Vanlife USA: Buying a vehicle in the United States

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Article updated on 07.16.22

When we started planning our trip, our idea was to buy a vehicle in Quebec, drive it to Panama and sell it there to someone who would like to make the same trip but in the opposite direction. Indeed, while spending time on travel forums, we noticed that a lot of travelers buy their vehicle in Central America and go up the coast to the US/Canada. After a lot of research on the internet, we realized that if we bought a Quebec or Canadian vehicle, it would be much more difficult to resell it than if we bought a vehicle in the USA. To transfer ownership of a Canadian vehicle to someone else, you have to go in person to a car service office in the country. There is also the possibility of doing a notary deed at a notary’s office in the country, but this process seemed quite complicated. So we did some more research and found a simpler solution by purchasing our vehicle in the United States.

With the increase in prices due to COVID and inflation in general, we found that the prices of vehicles were cheaper on the north side of the West Coast than on the East Coast of the USA. So we decided to start our trip in Seattle and do our vehicle search in that area beforehand.

Here are a few things we went through that might be useful to you when you want to buy a car in the USA.

What type of vehicle to choose ?

In our case, we had started with the idea of a converted van such as a Fiat Ducato or Mercedes Sprinter. But after seeing the prices of these (between 90’000 and 150’000.-), we quickly expanded our search.

So we made a list of our needs and desires:

  • An indoor kitchen (no need to cook outside when it rains)
  • A place to work on our computers
  • A bed that doesn’t need to be made and unmade every day
  • A fridge
  • A toilet
  • To be able to stand (in case of long periods of bad weather)
  • An outdoor shower (Bonus ++, an indoor shower)
  • A 4×4 vehicle to be able to drive on dirt roads and get to remote areas

With all these criteria listed, we were left with very few options. An Camper on a pickup truck (Truck Camper or Slide-In Camper) was the ideal combo. By choosing vehicles dating from 1998-99 to 2005-06, it was possible to get by with a budget ranging from 16,000 to 26,000 dollars.

We could also have gone with a Chevrolet Express or Ford Econoline type vehicle. Their prices are much more affordable than everything else (4,000 to 15,000.-) (see example on the right) . But these are often in poor condition, not being 4×4 and as we could not be standing in it, we stayed on the idea of the pick-up.

There are a large number of different cell formats (Slide-in Camper) in the United States. The Americans always seeing things big, some are bigger than the pick-up itself, and are equipped with “slide out”, elements that can leave the camper at a stop, allowing to enlarge the space of life.

We wanted to have something more or less compact and not too heavy. The “Lance Lite” and “Six Pack” models were therefore perfect for our needs and in the budget that we had set for ourselves.

Ford Econoline, by TuRbO_J is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Where to do your research ?

To find our vehicle, we mainly did our research on two sites.

Market place from Facebook is full of ads for vehicles sold by users.

The benefits of Facebook Market:

  • The geolocation: it allows you to structure your research and to choose a precise perimeter that interests you.
  • The choice A lot of people use Facebook, especially in the US. Facebook Market is therefore very much used for selling cars (and for selling other things in general too)
  • The ease of contacting the seller: To use Facebook Market, all you need is a Facebook account. There is no need to create yet another account on any site or to need a local phone number to contact advertisers.
  • The registrations: Facebook Market allows you to save the ads you like so you can compare them and contact people later.

The benefits of Facebook Market:

  • The geolocation: it allows you to structure your research and to choose a precise perimeter that interests you.
  • The choice A lot of people use Facebook, especially in the US. Facebook Market is therefore very much used for selling cars (and for selling other things in general too)
  • The ease of contacting the seller: To use Facebook Market, all you need is a Facebook account. There is no need to create yet another account on any site or to need a local phone number to contact advertisers.
  • The registrations: Facebook Market allows you to save the ads you like so you can compare them and contact people later.

The disadvantages of Facebook Market:

  • The speed of sale: The ads that are really worthwhile go fast. So you have to be quick, which can be a problem when you are several thousand miles away.
  • Buying as a “foreigner”: The sellers do not always trust you and will not necessarily agree to hold the vehicle for you until you arrive in the country and pick it up. It is therefore often advantageous to be on site in order to go and see it directly.

A bit like anibis.ch in Switzerland or leboncoin.fr in France, this website is very popular in the USA and Canada. There is a large choice of vehicles sold directly by users.

