Buying a Car

Buying a car is just as straightforward as in Finland: you see something you like, pay the agreed on sum of money - usually in cash if its a private person you're buying from, sign the Certificate of Title papers (in particular, the owner releases ownership), and you drive home with your car!

So that is precisely what I did. I went to see a car on monday afternoon, and having thought about it over night, decided to buy it.

There are several good official websites that explain the process, and what you should consider:
http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs%2Fbrochures/fast_facts/ffvr26.htm
http://www.dmv.ca.gov/vr/topbuysell.htm

What makes things interesting for an expat, however, is that you don't have much of a support system around you. Things like getting to the place where you are supposed to buy the car are complicated issues. I'm thankful things went as smoothly as they did. I had a rental car with the return time being tuesday at 3PM at SFO.

I returned the car to SFO at 3PM, took the monorail to the airport terminals and finally BART station. From there it was a direct (but long) BART ride to Pleasant Hill, where the car's owner met me near the station. We signed the papers in a Starbucks and I drove off... worrying all the way the car would break down. It didn't :-)

On Wednesday I started considering registering the car in my name - this needs to be done within 10 days of the purchase. Again I was a bit concerned because the DMV office didn't have any free scheduled times available this month. So I decided to go to the Sunnyvale DMV office early in the morning on thursday. At 8 o'clock I arrived to find a 150 foot line outside the building!!!

I waited in line for almost an hour, before getting to the "no appointment" desk to receive my waiting number. After that, another half an hour and I was at the desk. My waiting was helped by having good company; another expat from Canada.

At the end, it was all rather simple. The weird thing was that I didn't need any type of ID - they never asked for my driver's licence, OR passport!!! They did want my social security number, though.

After all the formalities were done, I took the car for a wash. I really liked the service at "Harv's Carwash", and they got my car in pretty good shape. I'll still want to run through it with some drywashing solution.