how i got a car

arbeit car makes free. 

Soon after i had applied for discounted season pass for bus that would take me to closest real ski place - sunshine village (http://www.skibanff.com) i understood that it was a mistake. Even with discount price it would cost me ~400$ and give access to just one resort in fixed times. But i wanted freedom - to go to other places too and on whenever times. Also i needed device that could transport me and all my valuable valuables around in canada later on anyways. So i decided to buy a car. I had just finished my first couple days at work and had few free days to spend. i went to calgary on Sunday morning with greyhound bus.

Remark: greyhound is pretty much only company offering canada wide public bus transport. And according to my experience (departure severly delayed on 2 out of 3 times) they are faaar from reliable. This Sunday morning bus left from banff to calgary ~1,5h later than scheduled. I even had time to try hitchhiking. with no success, although not because noone stopped just everybody was going towards mountains instead of calgary. Such experience just grew my wish to be owner of personal vehicle.

got to calgary, back to good old hostel and browsed kijiji for potential cars. best looking ones were just sold or seller just didnt respond. Only viable option was ford escort wagon ’97, advertised as ’running good’. 

kijiji is the most popular online marketplace in these woods

Jon drove me to see it in the evening and we got to know that car actually didnt run at all, coz transmission didnt work. After consulting with google later and going to see  the car on Monday in daylight we managed to fix transmission but discovered that windscreen had massive cracks, most of electronics didnt work and tires were slick.. even with final selling price 400$ that would have been too much trouble/expense  to get it inspected and roadworthy. so no escort for me.

Meanwhile i had found two other candidates. 1. dodge caravan ’99 that was pretty close so we drove there (13:30) and first impression was goood J everything was clean and seemed to work, so after quick test drive i said: ’ i will buy it’.

2. option was ford taurus wagon (in europe known as ford mondeo turnier)– in theory more economical option but i had just owned and sold such car hence i needed something different, something more north-american, something bigger, something like dodge caravan.

So I went to closest mall, got cash, gave it to seller (final price after was eventually 900$), he signed bill aka ’proof of ownership’.

bill or proof or just very necessary piece of paper and looks  ridiculosly unofficial

 I took this small piece of paper and went to insurance (15:00), where i presented this small piece of paper, my international driving license and my car insurance history from estonia. In return i got small pink piece of paper aka vehicle insurance card and obligation to provide car’s mechanical inspection form (in 30days time) and getting myself local/alberta driving license. 

the pink one, also very necessary

this pink paper for a year cost ~450$. without obligation to get alberta license and without estonian insurance history it would have cost minimum ~1800$ 

With these two small pieces of paper i went to car registry office in downtown (16:45) gave these papers and 85$ and got vehicle registration certificate and numberplate.

last piece of the puzzle - registration

Now i had everything i needed to be street legal with me new car

So it took me ~3h to buy car and get all red tape done. Few hours later we went, screwd on new numberplate and i drove my van back to hostel. it even had half tank of gas  J

Next morning i went to togo tires, let them put good used winter tires with studs in front (120$), went to walmart where they changed oil (35$) and bought some liquids, tools and whatnot for car and drove back to banff. I had a car.

here it is - biggest vehicle i ever had (engine is 3.0L V6)

Dodge caravan is as common in canada as canadians themselves. Its not too economical – my first statistics  (mixed: highway/city/mountains with temperatures down to -25C) shows fuel consumption around 12L/100km. - and it looks boring but it has lotsa room (could roll my bike into it with no hassle) and although my specimen has some big dents it seems otherwise to be in good health J

p.s. just before new year happened, i got copy of recent (~2 months old) mechanical inspection from previous owner and sent it to insurance who said they like it and now just need me to get alberta license for complete happiness...