Buying a Car
 

My husband to be and I are honeymooning in the USA for 3 months 2002 and were tossing up the idea of "buying a car" and driving from State to State. <BR> <BR>Can anyone please provide us with some advice on the following: <BR>a. Buying a Car <BR>b. Insurance and registration <BR>c. Any other information that will make this process as pain free as possible <BR> <BR>Many Thanks.....

I don't quite understand the question. When you buy a car you must pay tax and registration fees (the car dealer takes care of this), and depending on the state and who finances your car, you must purchase a certain level of insurance, the price of which also depends on you and what car you buy. Insurance companies might not like that you don't live in the US but I'm sure you can get insurance for the right price. If your question is asking how much this will cost, you really need to give more specifics. <BR> <BR>What will you do with the car after 3 months?

Bianca, you will need to identify a residence in one State or another, in order for the car to be registered legally. This is a tall order, can get ground up in immigration law. In the US, unlike many other countries, vehicles are registered by the State government instead of the central government. Overseas visitors typically can't establish legal residency in a State sufficient for the authorities to process the vehicle title, assess taxes and fees on the registration, etc. <BR> <BR>Without valid registration, obtaining insurance will be next to impossible. You might check with your own insurer to see if they would cover you in an owned vehicle for the duration of your trip, but for 3 months I frankly don't think this is a very attractive option. Others might have a different take on it.

I don't know that I'd recommend buying a car. If you bought a new car, drove it three months, then sold it, you'd take a real beating on the value of it. Finding a good used car would probably not be practical given your schedule. <BR> <BR>If you have any money constraints at all, you might look into a monthly rental instead of a purchase. I did this for the summer many years ago, and I recall that the price was quite reasonable.

Thanks for the responses! <BR>I suppose where I was getting at, was that I hear a lot about tourists (backpackers?) going to the USA, buying a car and selling at the end of their stay. <BR>I was just unaware of how difficult this may be and the ins and outs of doing so. <BR>A recent "travel guide" advised that there were companies within the USA that sold cars as well as provided a "guaranteed buy-back". <BR>I'll start looking into some rental companies as potentially the preferred option. <BR>Cheers....