Time for another entry in our Buying a Bus series. The time has come for a test drive! We found a nice looking bus at an auction house in Yakima.
My parents were actually able to stop in and look at this one a few weeks ago when they headed across the state to see my sisters. Thanks mom for the pictures in this post!
This bus looks really good!
It meets the requirements we had:
Diesel–not the 6.0L engine (those are supposed to be not so good!)
A working lift–a must have once we get Owen’s new transportable wheelchair that will weigh way more than I want to lift!
Seats for 12–plus the driver and a wheelchair tie-down. That means it seats 14!
New enough that it uses OBD2 (we have a reader!). This is a 1998 and meets that requirement.
In our budget–though this is at the top end of what we currently have saved, we have enough to pay cash and still pay for insurance and licensing/taxes.
It also meets some of our wants…
Low miles–just over 110 K–this should last a long time!
Built in boosters in two seats–what a blessing!
And…seatbelts for everyone!
A downside? It’s school bus yellow. And doesn’t have AC. But, those are minor issues in the grand scheme of things.
Today, I was able to get some logistics figured out. Because this will need a commercial plan for insurance, we aren’t just able to pick it up and be covered for 30 days. We need to call once we are sure we will buy it, and they will bind the coverage.
The quote for this vehicle wasn’t bad–$480 a year. It will actually be the cheapest vehicle we have insured!
I also went by a licensing office. We wanted to get a good idea on taxes that would be owed. That was a bit tricky, because this vehicle has been exempt for its lifetime and wasn’t in the system. Based on what we will pay for the vehicle, we would owe $325 in use tax. But, our state goes by market value. That was the part we couldn’t figure out, and the licensing agent wasn’t sure on it either.
There aren’t any Kelly Blue Book entries for used school busses. And we didn’t have the Gross Weight at the time.
So we are planning on paying the taxes on an amount double what we bought it for, and just hope it comes in cheaper!
Tomorrow, Bryan, my step-dad Steve (who runs the transportation department for a couple of local school districts and knows about busses!) and Ellie will be taking a trip down to Yakima to drive the bus and hopefully buy it.
We are praying that if anything is wrong with the bus that it would be abundantly clear. Otherwise, our plan is to purchase it, get insurance bonded on it, and drive it home.
I’ll let you know what happens!
