Moving to Seattle for AMZN. Do I need a car?
I'm moving from Columbus, OH where you need a car to get anywhere. I'll be living in Verve Apartments in Belltown and a 11 min walk from work. Doing some quick napkin math, if I brought my car, it'll cost me $650 a month. Insurance is high in Seattle.. I love to commute by bus and light rail and walk. It doesn't really bug me. But I also wanna go camping nearby from time to time and visit neighboring cities (Portland, Vancouver). Could I do all this with zip car?
Parking is a B here and we have good public transportation systems, try to get around without a car first for some time and buy if you feel you still need it
Get a Subaru Outback like everyone else in town. Note: you will need to wait 1+ years for parking in any AMZN building.
No car needed
650 a month? What's the break up?
$225 for parking at complex $225 for insurance!!! (I'm paying $50 a month now lmao but i won't be covered in Washington) $200 car payment, I can sell for what the remainder of loan is worth
Insurance is 250 a month?? I am paying 100 in TX. Btw why won't it be covered in WA?
one friend had a car and she hated it the other did not and loved not having a car
Depends. I wish I had brought my car when I moved there, despite the drawbacks. I would have preferred the freedom of having a car, even if I would only use it on weekends. Zip car and car2go are decent alternatives that I used, but still would have preferred my own so I wouldn't have to worry about time, etc
But at the cost of like $7,800 a year, would u prefer it that much? I know how you feel though, I love road trips so that part will bite
Have you done the math on how often you'd rent a car, etc and see what the real difference is? I figured fore it would have cost around $400/mo. to have a vehicle there. You can reduce the costs by getting on street parking, finding cheaper insurance, etc though
Car payments seems high and it seems like money matters. Why not get a used/cheaper car? Seattle with no car can work out or it can't, depends on your lifestyle and if you want to be that friend and bum rides off people. Parking in Seattle itself can be a pain and expensive but can be useful if you want to go out of town. Public transportation can be a hit or miss as well.
car payments aren't the issue here, insurance and parking fees. $225 a month to park and $225 is about what I'm quoted for insurance :( don't wanna bum rides, never really been that guy, usually on the other side. But I don't mind paying for a Lyft or something
I love walking and public transit. This is awesome. I'm excited. I'm from Columbus and we are like the biggest city without any sort of rail or anything lol
I use to live there. Ditch the car. Belltown sucks for having a car. Find friends with cars for weekend or just rent from the Avis on 4th Ave. Their office is just 2 blocks away and open on Sundays. I hate hourly cars like Zipcar and car2go etc because I hate being on such a strict schedule. Weekdays you'll never use a car I guarantee you. Monorail is close by and buses run every few mins. My car stayed parked 90% of the time. Everything was either walking distance or short Uber away
Don't bring a car. It's cheaper to just rent a car or zip car or car2go for those random trips to the cascades