STX and no car?

STX and no car is a bad combination. If you live right downtown in Christiansted and live close enough to walk to work, you will still be taking taxis to get groceries, etc. and will have limited activities available on your free days. There's very little public transportation available and it can't be relied upon. Taxis cost a fortune. Rental vehicles will cost you probably around $500 per month. Or you can buy an island car for a couple thousand and then probably sell it for that much when you are done with it if you are only here for 6 months or so.

Good advice. Thank you for the insight. If I run in to car problems, what are the chances of getting it serviced. I just took my car in for transmission issues today. The service department at the dealership told me, "Sounds like we just need to reprogram it." I thought...oh lord! Not sure this would be easy to do if I had the car in UVI. If I ship a car down should I plan on it being a no-frills car and possibly pre-computer chip so that it is easy to service?

Ashley

There are all of the. Major dealerships on the island, although I don't know how good their service departments are. MPH auto at 5 corners is very good.
Beth does get by without a car, but she lives and works in downtown Fsted. She has had a lot of car trouble here buying " island cars ". That is why I brought down a dependable precomputer car. It cost me a little more because I shipped it from AZ.
I think once your here awhile with good contacts you might find a good island car, but I think it would be hard just getting here to find a good one. IMHO 😉
I would plan on having enough $ to buy a car, then if you feel you can get by without one you don't have to spend the money.
My guess is you will get a car.

Ashley-don't ship a car, especially a no frills car, you wont come out in that deal. We have plenty of those. Buy an island beater an then you will not have to worry about the roads here trashing it. Just buy a reliable brand here. We have mechanics to fix just about anything here, but just like there electrical and computer problems always cost more.

True buying a island car for $1k to $2k....you take your chances. If you can afford $5k to $8k you should be able to buy a reliable toyota or honda.

Another side note on not having a car... I have been here almost two years now and have a network of friends who call me when they are going grocery shopping, doing laundry, running errands, etc. If I did not have that, there is no way I could swing it. I can walk to work, walk to to coffee shop, walk to the little market for stuff you can get there, but I couldn't walk to Plaza or the laundrymat. On the plus side, First Bank is finally open in F'sted, so that's one more errand I can walk to.