Update: I bought a car
Hi everyone, So after about 10 days of looking I bought a 2000 daewoo Nubira, from a dealer, for $3500 including the taxes (12%) and 1 year global warranty. The whole process of buying and insuring the car was real fast, we signed the contract for the car, and the dealer phoned an insurance agent that works with all the car dealers there (in Surrey), he came, prepared all the paper work, gave me a license plate and I was ready to go. The insurance is $270 a month (could have been a bit lower if I had payed it all cash, there is about 4% interest), without the "No Claims" discount because the letter is still in the mail, but he told me that as soon as I have the papers I can go to any Autoplan agent and they will refund me for the difference retroactively. Naturally, it was the time for a regular maintenance, so I shopped around for a good mechanic. I chose Midas (http://midas.com/|(because my impression was that this is a professional chain and they service the cars according to the manufacturer's orders. Of course it turned out that there is a lot of work on the car and a lot of parts must be changed. Total cost estimation was about $2000 (1 labour hour is over $100!). The car is still in the shop so I don't have the final cost. Other than that the car drives fine. A tip for new comers: DON'T OPEN AN ACCOUNT AT PC BANK! (www.pcfinancial.com) It's not for you. It is for people that already have an account in another bank. I opened an account and discovered they have all kinds of holds and limits, like if you deposit cash they hold it for 7(!) business days, that means you can withdraw the money only after 10 days! And they have a $200 per day withdraw limit plus they won't give you a credit card until you have credit history, but you can't have a credit history without a credit card! The guy that opened my account recommended me to either open another account at a regular bank and ask them for a credit card or apply for a store credit card, like Zeller's and such... and they also will not give you any cheques until 6 months have passed. In short you are very limited just when you need a lot of cash and flexibility. So I opened an account at TD Bank (www.tdcanadatrust.com) too, where they give me cheques, a credit card (secured), I can withdraw unlimited amount of cash (provided that there is money in the account...) at the cashier and since I'm a student it's FREE!
Hi everyone, So after about 10 days of looking I bought a 2000 daewoo Nubira, from a dealer, for $3500 including the taxes (12%) and 1 year global warranty. The whole process of buying and insuring the car was real fast, we signed the contract for the car, and the dealer phoned an insurance agent that works with all the car dealers there (in Surrey), he came, prepared all the paper work, gave me a license plate and I was ready to go. The insurance is $270 a month (could have been a bit lower if I had payed it all cash, there is about 4% interest), without the "No Claims" discount because the letter is still in the mail, but he told me that as soon as I have the papers I can go to any Autoplan agent and they will refund me for the difference retroactively. Naturally, it was the time for a regular maintenance, so I shopped around for a good mechanic. I chose Midas (http://midas.com/|(because my impression was that this is a professional chain and they service the cars according to the manufacturer's orders. Of course it turned out that there is a lot of work on the car and a lot of parts must be changed. Total cost estimation was about $2000 (1 labour hour is over $100!). The car is still in the shop so I don't have the final cost. Other than that the car drives fine. A tip for new comers: DON'T OPEN AN ACCOUNT AT PC BANK! (www.pcfinancial.com) It's not for you. It is for people that already have an account in another bank. I opened an account and discovered they have all kinds of holds and limits, like if you deposit cash they hold it for 7(!) business days, that means you can withdraw the money only after 10 days! And they have a $200 per day withdraw limit plus they won't give you a credit card until you have credit history, but you can't have a credit history without a credit card! The guy that opened my account recommended me to either open another account at a regular bank and ask them for a credit card or apply for a store credit card, like Zeller's and such... and they also will not give you any cheques until 6 months have passed. In short you are very limited just when you need a lot of cash and flexibility. So I opened an account at TD Bank (www.tdcanadatrust.com) too, where they give me cheques, a credit card (secured), I can withdraw unlimited amount of cash (provided that there is money in the account...) at the cashier and since I'm a student it's FREE!