"Your not from around here, are you?"

[Jaz]

Hi all,

In the process of selling my Subaru Outback to fund the eventual purchase of a Delica, and thought I should introduce myself instead of lurking and soaking up all the tech info and glorious pics anonymously.

Only hitch is that currently the Outback and myself are in Australia, and by the time I get around to buying a Delica I'll be living in Vancouver. That’s it, myself and my partner are making the move on April 15th with the aim of living and working - hopefully as a Marketer (me) and an Architect (her) we should be able to find work fairly easily (but if you know of anyone looking for someone, let me know ). I've lived in Van previously, and come to think of it, I may have even talked to some of you before in person, if anyone bought paint from the Home Depot a couple of years ago!

Essentially we're dead keen on a Deli as it offers several things - the capability to go where your average vehicle won't, the potential to camp inside (excellent pics & ideas btw Tardisdeli!) and save on hotel bills, as well as an opening into a unique culture where people are happy to share, talk and catch up, and we can also learn about the fantastic trips that you guys have done, and maybe even rock up to some of your meets.

While we're in Van we have a list of things to do, including exploring the Rockies (cheap weekend away!), travel Alaska and the Yukon, travel to the east coast (I taught MTB in Maine for three summers a couple of years ago), and maybe hit up Mexico... amongst many other plans of course! We also may bug you to come on activities that you might mention - did I hear someone mention caving?!

Looking forward to meeting some of you and living it up in the cold climes of the Northern Hemisphere... also learning tech off you too, as up till now, most of my knowledge is centred around turbo Subaru's!

I guess my first question is (first of many, and I haven't really found a definitive answer for this during my lurking) is how much would a 27 yo male be looking to pay in full comprehensive vehicle insurance on a Deli? Rough guess is all good, I'll end up paying whatever it is anyhoo!

See you on the wrong side of the road...

Jared


:edit: also forgot to thank Delicat, the first person I spoke to/emailed on here - thanks for your advice mate :)

[jaggedfish]

Hey Jared!

Now you are "out of the closet".... Deli lover! ... welcome! You will not have any shortage of places to explore as you likely well know by now.

On the insurance side of things, I believe age doesn't play into insurance unless you have less than 10 years of driving experience. We get discounts for number of years of safe driving and aside from basic insurance which must be thru ICBC here in BC you have some alternatives for the comprehensive coverage side of things and can save significant amounts of money (in a lot of cases) by insuring thru private companies. Can't remember for sure but I think I am around $1500 Canadian per year for full coverage with the full safe driver discount (42% I think).

On the employment side of things.... my wife and I are exact opposites to you guys... she is a marketing/communications expert currently doing (in part) a sustainable development role for a major cement producer and I am a senior architectural technologist working for a very successful company in Vancouver. Not sure how available marketing work is (it IS out there) but I do know architecture is CRAZY over here. If you need, I can help with that side at least.

Cheers for now!
Ian

[Jaz]

Hey Ian,

Cheers for the welcome - I had to sit back and bite my tongue, as I *almost* rang up to put a deposit on a Deli yesterday (this one) but I figured it would be long gone and I shouldn't purchase one, just in case things don't work out and I only have to get rid of it again :( Will have to buy a cheap ass car for the first few months, then look into the Deli-catessen scene a bit further after that teething period.

Thats interesting on insurance - over here its about AU$1000 for full insurance on my Outhouse, which is about CA$900. I guess it probably depends on the value of the vehicle as well?

Thats quite funny that you guys are the polar opposites to us! We'd love some help, or a kick in the right direction in either sense, but we really don't want to put any one out. I believe that Nat will get work fairly quickly, whereas I think I'm going to have to spend a bit more time on workopolis... I figure with the Olympics coming up in a couple of years, Vancouver isn't going to slow down anytime soon!

[loki]

I got my van from the guys at Japan Road Trip (the site you linked) and couldn't be happier, I got a killer deal from them and they where very easy going and 100% truthful about everything.

[Jaz]

Cheers Loki, definitely going to have to put some serious research into it. Also *potentially* considering waiting till the L400 comes available, but I'm not sure which we prefer plus that could take ages, and they may not have the support. Going to have to test drive each before we leave, to get some idea as to which way we swing

Still, with the fantastic resource available through this site, we have the ability to learn from others, their wins and mistakes, as well as have a bit of fun along the way. I know for one to take any Deli I pick up to CVI straight away for their "special" tune!

[Caca]

Hey Jaz,

Welcome to Delica.ca~ As you might have noticed as well, there are a lot of threads about the pros and cons for the L300 and L400. Overall, from what I've seen, people tend to sway to the L300 side since the L400 is prone to a lot of electrical and mechanical problems when compared to the L300.

