How immigrants chose a car in Canada in 2014

This is a transcript of the 2014 video. If you need more up-to-date information on buying a car in Canada, we recommend:

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A married couple. Dialogue in the car during a trip. The husband begins:

— Why is gas so cheap here? I'll have to fill up the tank on the way back.

— Even if we have gasoline.

— Realistically, we have $1.32 CAD, and here we have $1.29 CAD.

— So, Vladimir, the second point is the car.

— I'll probably talk here. But you can tell me yourself, you know everything (smiling, looking at the interviewee, — author's note).

— Why do I keep telling you?

— Anyway, we had a 2002 Chrysler Sebring, a good car if it didn't consume so much gasoline, especially in winter. The tank capacity of about 55 liters was enough for 300-350 km. And rusted began, moreover, so that already appeared a hole, and it meant that I had to pass safety (safety check) with a hole already patched, that is to spend extra money. So it was decided to sell the car. Since we were in the midst of a house twist and turn, we decided to do something to make ourselves happy...

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— As my boss remarked — sorry to interrupt — when I told him: "We're buying a house" — "Cool, good for you!" — "We're not buying a house." — "I'm sorry." — "We sold the car." — "Cool!" — "We're buying a new one!" — "Hmm...I guess you just want to spend the money."

— Yes, about that, but we explained it to ourselves that we had to get rid of the old car, because in the next six months we needed to invest at least another thousand in it. Why do we need this frustration? Hopefully, in this one will not have (in which they ride — author's note), at least it is the newest. So, I made an announcement...

— The first one didn't work out.

— Yes, because at the same moment when I wanted to put my car for sale, some clever guy put up a car of the same year, a slightly different color, and seemingly even without rust. But no one looked underneath, and what's inside is also unclear, because everything was beautiful inside my car. And the owner wanted $2,800 CAD for his car, which was much cheaper than what I was selling.

— We were selling for $3,800 to $4,000 CAD.

— I had to wait a week for his ad to go somewhere else. Then I put my car up, and out of the blue the next day I got a call from Winkler saying they were interested in the car and wanted us to come up and show it.

— Canadians.

— Yes, Canadians. The next day I went — there was a family there, probably with five cars already, and a growing daughter who was about 190 cm tall.

— Such an American-Canadian schoolgirl.

— She, as I understand it, came of age and wanted a car, but she had to buy it with her own money, so a very expensive option did not suit her. In general, the girl drove around in my car, she was satisfied. We saw the rust, I explained how much it would cost to get rid of it, and the family agreed to buy the car.

So we sold the car. How the contract of sale is concluded here: just take two copies of this document, the parties sign them — and that's it. This simple procedure is necessary to register the insurance with NPI (National Provider Identifier). And then there is an official document where you write the make and mileage of the car, and the person who sells and buys the car. With these two documents you go to the NPI and do the insurance.

But it turned out one mishap, when we were filling out the documents the next day, I showed the old completed sample — and the girl saw who was the owner of the car before me, and she knows this person. It was a surprise, suddenly the old owner would have said something to the girl and then we wouldn't have sold the car. But this girl called the owner back and he said that the car was fine, there were no problems with it...

— I lied.

— I must have lied.

— Judging by how much we spent on it.

— Yes, we spent on it ourselves plus we also under-spent — we had to change another lever in the suspension, but not immediately, but after six months, let's say. It was starting to wear well.

Anyway, we sold the car and started looking for a new one. I had been looking for a car for a long time, I wanted something as large as a Sebring, so that all our things could fit in it. I was in the car for a long time, and I wanted something as big as a Sebring to hold all of our stuff.

— Our trunk is absolutely full, and there's also a refrigerator, shoes, and other things.

— We wouldn't have been able to fit everything in a smaller car.

— This is us going to camp, you know?

— We are like a gypsy camp, horror. So, I started looking at cars and immediately decided to buy from a dealer, because I didn't want to go through too much trouble with the loan and the bank; and yet the dealer has his own warranty (warranty) that covers this car. I don't know how it will work. At least on paper it does, they say it works.

