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How to Buy a Car In British Columbia, Canada

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Squamish is a great little town but it is not really pedestrian friendly. The bus service is fine. Its cheap and reliable but waiting an hour for a bus is a nightmare, especially when you might wait an hour for the first but then wait another hour to the next bus. Also, many of the things just outside of town are not accessible via bus which is a pain. Alas, we needed a car!

Places To Find Cars

Finding cars for sale is not hard, there are loads for sale online, especially FaceBook Marketplace, which is commonplace here. Squamish has a few dealerships but they tend to be pricey. There are some secondhand car dealers which can be affordable but on the whole more expensive than private.

Kajiji Autos is not a bad place to look but we found there not to be as much choice and opted for Marketplace.

The Buying Process

Buying a car here is different to the UK. Over here the process is usually all done in one go.

I'll try and outline some steps here to give you a bit of an overview of the process. But this may differ slightly where you are. This will be for buyers in BC:

  1. Buy the car from the seller. This is when you would agree a price.
  2. Head down to an ICBC broker (Autoplan broker) with the seller, and the car. The seller will need to bring the car registration document with them. This is a good time to pay the seller for the car while the Autoplan broker do the paperwork.
  3. The ICBC staff will provide a Transfer/Tax form. This is completed and signed by both the buyer and the seller.
  4. You will pay the tax on the vehicle based on the book price (which may be less or more than what you paid for the car!). You pay this once. There is no 'road tax'.
  5. The ICBC staff will usually help complete documentation and will also register the car to you.
  6. They will talk you through your insurance options, its probably a good idea to take their advice.
  7. You will get a set of plates from the ICBC staff to put on your car. They should have tools you can borrow in order to swap the plates.
  8. Put the plates on the car and you're good to go.

The key steps here are:

  1. Transfer the vehicle into your name.
  2. Pay the tax on the car (12%).
  3. Purchase your car insurance.
  4. Obtain plates and put on the car.

Once you have done these steps, the car is yours and you're good to go.

I wanted to include some costs here to give you a rough idea of what you're looking at.

Item Description Cost
Car The price of the car $3,900.00
Tax 12% on $3,400.00 $408.00
Insurance Base, Third Party, Collision, Comprehensive $3,068.00*
Total The total cost spent acquiring this car for a year. $7,376.00
Note: This is for two people with a UK license. Swapping to a BC license with driving experience (10 years in our case) will reduce the premium to about $1500.00. You either get a refund for the difference, or pro-rata monthly payments.

Summary

Thats it really, there isn't much more to it than that. It can seem daunting at first but the process isn't too bad.

For those in BC, here is a useful link to find more info about safely buying used in BC.

That's all for now, as always if you spot any errors or want to ask a question, just get in touch.

Header Image:

A photograph I took of our new car, a 2008 Ford Escape XLT. We were out exploring and the mountain looked great behind our car!

Created by Niall Bell (niall@niallbell.com)

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