Hello All,

I am a student in one of the American cities. The bus system in my city is pretty poor and I usually spend an average of one-and-a-half hours on the rod for a distance of about 14 miles (the distance from Ojuelegba to Ikeja). I have to ago to my internship from school about 3 times a week and I have had to stay on the road for close to 3 hours (to and fro), catching and leaving buses, for almost 9 months. I have almost $4000 and towards the end of the year, I should have $10,000, if my plans come to fruition. When I came here initially, I believed a car was above me and that I really did not need it. But I guess since I have had to interact with people who have cars, and who by and large have the Nigerian big-boy-we-must-enjoy-life mentality, I started to consider getting a car few months back. So, in essence, my plans to get a car is as equally inspired by the need to get around more conveniently and the need to prove levels in school, which may not be a good reason I guess. The problem is I talked to one of my professors recently and he told me about how it is unwise to get a car as a student and how I should endure the terrible bus system and save and invest my money. Basically he was saying that the cost of maintenance of a car and the costs of things like insurance etc was not a wise burden for a student to take on. Since I may stop my internship before I can get a car and basically work on campus, I feel like when I get a car it will be under-utilized and will therefore be a bad decision. I believe I can cut on the costs of insurance by buying a cheap car, but then I also feel that will rob me of the prestige and satisfaction I should get from buying a car. Besides the cheaper/older the car, the more likely it is that I will need constant visits to the mechanic, something I cannot afford to do as a student, both in terms of money an d time. I will have to go to places form time to time if I get a car and stop my internship. But I am not just sure if the pleasure and comfort of buying a car outweighs the potential rewards of investing my money for the future. I need your well thought-out advices.

Thanks

living in the US without a car is extremely difficult.  this isnt a "big-boy-we-must-enjoy-life" metality as you put it but a basic necessity.  look in the local paper, look on craigslist or the auto mart magazine for cars in your area.  you dont need anything fancy or flashy, $4,000 can buy you a basic  reliable car.   make sure what ever car you buy you get yourself a chilton manual.  you have to remeber to get car insurance (without it depending on your state they could revoke your drivers license, impound your car or even throw you in jail) and always keep $500 in savings min for emergency auto repairs. go to tiresplus, they can give you a printout of what matinence is to be done when as well as what thier costs are (also available online), insurance depending on your age and driving record as well as your car model and insurance level could be anywhere from $60 a month to $150 or more, check around all insurance companies are diff (paying by the year offers a large discount).

I'm US born and raised. Very good advice from agathamari. A note on the insurance. If you don't borrow money for a car, then you only are required to have liability insurance, you normally should not need collision (although there could be some weird exceptions to that). Liability protects the other person. Collision protects your car. If you don't have collision and you are in an accident (your fault or not usually) then your car is generally not covered. You have to decide how much coverage you want depending on how much the car is worth. The car I'm driving now I bought for $4000 USD and never had collision because I'm a very safe driver and the car's not worth a lot. But i have liability because it's required by law and it's just smart to have anyway. Any lender that loans you money for a car will require you to have collision insurance to protect their investment. Your insurance agent can help you with all of that. If you don't have collision, it's a good idea to have "comprehensive" to cover fire and glass breakage on your own vehicle at least.

Most US cities have terrible mass transit. I live in an area where it's pretty bad too. And in many places there's a stigma attached to using mass transit. If you don't have a car and you have to use the bus, you're looked down on. It's very sad. Unless you live somewhere like Boston, New York City, Atlanta, San Francisco or Chicago, forget it. You definitely need a car. I knew someone once that had to catch her first bus at 6 AM to get to her 8 AM job. She had to transfer several times and there was no way to know if any bus would be on time or not. She only had to travel 10 miles or so. She probably could have walked there faster!

A good resource for finding used cars is AutoTrader (dot com). I know quite a lot about cars so I like to buy one owner cars from private sellers. I shy away from dealers and cars that were owned by several other people. You should also not give any credit to that carfax thing out there. It's a joke. Many dealers brag that they can show you the carfax report. It's worthless. The car I have now has no carfax record of any of the work I've ever had done on it. Most small shops that do repairs never report anything to carfax. There's no reason or law that says they have to do that. Unless the car was in an accident and there was a police report, the work probably never shows up on carfax. Your best bet is to find a car from an honest seller that has kept good records.

Also be careful about the title. If you buy from a reputable dealer, you're usually safe but if you buy from a private seller be sure to check out the title. Make sure there are no liens on the vehicle (like outstanding loans). Your insurance agent can help you understand that more clearly but it is VERY important that the title be clean and clear. Get the VIN (vehicle identification number) and ask your insurance agent if it's clear and who the current owner is supposed to be). Make sure the person that's selling it is the person that's named on the title. If you don't check all that out you could end up buying a car that wasn't owned by the person that sold it to you!

HTH 

forgot carfax, looked up all my old cars as well as my parents. 3 totaled cars came back with "clean" titles as did one lemon. if you live in an area prone to deer get full coverage, even the best driver can be caught off guard when a 250 pound deer jumps infront of your car.