How to buy a used car in the US?

Upon our arrival to St. Louis, Missouri, I and Dave quickly decided to purchase a car. The area where we are living is delightful: huge trees and rejuvenating parks, little squirrels running in the grass, two-story century homes with the great American flag. All around seems like a scene from Desperate Housewives on steroid. Not kidding.

As a drawback, it is quite distant from everywhere, so to actually see something of St. Louis, or – basically – to do any kind of everyday activity, you would need a car.

We knew of course that having a car in the USA has a little different meaning than in Europe. A car here is your guarantee that you can get the most out of life, either your aim is to travel and visit great places or simply go for a big grocery purchase without asking a lift from a friend. We want both, hence we need a car.

You would assume that buying a car is a rather straightforward, almost dull process - go and check it than just simply purchase one. Well, maybe this is true if you are local, but doing this fuss as a newcomer gives the process a special edge.

Purchasing a car took us a month (and we set a rather hard pace to follow). Instead of being a mundane duty - as we initially expected - buying a vehicle turned out to be our most interesting introductory course to the American society, and owning one seems to be our baptizement to this greatly motorized continent.

1. Administration phase

The full process starts with getting a piece of paper in front of you (the bigger the better) and draw a flow chart of the zillion steps you would have to make to end up with a car.

One of the first obstacles to getting through is doing your driving license. Yes, sir, it doesn’t matter that you have driven thousands of miles with a (what you understand normal) manual transmission car in Europe, insurance companies will punish you for not having an American driving license. So you need to get one before you start the actual buying process.

And here is the funny part: you cannot have your driving license done without - guess what - a car.

So you borrow a car - the first of the many occasions you will need to do so - and go to the DMV office.

While waiting to perform at the driving exam, I watched the allegedly 15-16-year-olds performing theirs - the legal age in the States for obtaining a driving license. One of the candidates was such a small, fragile-looking girl trying to park with a huge SUV that I’ve kept wondering if she is tall enough to reach the break with her leg. The exam takes approximately ten minutes, with one simple parking task at the end. Let’s put it diplomatically - you don’t have to be a Michael Schumacher to pass.

2. The online research

So, once all this is done, you can actually start looking at cars. Hurray! 

There are a couple of things you realize while spending hours and hours sitting in front of your laptop, searching for ads.

FIRST FOR SOME STRANGE REASON THERE ARE CAPITAL LETTERS AND NO PUNCTUATION WHATSOEVER IN SOME ADS MAKING IT ENORMOUSLY DIFFICULT TO SENSE THE INFORMATION PROPERLY 

Additionally, in most cases, there is not much information provided, and hence you are calling almost all the promising candidates to provide you with more detailed description of the car. During these calls, you grasp that you quickly need to expand your related vocabulary - as you try to process information about ‘timing belts’, 'driving belt’ (what the hell is the difference?), 'pistons’, and 'cylinders’ - just to name a few. Sometimes the Hungarian translation didn’t help much either about the parts and their responsibility on keeping the car moving. All this in various local accents – some of which you struggle to understand over a phone - just to make things easier.

Sometimes you call private people, but mostly the answering voice on the other end turn out to be a dealer. Some of them have funny names - like one guy who insisted on being addressed as 'Captain Kirk’ (obviously having a Star Trek-overdose). Talking to them is sometimes like listening to a podcast - they didn’t stop speaking about possible warranties, and other great cars they have, and how they are the best to buy from, and how this is going to be the greatest purchase of your life, and yes the former owner was a single, non-smoking mother, who has only driven “her” (meaning the car), when she took the children to church on Sundays. Yep, just like every other former car owner - young males tend to get around with bicycles in that narrative…

Finally, you narrow down the huge supply to a list of few - the ones you actually would like to see. At that point, you absorb that without a car, you have no means to buy another one - there is no way you can keep up with the costs if you travel to each potential beauty with, let’s say, Uber. The city is expanded, with numerous and widespread outskirts, where most dealerships are located - you have to bridge great distances to see the cars. 

So you go and ask to borrow a car again - based on our experience, I would suggest you ask for at least a couple of days.

