Originally Posted by coventrycelt

Thanks for the replies guys and gals, every tip I used was lifted from here over the last 2 years.

Del & Pat, I spent hours on www.realestate.com.au getting a feel for the property market, and also www.ourbrisbane.com.au for suburb info, plus using the archive on here for suburb info. I also ordered the weekend courier mail from a UK online company, this has sections for careers, realestate, cars ect. It cost me about £10, but it gave me a good feel for the place.

I bought my car from a company called Honeycombes, these are Hyundai dealers, I had one of their Coupe's in the Uk and was very inpressed with their service standards and reliability. I used a site I got from here called www.discountcars.com.au where I sourced the type of cars that I was interested in, and then enquired for prices, unfortunatly half of the companies on there dont bother to reply, so once I decided on the car that suited me ie Hyundai Tucson Elite V6 4X4 , I looked up the local dealers for Hyundai, sent them an email asking for their best deal, telling them that I was enquiring at other dealers, and also mentioning that I work in car sales (I dont) so lets cut to the chase , give me your best price, and I'd buy one. Once they know they are competing, the offers get realistic.
Another tip I picked up was to pay extra for the special coating which stops the paintwork fading, and means you never have to wax or polish, just a quick soak with water, also the Extra window tint is fantastic, its like wearing sunglasses, a must have out here in the sun I reckon!

Also I started the negotiations over 3 months before I arrived, as some of the cars can take up to 10 weeks to become available, which is a hell of a saving on car rental for that period. Being a savvy purchaser I also bought my car insurance online from the uk, and house and contents ,saving about 25% from what I was quoted from brokers out here.

As for being impressed with my organising skills, Its called Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, something I picked up from years of Sale's Management.
After three years planning to get out here, what am I going to do in a few weeks time, when I nothing left to sort out, I'll go mad!

Cheers

John

PS Vics, I'll tell Andree to expect a drinkypoos soon!