The advantages of craiglist.com:

  • The geolocation: It allows you to structure your research and to choose a precise perimeter that interests you.
  • The choice: A lot of people use Craiglist in the USA and Canada. So there is a very large choice of vehicles.

The disadvantages of craiglist.com:

  • Contact the seller: Depending on the ads, it is not always possible to contact the seller directly through the platform. Some of them ask to be contacted directly by phone.
  • Speed of sale: The ads that are really worthwhile go fast. So you have to be quick, which can be a problem when you are several thousand miles away.
  • Buying as a “foreigner”: The sellers do not always trust you and will not necessarily agree to hold the vehicle for you until you arrive in the country and pick it up. It is therefore often advantageous to be on the spot to be able to go and see it directly.

In our case, the challenge of choosing the Truck Camper option is to find someone who sells a Pick-up + Camper combo. Often, these are sold separately. Combos are rare, as they are less interesting for Americans who are only looking for the Slide-In Camper or the Pick-up. We were lucky to find a combo via Facebook Market.

What to look for when buying a Truck Camper ?

The Pick-up

The number of kilometers (Miles)

In the USA, kilometers are calculated in miles (1 mile = 1.61 km). You should not be impressed by the high mileage of vehicles sold in the USA, because they often travel more miles than we do. For example, a vehicle with 200,000 km is considered “young” there.

We focused our research on vehicles between 150,000 and 250,000 miles. Lower down, prices could increase relatively quickly. In the end, we were lucky, as our pickup had only 112,000 miles on the odometer.

The rust

In the north of the USA, there is a lot of snow in winter. In order to be able to continue driving without problems, they put a lot of salt on the roads, which makes the underside of the vehicles rust (like in Switzerland). So you have to be careful that the vehicle has been well maintained and that there is not too much rust damage on the chassis.

Have a check-up at a garage

Before buying the vehicle, it may be worthwhile to make an appointment with a garage to inspect the vehicle and see if there are any hidden problems. If there are indeed repairs to be done, you can negotiate the price of the vehicle with the seller.

When we bought the car, we asked the owner if we could go with him to a garage to have a check-up and see if everything was in order. It turned out that some work had to be done, so we were able to negotiate the price with the owner so that we would not have to pay extra.

The Camper (Slide-In Camper)

It is interesting to know how the previous owner used the camper. It often helps to know if he took care of it or not, if he knows the vehicle or if he sells it because something was wrong with it or he didn’t like it anymore.

The water damage

One of the major problems encountered with cells is water damage. Cells are often built with wood. The water that infiltrates causes the wood between the partitions to rot. It often doesn’t take much. It is not always visible, so you have to check every little corner. Repairing a rotten cell can be expensive, and it is not always possible to repair it.

Check the electrical and water system

When you inspect a vehicle, you don’t want to disturb it and you are often embarrassed to touch everything. However, it is essential to know if everything works and how it works. It is essential to check the electrical system (switches, plugs, solar panels, etc.) and the water system (faucet circuits, water pump, clean water tank, gray water and waste water gauges).

When we first turned on our water system, we were unpleasantly surprised to have leaks in several places and to have the water pump no longer working properly. The previous owners must have left water in the pipes over the winter, which must have damaged the whole system. So we were good at playing plumber and changing broken parts.

Ask for the user's manual

Just like in a motor home or in a van that has already been converted, the cells have different features that you may not know what they are for. To avoid having to search for hours how something works, it is always a good idea to ask the previous owner for the user manual. If he doesn’t have it, the internet is always there to help.

What is the procedure for purchasing a vehicle ?

When purchasing a vehicle in the United States, the transfer of the title is done at a DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) office. Both the seller and the buyer must go to one of these offices to have the old owner’s name replaced with the new owner’s name on the paper. This is not a complicated procedure, but it can sometimes take time depending on the office, as there can be a long line.

Please note that in some states (not all), the new owner must pay a tax on the purchase price of the vehicle. In Washington State, for example, a 10% tax on the purchase price of the vehicle must be paid when the new owner’s name is added to the vehicle’s title. Because of the lack of taxes and the ease of registration, we made the decision to do our plates in the state of Montana. We explain below how we were able to do these administrative procedures remotely.

Before transferring the name on the “Title”, the owner will surely want to receive the money. In order not to have any problems, we advise you to sign a sales contract with the owner. By clicking here, you will find an example of a document for the state of Washington. If you buy your vehicle in another state, you will surely find a document of the same type by searching on the internet.