3. Checking the chosen cars

Unlike in Europe, most cars in the USA comes with automatic transmission. I remember when we first tried such a car and realized that we don’t know what to do with an automatic transmission. We were sitting in the car, ready to drive it and feverishly googling how exactly you have to use it - and I am sure that looking at us from the outside, the owners wondered what were we looking at so hard. (Ever run into this situation, just say you checked Carfax, makes bargaining easier.)

On the way, we’ve met families, dealers, and mechanics, a lot of people with different age and background. Almost everyone asked where are we from and what are we up to here in St. Louis. I remember someone particularly, a nice guy in outer St. Louis, who got really excited about our Hungarian citizenship. It turned out, the family of his mother arrived from Budapest in the 1870’s. We were standing next to the car to which we wanted to take a closer look, but didn’t talk much about it. (It wasn’t a good deal anyway.) Instead, we shared family stories with each other. It was an incredible moment.

Finally, we found what we were looking for. I felt fabulous when we borrowed a screwdriver to fix our official Missouri plates into place - let’s show off with our Show Me number plate. 

All in all, I feel we gained more than a good car - we gained the capacity and confidence of being fully part of the local community. We passed the initiation game, got hold of some great memories. We are ready for you, America.

The original post appeared on hmepblog.tumblr.com, on 11/10/2016, and I thank the opportunity for the HMEP to post my work there. As always, the credit for the photos goes to Dave. The purchased vehicle is a 2003 Mitsubishi Lancer  - just to answer all the question from you about the type. ;)

Blue-collar anxiety - Field Report from Iowa before Election Day

The day has come. Today the most troublesome, yet consequential election cycle in recent memory will be finally over. A small town in the southern-east corner of Iowa provides a snapshot why we ended up here.

No, this post will not be about whom I support and why. (For those who know me, or followed my years on political stage the answer is obvious, for the others the fact that I consider myself a progressive new-leftist with green and socially liberal values, will do the trick). 

Further disclosure: I am not new to campaigns – back home in Hungary as campaign manager, I was heavily involved in running numerous political campaigns, local and national ones as well. These experiences coupled with my decade-old interest in American politics made our stay in the States during the middle of an election year, incredibly exciting. Hence in the last couple of weeks, I took every chance to get involved in the various campaigns going on in St. Louis, Missouri. With Zsuzsi (my wife), we have participated in phone banking, door-to-door canvassing, and other campaign activities. Despite being the classic bellwether state for decades, since 2008 Missouri has profoundly lost its middle-of-the-road flavor, and become a firmly Republican state. At least on the presidential level; in other statewide races Democrats are still very competitive as Jason Kander and the best political ad of this cycle prove.

So for a presidential level action, we had to look outside of the Show Me state. Thus, in the middle of October, we have already visited Fort Madison, Iowa (the closest swing state) for the early voter registration effort. Now, with just one day to go before the big day, we are back in the Hawkeye State, this time for the get out the vote (GOTV) operation. Iowa is a state that can jumpstart or kill political careers with its over publicized, strange caucus-based, first in the nation primaries. Besides this characteristic, for most people, even for Americans, the only thing that pops into mind for the state is a picture of never ending corn or wheat fields (as you see, I have also made some compulsory ones for the sake of this post). But as always the reality stretches far beyond the clichés. Door to door canvassing provides a unique opportunity to look beyond the surface, the statistical numbers, the postcard images and meet real people, learn about their life and problems.

Fort Madison is one of the southernmost settlements in Iowa, laying on the banks of the Mississippi, with Illinois on the other side of the river. The town got his name from the fortification, which was the first US military outpost in the upper Mississippi. The fort itself was named after James Madison, a damn good secretary of state of Thomas Jefferson, and later president himself (kind of analogy to this year). Built on the river the town was poised to become part of the industrial center of an otherwise agriculture-heavy state. With a population of 11,000, the city has been a safe Democrat-leaning place dominated by white, blue-collar neighborhoods (the city and Lee County itself went for Obama with 57% in 2012, 5% over the overall state result). All the data show a less-educated (13% has a college degree compared to 31% national average), lower-income (41,000 $/year/household vs. 53,000 $/year/household national average), manufacture-employed, worker-lifestyle population, which until now has contributed to the victories of Obama and other blue candidates. This is precisely the kind of electorate that forms the target for the Trump campaign, which is more or less safe to carry the state today. However, behind the numbers there are always real people, with real stories– and these could only be discovered when you go and see them for yourself.