As for insurance, I'm 29 and I'm running at lvl 13 (42 or 43%?) and I had to pay $1400 CAD for my insurance on my Deli. I'm not certain about foreign driving license/insurance regulations, but I know a lot of people from HK and China have been coming over with 10+ yrs driving licenses and can still get the full discount of the # or years they've had the license (although unfortunately, a lot of them don't even know how to drive since they probably didn't need to drive over there...) So I'm guessing at 27, you should have lvl 11 on your insurance which would amount to around 42% discount as well... given the amount you choose for comprehension deductible, loss of use, amount of the vehicle, etc etc... your average amount should be around the same as me. So a rough guess would put you at around $1400-$1600 or so for a full year.

Cheers

[Jaz]

Thats awesome information Caca (snigger ), thanks for that! Does that include the government minimum requirement from ICBC, or is that what you are paying for the "above and beyond" insurance?

Still in two minds as to which we prefer, so hence I was thinking about taking the time to test both while we're in the land of the free... well, for importing Delica's anyhoo

I guess I should put some research into which is easiest to work on... the previous thing I played with ended up like this:

[TardisDeli]

Hi Jaz, you know we can't get L400's in Canada ? Only L300 as can't import anything younger than 15 years old. So don't test drive the L400 in Aus, and then be heartbroken here with only L300 to choose from.

Have you got your arrival accommodation sorted ? We have a spare bedroom (if I clear out the camping gear) located in Burnaby.

Cheers, Christine and Jay of the TardisDeli.

[Jaz]

TardisDeli, your offer is way too kind! Funnily enough, we're staying with a mate of mine from the last time I was living in Van, and he's in Burnaby as well! Somewhere near the Skytrain I'm told...

Yep, well aware of the 15 year rule - we have something similar here, but can get past it with a personal import law, so we have them on the ground already. I guess I was thinking more long term, ie next year, when I was pondering an L400, but I don't think I can wait that long!

Still, it would be nice to get a feel for both vehicles - difficulty to work on, space in the back etc... I'm thinking that it might be actually easier to work on the L300 as you can just access the donk under the seats, whereas in the L400 its under that dicky little bonnet and much closer to the firewall... Thats a laymans point of view though, and made on very little experience!

[Ozibatla]

Gday Jaz. With the insurance thing make sure that you bring all the info you can about your driving history with you. ie proof of years driving(your liscence alone will not have the date you were first issued a liscence), driving record - if its good, dont be telling icbc youve had heaps of fines, and also accident history. Best bet would be to get your insurance company to write you a letter/s.......you know saying that you're a top bloke and that.

If you dont have this stuff you wont get the discount. The way insurance works over here is rather strange, but not as strange as the amount you have to pay, even with the 43% discount. Any other Q's, just ask.

Marcus.

[Jaz]

Hey Marcus,

Sounds like you've made the move relatively recently? Congrats :)

Excellent information on the proof of driving history... I knew I'd been carrying my old provisional license around for years for a reason other than to freak people out that I had hair down past my armpits

Good tip on the insurance companies as well, will see if I can sweet talk them into writing me something, or at least providing a print out.

Thanks mate!

[Ozibatla]

Yeah Ive been here 3 years 3 months, I know the days too. can ya tell I miss home?

Oh yeah another thing is, once you're here you have 3 months driving on you're Oz liscence before you have to get a BC liscence. So look forward to a driving test!!!, which was a little weird at 32! Or you can try and just keep driving, hoping to not get caught like I did. Lasted 2 years before I finally got caught and got my truck impounded, and no gettin it out without a proper liscence. Fun times.....mind you the wife was not happy.

Marcus.

[Jaz]

Fook!

The amount you seem to get pulled over in North America, it seems likely that they'll catch up with you eventually... hmmm... was the test a pain in the butt? Similar to what we get down here, or a fairly straightforward one?

[Grungle]

Jaz, I recently came over to Canada from Australia (living in the Rockies now) and we bought a delica for our trip around North America. We're planning on being here until Dec then selling it before we go home.

With no recorded driving experience (although i can still get the rebate if i send in all the paperwork) and an $11,000 Delica with "better than normal" insurance coverage i ended up paying $2300 for the year. I'm 26.

Me and the missus will be in Vancouver around July visiting some family...should find some time to meet up. My mechanical background is in turbo mitsubishis, but I have my heart set on a GT liberty when i get back to Oz! Thats a nice looking RS by the way...

[Jaz]

Cheers Grungle!

A GT would be awesome - a slight small (larger) turbo change & ecutek reflash, and you'll be laughing all the way to 100kph! Particularly the 2.5T's

Thanks for the info on insurance as well... thats a helluva lot steeper than here in ocker land, but I guess if I bring the paper work then should be okay. What sort of information did they advise you they wanted?

Sounds like you guys are doing a bit of a trip! Meeting up would be excellent, as I'm sure we'll be ready to hear another Australian accent by then - Granville Island beer anyone?