Car ownership options for Vancouver

[MuttWagon]

Hi,

I'm immigrating to Vancouver this summer and I'm working through the car options as you do for a 2 car garage. Having a bit of local insight would be greatly appreciated so I can establish if buying or leasing works out better.

If there are some decent lease deals I would be tempted to go down this route.

How does car leasing compare to the UK? Does anyone has details of any good websites of brokers they recommend. I can only find sites taking over other peoples leases.

What are the best sites for looking for used cars? I've been on autotrader.ca which is ok.

Any other useful insight to car ownership would be great!

[MuttWagon]

Thanks guys this is all really helpful. Nice to know there are PistonHeads out there!

As you say its difficult to know how we will use a car so I think we will be cautious before taking a plunge. I was an old X5 to be practical for biking and getting out in the wild with the dog.

With the taxation on used cars, does it make it harder to sell a car privately?

[MuttWagon]

Rich_AR said:

Tax on used car sales is collected when you register it in your name and insure it. They go off the 'bill of sale' price. They won't question the value, unless its suspiciously low for the car & market. So no, I'd say it doesn't make it harder. However, people often prefer to trade cars in with the dealer, as you only then pay tax on the difference between the trade-in and the value of the new car you buy. e.g $25k trade-in on a $50k car, you only pay tax on the $25k difference. However private sale, you would pay on the full value.

One thing I've noticed is that roof racks are silly expensive compared to the UK! Same goes for bike racks etc. The demand is high, so prices are as well.

Ok cool. Yes I can see that tax structure being attractive on the trade in cars. Looking at the classifieds there seems far less private sales than here in the UK.

I'll make sure I include the roof box when I ship everything over.

Thanks!