Having a car in BC

We’ve put a lot of thought into having a car in Vancouver, and this is how it works out:

The facts

  • Petrol (gasoline) in BC is still relatively cheap (compared to Germany) at $1.12CAD / l (including tax)
  • Car insurance is very expensive – if you have an unblemished record for the last 5 years, and you take a bit more cover than just the basic you will not get away under $2000CAD/year.
  • Canada has taxes on everything! Actually, the taxes are less than in Europe, but most prices are displayed without tax added, so when you get to the checkout the bill is always more than what you saw on the price tag.  Same goes for purchasing a car – if you purchase from dealer, you’ll have to add 12% to the value you agree to, and if you buy from a private person you still need to add 5% (this will be charged when you register the vehicle to yourself as the new owner).

The Options

  • A used car – buy it now, sell it in a year.
    • How it works: buy a second hand car (we were aiming for about $3300, which would have got us something like a 12 year old Toyota Corolla with 110000km on the clock.  Aim to sell it again after a year for $1500, and expect about $50/1000km in maintenance costs.  I’m not sure how realistic these assumptions are, but I think it’s close enough.
    • Advantages
      • You have your own car which you can use the car any time, any day – total flexibility.
    • Disadvantages
      • High commitment - if you want to quickly reduce your monthly expenses, it’s difficult to cancel insurance, and sell car without significant loss in a hurry.
      • Unknown maintenance costs – if you’re lucky it’ll run like a dream, if you’re unlucky your used car will cost you more to maintain than it did to buy…
      • High investment – if you’re lucky the depreciation on a used car won’t be too bad and you can sell it off afterwards for not too much, but in any case, you’ll have to put up about $3300CAD up front.
      • Old car – unless you’re going to shell out more cash, you’ll probably have to make do with a 12-18 year old car for about $3300.
  • Car sharing
    • How it works
      • The CAN is a car sharing coop based in Vancouver.  You can become a member for $20, and putting down $500 deposit.  Their rates are very fair, they have cars spread all around the city – obviously more in places where more members are, and less if you’re out in the boonies.
    • Advantages
      • Pay per usage – if you use it more, you pay more.  If you don’t need it any more, it doesn’t cost you anything.  You pay at $2.50 per hour plus $0.18 per km, plus a monthly fee ($40 if you’re driving more than 250km/month).
      • Lower initial investment, guaranteed return (you pay $500CAD upfront deposit, which you get back in full)
      • No maintenance issues (if the car is broken, someone else is responsible for getting it fixed)
      • You have many types of vehicle available – if you need a truck to go to Ikea, take a truck.  If you need a small car for shopping take a car.  Best of all – unless you take it for days at a time, using a truck doesn’t cost any more than using a car!
      • New vehicle – most of the cars are less than 3 years old and well maintained.
    • Dissadvantages
      • Less accessible – you have to book the car before you use it, and it may not be available at short notice, or exactly when you want it.
      • Not outside your door – depending on where you live, the nearest car may be on your block, or a few hundred meters away adding a walk (maybe through the rain) before and after every trip
      • Not your car – you can’t have your own car radio, or any other special setup in your car.

    • I did the math (see my Car costs calculations (OpenOffice Spreadsheet)), and we decided that between the risk and bother of buying a car, and the flexibility of the CAN setup, we’d go for a CAN car.