So we hit the streets to meet registered Democrats and make sure they go to the polls, the primary goal of the GOTV. The neighborhoods reflect the statistical data: the streets are dominated by cheaply built one storage houses, trailer parks, older cars, and dozens of abandoned, ruined homes. One of our first encounters is with a mom, who after opening the door tries everything to hide his bruises under her eyes, and says that she is not to speak to anyone until his “man” comes home. Few houses down the street we meet a 21-year looking girl with her three children living in a house that would be too small even for a couple – “his boy is not the same after the second tour to Iraq”. She reacts with fear: “Do I have to go and vote? Is it mandatory?” We make sure that it is a right and not an obligation, and move forward.

We hear people complaining about factories that were sold to foreigners (Chinese, and French investors). Earlier these companies used to be owned by locals, who were active members of the community and cared about maintaining jobs thus their own status – “every decision they took, they could see the consequences driving down the street 2 months later”. Now the owners are invisible, and even the managers are “imported” from somewhere else. The shoe factory closed years ago; other plants were moved to Mexico. Even the country club, the traditional symbol of the local business elite went down some years back – there were simply not enough members left. We pass dozens of abandoned shops with dirty “For Rent" signs in their storefront, probably hanging there for years. As we stop at a bar to drink coffee, we realize that although it's only 3:30 p.m., the place is already full. Some came after work and already finished two Bloody Marys, others seem to be there for the whole day. Nobody is drunk, or aggressive, yet the mood is gripped by melancholy. 

Just outside of town, we step into a different world: barns, big farm houses, bigger cars, visible affluence, lot of Trump yard signs. Eve, a dedicated Catholic owns the only Hillary yard sign in miles – she prepares to vote first thing in the morning, and firmly supports Hillary. When we ask about the others in the area, she just shrugs: “well-off farmers, all of them has more than 500 acres, they like the tough businessman Trump pretends to be”.  On the other hand, she is still perplexed about her three daughters who will vote for “that crazy man” most probably because their husbands are expecting them to do so.

As we make our way back to the local Democratic office, we spot a “protest-truck” parked just across the street. The big, hand-made sign is telling: “Trump for President, Clinton for Prison”. “24 hours left” -  sighs Ted, our campaign manager as he spots the truck from the office window. Time to call it a day.

Our host, Diane, was a staunch Bernie Sanders supporter during the primaries. “I have been waiting for somebody like him since 1968 when Robert Kennedy was shot, and the dream died” (being a huge RFK-fan she wins me over in second with that). She supports Hillary now, but only after being told to do so by Bernie before the convention. The strength of the movement makes her confident that her idol in concert with Elizabeth Warren will be able to push the new Clinton-administration to pursue a progressive agenda. Sitting in her kitchen, drinking her tea we chat late into the night about the tasks both the US and Europe have to turn the nationalist tide around and build up an more equal capitalism. Despite the hard realities seen on the field, the day ends with optimism.

Of course,  this is just a quick, local snapshot of the numerous, and complex trends that shape our present and future. Yet these signs are on the wall. Regardless of today's results, the task is evident for any progressive movement, which wants to turn the authoritarian tide that uplifted Trump and other political merchants of anxiety.  The current way of capitalism works at the price of stagnation for the middle classes of the developed societies. The first victim is the blue-collar middle-class, and its neighborhoods like the one we have walked through in Fort Madison. And while the elites patronizingly downplay this resentment, we have to remind ourselves that a prospering democracy is only viable by the work and support of a robust and broad middle class (remember the 1950-60’s). Pumpkin-latte sipping designers and tweed suited professors will not uphold the democracy alone; there are simply not enough of them. They will need others. No matter what the specific jobs of the blue-collars of the future will look like (e.g. industries like coal must go, and automatization will kick in in a lot of others), a progressive agenda that plays for the long run has to do everything to keep these groups on the middle-class status. Otherwise, the election of 2016 will go down in history as the start of the end to the democracies as we know.