gidxg03

I'm trying to research costs associated with buying a car when we get to Oz. Can you anyone provide advice on the following:

Thanks in advance.

Buzzy--Bee

This thread may help you a bit, although it's not quite up to date -

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=376751



Buzzy

gidxg03

Thanks Buzzy. Great spreadsheet but a 7 seater would be too much for my small family of 3. Anyone else with any advice/feedback?

esperanza

I bought a car today, in NSW - we started at 9am, drove along the main road stopping at every used car lot on the way to see what they had. Started off with a clear idea of budget & 'musts' (mainly four wheels and aircon) and by ten to four (and about ten car lots later!) I'd put down a deposit on something below my budget. Going to pick it up tomorrow!
Personally I think it would not be a good idea to buy second hand without seeing and driving it yourself, but new might work - depending on your budget. Always always negotiate the price down, they do not expect you to pay the advertised price.
Based on my experience today, I would say if you aren't too fussy then there are lots of cars out there and it isn't something you need to worry about too much.

k76

First things first: Get a cheap rental car for a couple of weeks. It isn't that expensive, and you will quite likely get a very good return on that money. I say that because it's very easy to buy the wrong car for the wrong price when pressed for time.

If you have the budget for a new car that's great. Compared to Europe used cars hold their value better here, so I think new cars can be a good buy.

For myself I knew that we would be spending a lot of money when we came here, and I didn't know how long we would be on one income only. So I opted for second hand.
If you need something to get the job done, without being fancy you can get very good deals on 2-3 year old Falcons, Commodore and Magna's. What I said above about holding value do (generally)not apply to these cars in the first 2-3 years, although the Commodore holds value better. Part of the reason is that they are used a lot as fleet cars, another is that the big sixes are falling somewhat out of fashion with the high(ish) petrol prices. Don't know about 4WDs, sorry