If you read this blog (which isn’t likely unless your name is Chrissy or Buck), then you might remember that in my post below about coming home from Maui, I mentioned something about the Jeep that Sarah and Michelle are pictured with. I think I wrote: “Man I want that Jeep.”

Well, I bought it.

Not only did I buy it, but I bought it on ebay.

Crazy - probably. But not because it was ebay. Crazy because you don’t even understand all the crap that one has to go through to buy a car…when you are an American, with a permanent address in California, but living temporarily in Canada, and the car is in Virginia.

Before I get into that, take a look at the Jeep. It pretty much is great, right?

So…where to begin?

First, you have to make sure you can register the thing in Canada, and make sure that you don’t have to pay duty. A quick call to Cutoms tells me that because I am on a student visa, and am promising to removie my possessions after I leave, I should be fine. No duty, no GST (Governmental Sales Tax). Check.

Second, you have to make sure you can get it registered. A quick trip to the Ministry of Transportation outlines the steps. I get an Ontario license (a whole other saga altogether), and Ontario Insurance (yet, another saga in itself), and I get financed (my current saga).

Everything now seems to be in order. So, I make the winning bid. Yippie, I am on the hook!

So Sarah and I were going to go to Virginia tomorrow to get the Jeep…but the bank financing me has thrown up a couple obstacles that they didn’t disclose at the beginning of this process, so I will go down next week.

We were thinking of getting a vehicle anyway. And I am pretty impulsive. So, there you go.

I did decide though that I am going to write a book that brings together all the information one needs for being an American studying across borders. It is completely ridiculous that nothing exists on the subject, and costs people like me a lot of time and effort. If I had known a few years ago (California to Saskatchewan (Canada) to Massachusetts to Scotland (UK) to Ontario (Canada)…all for school), it would have been a smoother ride. So, maybe I can make money off someone else by putting all that info I have learned into one place?

Casey

Posted by casey on Friday, June 23rd, 2006 at 5:03 pm.