Once this payment is made, you can proceed with the payment without worrying too much. There are different ways to make the payment. A bank transfer or PayPal are the easiest and safest ways. (Paying cash is not ideal depending on the price of your vehicle. It is not allowed to enter the US with more than $10,000 without declaring it, and ATM withdrawals are expensive and only allow between $500 and $1000 at a time).

How to get license plates for the vehicle ?

The process for getting plates for a vehicle in the United States varies by state. In Washington State, for example, you must have a state driver’s license to apply for plates. This is a rather restrictive requirement for someone who does not live there.

Not wanting to pay a tax of 10% of the purchase price of our vehicle nor to have to get a driver’s license in Washington State, we chose to do the administrative process with the company visitor.us. This small company is based in the state of Montana and offers to do the entire process for you remotely for $990.

The advantages of doing your plates with visitor.us :

  • There are no taxes to pay in the state of Montana. Depending on the price of the vehicle, these can easily exceed the amount paid to visitor.us depending on the state you are in.
  • There is no need to have a local driver’s license.
  • There is no need to spend hours in the DMV office.
  • Everything is done remotely with electronic signatures.

Here’s how the process went:

  1. Once the vehicle was purchased and the vehicle title was picked up, we received a Fedex stamp to send the paperwork to Matt from visitor.us. At this point, the title was not yet in our name. We just went to the DMV with the seller to have his name removed from the title.
    In the documents sent were: The Title of the pickup, the Title of the Camper, and the bills of sale for each.
  2. In order to register your vehicle in the state of Montana, you still need to have a “presence” there. In order to create this presence, Matt from vistor.us created an LLC (Limited Liability Company) in our name that we owned 100%. This LLC is the official owner of our vehicle and allows us to do the entire administrative process remotely. To do this, Matt sent us only two documents to sign online.
  3. Once these documents were signed, Matt went to the DMV to transfer the name of our LLC to the “Title” of our vehicle and get plates for it.
  4. 5 days after sending the documents, we received our plates at a Fedex office of our choice and were able to hit the road with our vehicle.
PROMO CODE : ONVAGABONDE
When we sell our vehicle in the future, we will not need to go to a DMV office to transfer the title. We will only need to transfer the ownership of our LLC to the new owner. This can be done with a few emails.

What insurance should to get for your vehicle ?

Before you hit the road, there is one more thing to take care of. In the USA, it is mandatory to have vehicle insurance in order to drive on the roads of the country.

You don’t need to have the plates of the vehicle to get a new insurance. The VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) found on the title of the vehicle is sufficient. The only requirement for insurance in the USA is to have an address in the country or to know someone who is willing to “lend” their address in the USA. But if you ask around, you will surely find someone who knows someone who will agree to let you use their address. This does not commit them to anything, except to receive a letter in your name from time to time.

Once you have found an address, you need to choose the insurance. There are some companies that accept foreign drivers’ licenses: Progressive, Geico and National General.

For our part, we made our insurance with Progressive. For the registration, it is possible to do everything online. Unfortunately for us, since our vehicle is more than 20 years old, we had to do everything by phone. A process that can sometimes take a long time.

One of the problems we also encountered during the registration process was when we gave our phone number. The insurance company did not accept our Swiss number and asked us for a local number. So we had to make an American PrePaid card. We had planned to do this anyway in order to have internet data on our phones.

At Progressive, the registration of a vehicle is for a minimum of 6 months and the registration of a Cellule (Slide-In Camper) is for 1 year. Fortunately, it is possible to cancel the contract at any time and the insurance will reimburse the difference.

Once you have registered with the insurance company, you are ready to hit the road. All you have to do is plan your itinerary.

Progressive Insurance Cancellation Update:
Yes, it is possible to cancel your insurance at any time, BUT the refund is very complicated… Progressive ONLY refunds by bank check. Once the insurance is cancelled, they send a check in your name, with the amount they owe you, to the address on your insurance. You then have to go to a bank in the USA in person to get the money back… Not easy to do when you cancel insurance because you are leaving the country.
After several hours on the phone with the insurance company, the only solution we found was to change the name on the check to that of a trusted person in the U.S. who would collect the money for us. To do this, we had to send a dated and signed letter requesting the name and address change.

PROMO CODE : ONVAGABONDE

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