touchingcloth

Hi all,

As soon as we arrive in Melbourne, we'll be looking to go into a car dealership and buy a new car...and would ideally like to drive one away on the same day.

Is this feasible...or would we have to wait for delivery etc?

Thanks
TC

spalen

they usually have to prep new cars unless you take a demonstrator. And they'll need ID and stuff. So maybe 3 days... They wont let you leave without insurance certificates etc being shown so its not that easy.

In the meantime get htem to lend you a car for free -they will do this.

touchingcloth

thanks Spalen!

Now I like the idea of them lending a car to me for free !!!!!

karmagirls

I am also thinking of doing this and I ideally want to go in and walk away with one the same day. I believe there's another post on here somewhere about a very clever person who bought theirs online before going over there. The car company actually met them at the airport with their new car, everything sorted. I'm not sure how they went about insurance etc, perhaps they did that online also, but that may not be easy without a fixed address.

Crazy Diamond

Yeah, we are doing that. Have done a test drive and sorted out exactly what I want here in the UK and phoned a dealer in Brisbane. They have suggested meeting us at the airport with the new car also but I think I would rather have it delivered to the hotel (or wherever we get booked in to) the next day or so to give me some time to take everything else in. We can insure it online just by giving all the details of the car and our address once we get them.

For us it is just one less thing to think about when we get there - still got to sort out schools and somewhere to live etc.!

Oops forgot to add that we will be arriving 25th October, plenty of time to get it sorted, they said they could have one in ready within about 3 - 4 weeks.

sassie

It depends on what sort of spec you want. do you want metallic paint, tinted windows, paint protection, rust proofing, what colour, etc, etc. It would probaly be unlikely that they would have exacatly what you want on the forecourt. I ordered a new Yaris a couple of months ago, and it took about 6 weeks to come in.

touchingcloth

I phoned Honda in Oz and they asked for a $1000 deposit so that they can order the car in advance. I will do likewise and test drive the car in the UK first.

Does anyone know what the best way of providing the deposit is? (I would be expecting some kind of contract stating agreed price and inclusions etc)

Thanks
TC

spottydog

We bought a new CR-V within a couple of days of arrival in Sydney, we'd looked around cars in the UK before leaving as we knew getting a car was high priority and had decided it was to be the CR-V or Rav4. The lack of interest in us at the Toyoto dealer made the decision for us.

We landed on Tuesday, agreed the price of the car on Wednesday, on Thursday we went to the RTA with the drivers licence form (witnessed by the friends we were staying with as we didn't have any proof of address) and I got my licence then we then phoned the dealer with the licence number and picked up the car Friday all ready to go including our optional extra reverse parking sensors fitted. If anything we were limited on the colour they had in stock but they had black and we were happy with that.

I probably could have done it all in 24 hours but I wanted a bit of time to check out insurance prices (Honda provided the CPT) and had booked a hire car for a week (Bayswater took it back and refunded the amount we paid for the days we didn't use so a big thumbs up to them).

We didn't test drive the UK models as we knew there was a difference with the CR-V in Australia being a 2.4l engine compared to a 2.0l engine in the UK.

232Bar

Depends on a few things - if you want a stock unit the dealer has bought in wholesale they can register it for you there and then, do the insurance for you and you can drive it out that day. If you want a vehicle which isn't at the Dealer but which is in stock at the VPC, the dealer will have to order it, and depending on which VPC they can priority process your car from there and the dealer will have it in 48 - 72 hours depending on where the dealer is located and what time the vehicle is ordered. Bear in mind the dealer will then have to PDI it etc which could take another day. If the vehicle you want isn't able to be prioroity processed, VPC time can be up to 6 days before the Dealer gets it. If the car you really, really want isn't in stock, they have visibility of vehicles 'on the water' and in transit from build plant if it's Aussie built and can pre-allocate one before the ship docks or it arrives from the factory. This will take the length of time it takes for the ship to get there, or transport from factory + approx 3 days wharf processing and survey, then times as per normal from there. If you want it NOW and it's dealer stock, bear in mind window tints, towbars etc etc will all add time. If you're flexible and not too demanding there is no reason you can't get one 'on the day'. If you buy a car from an agent, unlike Europe where they have to honour your service/warranty issues, it's not always the case here. Personally I'd stick with hiring one when you get here initially and buying from a Dealer.

Craig822

Hey, what a great idea. We had visions of having to hire for a couple of weeks or more whilst we got sorted. Didn't even think of that - thanks for the info

JenJen

Yes you can as this is what we are going to do with a Nissan dealer over in Melbourne, they will meet us at the airport with the vehicle and we can do the sale from this country, obviously certain documents will have ot be faxed or emailed over etc

Jen

wintersgills

I bought a new Mitsubishi triton took two weeks charged me $1650 for a pre delivery inspection had a lot of trouble getting gears very soon after i got home so they told me to take it to another dealer closer to me shock horror there was no oil in the gearbox they apologised and i never got no refund it still clicks now and then but they said its ok sheal be rite my advice to you is be very carefully who you buy of pay no deposits until you have seen and driven the car hope you learn by my mistakes good luck

touchingcloth

Thanks for all of the replies....I think common sense dictates that I will hire a car and inspect vehicles at dealerships.

TC

232Bar

Other advantage of a hire car - gives you time to suss out the road systems in someone elses car before you set off in your own

busterboy

exactly....prang the hire car before you buy your own!