Car buying / renting / License

Details
Last Updated: Saturday, 04 October 2025 14:04
Published: Saturday, 10 June 2023 22:32
Hits: 987

Car buying / renting / License:

 

 

Driver's License:

Before we talk about buying/renting, let's get to know the process of getting a drivers License (DL). I'll be talking about steps to get DL in Texas. Rules may vary from state to state, but general process remains similar.

Teen Driver's License: 

In Texas, a teen b/w the age of 15 and until his 18th B'day, can apply for a teen Learners License. This is a License that your teen can get easily by passing an online test (a quiz). Then he can start learning how to drive with an adult in the front seat of car all the time. The great news is that you can add the teen to your auto insurance as being on "Learner's License or Learners Permit", with no impact to the rates. The teen can also decide to get a real DL later on, for which he has to give a real driving test. But then, your auto insurance rates will go up a lot, as teen's auto insurance rates are easily $200-$300 per month, when driving by himself/herself.

DPS Link on how to apply for learner's permit => https://www.dps.texas.gov/section/driver-license/texas-learners-license-teen

Steps:

  1. Order PTDE (Parent Taught Driver Education) pkt from TDLR. IT costs $20. It's 1st page has receipt number that you'll need when applying for license => https://www.tdlr.texas.gov/ParentTaught/PTSelect.aspx
  2. Now go and buy "Online Driver Education" program. Here's a list of TDLR approved courses. They don't list the rates upfront, so you need to click on each of them, to find the rates. 
    1. Link from TDLR => www.tdlr.texas.gov/driver/education/providers/search/
    2. One of the cheapest ones for $45 is here => https://www.easytexasdriversed.com/texas/course/parent-taught-drivers-ed-14-17
    3. Other one that I ordered is $50 here => https://ptde.smartwaydriving.com/
  3. These courses have Total 24 hours of online training material. You need to complete module 1 for the 1st 6 hours of online training. Then you are eligible to take the written exam, which is also administered online as part of that pkg (Make sure your pkg says that it has online test included. Most of them do).
  4. Once you have passed the online quiz in step 3, you need to take all supporting documents to DPS to get your teen's Learner's permit.

 

 

Auto Buying:

You can buy a car at any car dealership in USA. The biggest question is which car to buy and how to get the lowest price for it.

1. Which Car to buy:

Time and again, Japanese cars have proved to be very reliable in long run. I've Toyota and Honda, and both have run for 10 years without requiring any fix except changing Tires, batteries once in 1st 10 years and oil/filter change every year. Few popular cars are:

  • Mini Compact cars: These are the smallest cars. Chevy Spark falls in this category, and is usually the cheapest car.
  • Sub Compact cars: These are the smallest cars
  • right after Mini Compact. Hyundai Accent is a very reliable car here. Even though it's Korean car, it is at par with Japanese cars.
  • Compact Cars: Compact cars and above are called Sedans and they can still seat 5 very comfortably. Hond Civic and Toyota Corolla are the best cars in this category.
  • Mid size cars: These cars are bigger than Compact cars. Honda Accord and Toyota Camry are best options here. People with kids usually opt for mid size cars over Compact cars as they have more legroom, bigger trunk, and are more comfortable with 5 people in the car.
  • Minivans: If you have a family of 4 or more, there's nothing more convenient than a minivan. It can seat 7 or 8 people. Most popular minivans are Honda Odyssey (seats 7 or 8 depending on the model) and Toyota Sienna (seats 7)

 

2. What to pay:

This is a harder problem, as what is a good price to pay. We need to buy car at a price, where if we try to sell the car te next day, we shouldn't incur a loss. That would be the ideal price to pay, but may not always be possible yo buy a car at that price. I look at used car price for a given model, and year, on various websites, and then that becomes the baseline for the price of that car. Any new car that you buy for that model and year should be close to that price include all tax, licensing fees, etc.

My go to site is www.truecar.com. You can use this to check price of used car, and then compare of new car on different websites as www.edmunds.com, www.kbb.com and www.truecar.com.

 

 

Auto Renting:

You always have the option of renting a car. Many times it's a necessity, i.e when you are flying to a different city, you would need to rent a car.  Renting a car usually costs $20-$40 per day (as of 2025). Sometimes you can get cars for < $10 per day, as I've seen happen a lot at expedia, when renting from an airport location. However, it appears to be random, on when it shows up.