I was choosing between the Mazda 6, Honda Accord, Nissan Altima, Toyota Camry. And we left the Honda Civic and Mazda 3 for last, in case we couldn't find something big for the money we wanted. Honda's are the most expensive here, for the price of a 2011 Nissan Altima like we had, you could buy a 2008 Honda with twice the mileage and a V6 engine — that option is nicer, I guess. Although I'm happy now after my Sebring, we drive on the highway — the consumption is 7.2 liters per 100 km, that's one and a half times less than it was in the Sebring, if not two!

I looked at one beautiful Mazda 6 with luxury cream leather interior, 2009, updated generation, 50-60 thousand on the odometer, $13,000 CAD — basically, our money. We gave a deposit for it, but there was no mechanic that day, so the car could not be lifted so I could look under it, which was my condition (if I like it, I take the car, and if not, the deposit is returned). A few days later I got under the car and was very upset, because it was all rusty: suspension, levers, shock absorbers.

— The car came from Quebec.

— Not only was there rust, but the metal had already begun to crumble. The most remarkable thing was a hole several centimeters in diameter on the bottom. I called the salesman over and asked what it was, but he said he didn't know.

— He was so confidently "selling" it to us, for he obviously didn't see what the car had underneath.

— Yeah, and there was something scary underneath. After a few tens of thousands, the suspension would have to be replaced, because everything was just falling apart down there. We got our money back, we said goodbye to that Mazda, and the next week I went to look at the Camry and gave a deposit, too...

— The same day, Monday, I'm telling you for sure.

— Camry I looked myself, you were not there.

— Camry we looked at.

— Did you and I look at the Mazda 6?

— Yes, on Saturday, and on Monday we went to look under the Camry.

— Ah, yes! I looked at the Camry — externally the car is nice, not bad driving, good engine, but a very "greasy" interior, as if for old people: everything is gray, no coziness — to my taste. Probably, someone likes it, because it is very popular. But I gave a deposit just in case, then we came home, thought about it and decided not to buy. I called back to the dealer and told him that I didn't like the car. And I saw a Mazda CX-7 — and we just have friends who drive it. Like a beautiful car, pretty lively; but then I started reading the forum — it has a consumption on the highway 12 liters per 100 km, in the city — about 20 liters, and turbo engine, so once you get to a premium gasoline. I thought about it and decided that it's too expensive for us, we don't earn that much yet.

— And plus it has a plastic interior.

— Yes, the plastic is everywhere, but I would like this plastic to be soft. The car is good, but it mainly attracts with its exterior and accelerates well, like a sports car, only big. As a result we decided not to buy this car too. And a week later we went to Winnipeg again.

— This is so you don't think we only rode in three cars.

— We still drove a Hyundai Elantra, but I didn't like it at first, either the engine was killed, or it was like that — you press the pedal and the car wouldn't go. Then I took a 2006 Nissan Altima, I even drove it up on an elevator, they told me everything about it. After that, I took the 2007 Nissan Altima 3.5L V6 — the engine is of course very powerful; it's a great car! Then we went for the 2012 Nissan Altima, but it was a luxury model at $21,000 CAD. Very similar to ours, only with leather interior, and that variant was more expensive.

— It took two weeks to do the whole thing.

— Yes, I made three trips to Winnipeg. Then I found this car (in which they drive, — author's note) at night on the Internet, and the next day we drove to Winnipeg. Here's 7 liters (looks at the odometer with pleasure — author's note) — nice, we go with air conditioning, the car is fully loaded.

— You have no idea how much.

— I sat on top of the trunk to close it. Anyway, I found two Nissan cars and one Honda Accord in the showroom. One 2011 Nissan was ours, and the other 2012 one was more expensive. That one was $15,000 CAD and ours was $12,600 CAD.

In principle, I had no hope of finding a car for less than $15,000 CAD. We started with $10,000 CAD, but then we realized that we would not find anything, and we raised the bar to $12,000 CAD — we also realized that we would not find anything suitable. We went up to $15,000 CAD — and there was a segment that would allow us to buy either an old Accord, or a newer Nissan, or 2009-2010 Mazda 6.

When we bought our car, I didn't even realize it had a variator, I don't know how that came about. It's one big gear — and you go from zero to top speed in one gear.

— Let me show you what we have inside (pointing the camera at the dashboard, — author's note). There's also a can of water in the legs, which didn't fit in the back. How fast are we going now?

