREMELY hard to sell it there due to being a Canadian car.

My advice is to get rid of it here.

Yup! I'll be in the SF Bay area. I'll look in to those emission rules for California. It's relatively new so I don't suspect there to be an issue. It's a 2012 Lancer.

Yea it seems like it'll probably be harder to sell down in the states than it would be over here if I were to go that route.

They do something similar to Aircare. OBD scan and away you go.

Ahh makes sense, doesn't seem like it'd be too hard of a process.

I believe you can just use your car in the states without exporting it, however if you want to sell it you need to send it back to Canada. You still need to change plates and insurance though.

To those who are teasing him about manual transmission. I remember even my automatic rental car struggled there. SF bay area hills are steep + narrow roads + shitty parking + hipster cyclists. :)

Just phone the financial company your loan is with and see what you owe. If you can sell your car and pay off the loan clean(or even make a few $$$) then I would recommend selling the car here. You would just need to pay the loan and obtain a lien release from the bank and that goes to the seller so he has a clean title car. Usually this process can be done right at the financial institution with your buyer. If they need their own financing then they will have to sort that out themselves. There may be a way to transfer the contract to another party but as lowside67 mentioned, the bank doesn't want the headache of re-granting credit for someone for the same vehicle. The only drawback to this is that it may be harder to obtain credit in the US due to you being a non-resident so getting a loan may be more difficult.

However, if you were in a negative equity position right now I would say drive it down there and use it. Look into territory Z ratings through ICBC. Something about temporary out of province vehicle usage. It may depend on how long you are staying.

can something like this be of help to you?:

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