Residency Chronicles: Buying A Car

In this, my first installment of Residency Chronicles, I want to share with you how I ended up buying a car. As many of you know, in March I found out that I matched into residency in the US, so starting July 1st, I’ll be a brand new PGY-1 on the East Coast!

In the US, life without a car is really difficult, so I knew that I would have to start thinking seriously about procuring a vehicle a few weeks ago. As I saw it, my options were:

1. Buy new
2. Buy used
3. Lease

For many, leasing is a great option but I knew I didn’t want to – I don’t like the idea of paying for something and ultimately not owning it. So it was either buy new or buy used. In recent years, car prices have skyrocketed because of decreased supply. As such, buying new was basically out of the question…but used cars were also more expensive than ever before.

Although used cars are expensive, they are still a lot more affordable than new cars. My budget was tight, so back in Europe I started looking around for used cars. I want to make it very clear that I would never have dared to buy a used car if not for my dad. Luckily for me, he’s very knowledgeable about cars and I knew that with his help, we could find a trustworthy vehicle.

My goals going into this endeavor:

• spend as little as possible
• make it reliable
• make it small (i.e. easily parkable)
• include Apple CarPlay

The last wish was immediately scratched — as I soon found out, absolutely no old cars have CarPlay, so that was a luxury I’d have to give up on… for now (more on that later).

For this venture, I flew back to the US from Europe; I am here for only a week, so I knew we had to act fast.

For our search, we used Facebook Marketplace primarily*, looking for cars within 20/30 miles my parents’ home, and set up times to meet ASAP. Time was of the essence — the market was hot, cars were flying off the shelf. Sometimes a vehicle posted the previous day was already long gone by the time we messaged.

My financial filters were mainly cars in the $3000 range (as I mentioned, the cheaper, the better); my dad was looking at historically reliable manufacturers (Honda, Toyota, Hyundai). Most cars we looked at were at least 10 years old, with at least 150k+ miles.

*another option was Craigslist, and I did check there for cars, but we happened to connect easier with Marketplace sellers so that was just more convenient

The Hunt: Actually Buying a Car

Starting at 7am that day, we saw three cars ($3.2k, $3.5k, $3.2k), each in worse shape than the previous one, before deciding to head home and vowing to try again in the afternoon. As it happened, while we were headed home, another seller responded that his car was still available so we made a detour and headed to check it out.

Truthfully, we almost left as soon as we arrived – it was clear as we approached the address that the seller was a car dealer; the lot was full of cars in various states of disrepair, and my dad wanted nothing to do with a company. But I figured that, since we were there, we might as well take a look.

The car was a little more than the previous ones, but it had become clear that the 3k price range was too low, so I was keeping an open mind.

My dad looked at the engine, the motor oil, the interior, the exhaust pipe, the tires, the dash, and everything in between — and the car seemed okay. The interior was in great shape, so I was pleased. To my untrained eye, the car seemed fine, except for one major defect: the clear coat was oxidized and failing. After a bit of Googling, I learned that this was a Honda Civic model issue, and that many cars experienced this aesthetic failure, but for me, looks were the least of my problems. I wanted a car, as soon as possible, and I wanted it to be trustworthy.

We took the car for a test drive and the moment I saw the sunroof, I was sold (hey, I know nothing about cars so can you blame me if I’m swayed by little luxuries?). But in my defense, my dad said that it drove just fine. We tried to talk to the seller — the car was more expensive than the previous three at $4,200, but the seller was not open to negotiation: he had already received a ton of calls about the car. It was time to make a choice. We took a few minutes to check the full history of the car using CarFax and when we saw that the car had had one owner who took great car of it for almost 13 years (including having it regularly serviced by Honda), we decided to go for it.

He couldn’t sell me the car without proof of car insurance – which I obviously didn’t have, since I didn’t have car – so we gave him a tiny deposit and drove to the nearest McDonalds where, with the help of a mocha frappe and free wifi, I got car insurance quotes from two major companies and went with the cheaper of the two. We then popped into the bank for some cash, and hurried back with the goodies to finalize the transaction. Much to my relief, the car was still in the lot and the rest went off without a hitch.

And that’s the story of how I bought my first ever car. Who’s an adult now?!

My car (“specs”): 

• 2009 Honda Civic EX
• 2 door coupe 
• 166k miles 
• unexpected (but welcome) luxuries: heated seats, sun roof, sports-car feeling
• issues: peeling clear coat
• cost: $4,200
• note: outdated radio can apparently be DIY’ed and upgraded with Apple CarPlay — how cool is that?!

If you’re thinking about buying a car yourself, here are some thoughts.

1. If you yourself aren’t good with cars then definitely find someone who is! *PS If you were knowledgeable about cars at all, you would not be reading this blog post written by car-naive little me.
2. Check Facebook Marketplace/Craiglist regularly – new cars are posted each day. You have to move fast.
3. Consider purchasing CarFax for a small fee in order to check out the car via its VIN number (dealers generally have a subscription so you can access it for free)
4. Check out Kelley Blue Book, which will help you see what real car prices are right now.

For those who are purchasing a car and don’t know what kind of fees to expect, here is an overview of what it’s costing me.

Fees associated with buying a car (in NJ): 

• cost of car (paid in cash)
• temporary registration (valid for 2 months): $100 — optional [we decided to go for it because I wasn’t sure when I could register my car officially]
• title: $60 
• registration (depends on size/model, includes license plate): $46.50 (for me)
• sales tax: 6.625% (in my state)

Recurring costs of having a car (besides gas):

• car insurance: $78/month (I went with Geico and agreed to pay for 6 months upfront so it came out to $78/month)
• EZ Pass: $25 for the tag, and then any money I spend on tolls going forward (I used to share an account with my parents, so now seeing the results of my driving habits is gonna be painful)

So that’s it. My foray into the world of buying a used car. This is definitely not for everyone, and I think that if I didn’t have my dad to guide me, I would have likely gone with either a lease or the cheapest new car I could find. As it stands, I’m excited to be a first-time car owner and I sure learned a lot on this journey!

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That’s the first chapter of Residency Chronicles; in upcoming ones, I’ll talk about onboarding paperwork, budget planning, and finding a place to live.

If you’re applying for residency now, check out my blog post on navigating the Match here.