— There are road works going on here, so we are going 90 km/h. Overall figures: 7 l consumption per 100 km, and an average speed of 95 km/h.

— We're driving fine. There is a button instead of the ignition key. There is no USB, but there is AUX IN (input for an audio source, — author's note) — you can listen to something. And in the cupholder there is our large can, which never fit anywhere, but there are variations. And there is also a thing for manual gearshift.

— It's a variator that does fixed gears, which means it lets you enjoy all-around gears if you want to.

— If you suddenly have this strange urge.

— But I don't see why it's necessary yet.

— Funny story: Vladimir's glasses were lying in a box under the roof of the car, and they were rattling. And it must have been two days of Vladimir's tense driving...

— And I was looking for what was rattling in the car.

— But then we found the reason and settled down. Under the center console there is another roomy compartment for change.

— The car is big, I think variators are good for such cars. But there are positives and negatives here, which I had already read about after I bought the car, which is also a shame.

The most positive side is the fuel consumption, the big car eats like a small car. The negative side is when the speed is low, the car drives at higher revolutions, because the box doesn't shift, and there is a feeling that you are driving a diesel. That is when you press the accelerator pedal and the speed is 40-50 km/h, and the engine revs at 4-5 thousand rpm — it is rather noisy. But you can get used to it without any problems.

Let me tell you about the financial side: because we are newcomers and we do not have a good credit history, we were given a car at 7.15%, which is pretty expensive.

— Almost the highest interest rate. But when we were buying a car and drawing up the documents with the financier, she tried to sell us a new car, saying, "They'll give you a better loan for a new car than for a used one. Get a new Volkswagen."

Another factor was the difference in mentality: Vladimir and I were looking at the final amount, that is, how much the car would cost us in the end. Its price is $12,600 CAD, and after all the insurance, interest rates, and taxes on the car, we get more than $17,000 CAD — that's for a 4-year loan. And the dealer looks at it from the outside and asks: "How much are you comfortable paying per month or biweekly? Because you're not approaching the question correctly." We explained that next year we will also have a house "hanging over us". And the financier said to us, "In Canada, the more credit you have, the more money you get and the lower the interest rate.

— We somehow didn't understand this system.

— Yeah, that's why they didn't take the new Volkswagen (laughing heartily together — author's note).

— Although, it was very much "sold" to us.

— But we could have taken it and paid $200-250 CAD biweekly, but for seven years!

— And so we pay $128 CAD biweekly, that is $256 CAD per month, and open credit for four years, that is, three months you have to pay these installments, and then you can pay the whole amount at once, and no penalty (fine).

Anyway, we've been riding around in the car for a week or more, and we've only paid $1,000 CAD for it. This is Canada.

— The dealer says he believes us.

— And tells us to bring money when we're in Winnipeg.

— Yeah, because we bought the car on a Saturday, and we live in Morden, we kind of have no right to be forced to come again if they underwrote something. And so they sent us our safety on this car by courier. They promised it on Monday, but it was delivered on Wednesday. And we didn't pay for the temporary insurance.

— You need it to be able to ride without license plates.

— Can I take it off? (from the windshield, author's note)

— Yes.

— We just bolted on the plates yesterday. And the insurance costs...

— $35-40 CAD for one week is like regular insurance.

— And they said, "Since it's not your fault we don't have your safety papers and therefore you can't go straight to register your car, it will be free. We didn't refuse.

What else did I want to say? The cost of insurance under the old license plates.

— Yes, you can put the old plates on. We pay once every three months, and it costs us about $100 CAD more than the Sebring. So this car is $30 CAD more expensive per month than the Sebring. And the total payment in three months is $400-450 CAD.

— But this is despite the fact that we do not have a certificate of accident-free driving.

— Yes, in that sense everything is "naked" at all, I have nothing.

— So let's go for a drive. What the car looks like outside, I'll show you when we get somewhere. The next inclusion will be from Meteor Lake.

— I hope there will be plenty of fish.

— Yeah, and mosquitoes — a lot of them are promised. So we took two cans of repellent and spirals with us to light them in the tent. By the way, we haven't shown you the new tent yet — it's an unploughed field.

Alrighty, see you soon!