Looking to leave the states. How are the jobs out there? How about the cost of living? Is it wise to drive my seven during the winter there. If I visit can someone show me around? Help a fellow seven owner out.

 

New Jersey eh?...

Um... it sucks up here don't come...

lol, j/k.

I wouldn't recomend driving during the winter here. In Toronto they use a god awful amount of salt (however they have been using a new chemical that isn't supposed to eat at your car so much ... but I wouldn't believe them). Winter has also been rather mild last year and hopefully it will be again this year

Cost of living varies dramatically actually. I know this from living in Waterloo, Niagara Falls, and Toronto. Even within Toronto the cost of living varies greatly. For instance, rent downtown is $1k per month most places. It's probably not hard to find something for less but don't expect alot from those places. Don't expect alot from the $1k places either...

Right now I live at the north end of town and take the subway into downtown every day. Takes about 40 minutes, but it dosen't bother me (If you were driving it would take alot longer). Paying $440 per month in rent and the house is amazing. The hot water can run a little low in the mornings because we have 6 people using it (4 York students, 1 Landlord, and myself) and the Landlord wants to shove another 2 people into the back end of the house. I suggest looking at the Toronto Star classifieds if you want to get an idea of housing. Some of the places that are worth a damn post nice pictures. Right now the housing market is at a peak as well, so I wouldn't look to buy a house.

And if you don't have citizenship ... be prepared for one hell of a test...

What kind of job would you be looking for? Construction? Computer related? Business related? I don't know what kind of jobs are avalible, but right now I'm working for the government developing software and I really like it. I have quite a few friends that have worked for the banks (In canada we have very few banks compared to the states. Really there are only 5 big ones CIBC, TD Canada Trust, Royal Bank, Bank of Montreal, and Scotia Bank) and they all enjoyed it very much (Mostly IT jobs but one guy is working in the TD Treasury right now inputting trades and he wouldn't trade is for the world).

 

Jobs, cost of living, winter... all depends on what part of the country you want to live in. While we have only 1/10th the population, Canda is a much bigger place than the states, so socioeconomic and climate differences are very pronounced depending on location. Before we can give you objective advice, we need a bit more clarification:

Where in Canada do you want to live?
What kind of Job are you looking for?
Why do you want to leave New Jersey?
Do you like Hockey?

 

And Canadian beer?

 

You can always fold towels at Bruce Nuclear Power for $45 an hour. Sound tempting?

 

Don't do it.

 

If your looking to move to canada to work....deff move somewhere in alberta....there is so much work and money to made in that place it will make u sick...and they will hier anybody...like the boys said the cost of living varies...but as for finding a place in alberta...there a dime a dozen man...your best bet is to move to calgary or edmonton...set up shop there and ship out to work from there...as for taking your 7 there in the winter...i highly reccomend that you dont...besides u can get anywhere in the city by public transportation , but yaa....alberta is where the money is.

 

It's true that jobs are available everywhere here in Alberta, but rent now starts at around $800 to $1000 a month for a 1-bedroom apartment or basement suite. A house in a reasonably ok neighborhood starts at around $340,000.

The problem is that even though the economy has now levelled off somewhat (but remains strong for the forseeable future) and houses are therefore no longer a case of entering a bidding war to land one, vacancy rates remain at around 1%.

Working on drilling rigs is strenuous, grimy and dangerous, but newbies can earn over 4K/ month depending on hours worked and where. Non-journeyman construction workers are pulling in $20 to $30/hr and if you are a skilled in one of the trades you'll definitely be in demand here. I'm not sure about how the working visa situation would be for you coming from outside Canada, or the recognition of your trade certification. But considering how desperate employers are for qualified trades personnel it's probably a minor issue.

As already mentioned, it's not a good idea to use the 7 in the winter months--- unless of course it's already rusty and not worthy of the cost of properly restoring. Having said that, I've run 1st gens through the winter in the past and they hold up just fine. As long as you know how to drive in the snow you'll be ok.

You will need to install an engine block heater and battery blanket though, so that you can plug both in over night on eves when temps dip below say, 10F. The block heater will cost around $50 and the battery blanklet around $10---- both are easy to install.