From Sofia Brenner, Project Coordinator — Calgary, AB
I moved from Basel, Switzerland to Calgary in September 2023. My husband had accepted a position at an engineering firm, and I had a job lined up remotely — so on paper, the move felt organized. What nobody warned me about was October in Alberta.
Back in Basel I took the tram everywhere. Efficient, on time, never once thought about it. Calgary is not Basel. Calgary is enormous, spread out, and in October it dropped to -15°C overnight like it was perfectly normal. The bus routes near our rental home in the northwest were limited, and I was spending almost two hours commuting to meetings across the city.
We needed a car. Fast.
A colleague mentioned Kijiji. I had already used it to find our couch and a winter coat rack, so I opened the Autos section not expecting much. I was wrong. The listings were extensive — private sellers, small dealers, detailed photos, vehicle history links, price comparisons. It felt more like a proper car marketplace than I expected.
I filtered by year, price range, and “Calgary area” and spent about a week researching. I learned what to look for in a winter-ready vehicle — all-wheel drive, rust history, whether the previous owner had winter tires. The Kijiji community forums actually helped with that too, reading through threads from other Calgarians about what to watch for when buying used.
We settled on a 2019 Subaru Outback from a private seller in Airdrie — a retired teacher who had kept it immaculately. We met in a Canadian Tire parking lot (another thing I had to learn about: always meet somewhere public), brought a mechanic friend to look it over, and drove it home that afternoon for $18,500.
That car got us through our first Alberta winter without a single problem. I learned to drive in snow. I learned what a block heater is. I learned that Canadians will help you dig your car out of a snowbank without being asked, which tells you a lot about this country.
Kijiji made the difference between feeling stranded in a new city and feeling like we actually lived here. Sometimes the practical things are the ones that make a place feel like home.