Pozz

Hopefully not such a silly question... but is there the same choice and availabilty of new and used cars and bikes in Oz or do they favour certain brands?

Obviously the bigger manufacturers have a world wide availabilty but do you have the same sort of choice as the uk?

Are there similar finance deals to the UK?

Mike 3G

In my limited experience the main manufacturers are here in abundance however if buying secondhand the european stuff seems a bit steep to me. The local made stuff is actually pretty good in a meat and two veg sort of way and in my opinion represents better value for money but the running costs of the big aussie cars can be high due to them passing anything but fuel stations. I'm not sure about finance but bank loans seem to have a higher interest rate from what I observed so far.

MartinH

one (or rather two) words: Jap Crap

If you want anything decent (i.e. German) it will cost you an arm and a leg

mark213

just watch for the availability of parts for non-jap. Quite a few euro cars are made in south africa, china and alike so you arent really getting the same - just paying a huge amount.

for me a jap is best in aus - the last thing you want is to be in some country town and cant get a oil filter for your merc

Amazulu

Apart from VW. I recently ordered the new Jetta diesel and it is virtually the same price as the UK model. Surprisingly, the Aussie model has a better standard spec than the UK one.

DeadVim

I quite like our Subaru Outback.

Someone else took the initial depreciation and we picked up at 30,000km (barely run in) beastie for $26,000.

Go German by all means though

Mike 3G

Owned Beemers and both Honda & Toyota in the past all good cars, the Honda was probaly the best in terms of build quality and fit/finish. The rearwheel driveness of the beemers is always good for a giggle though plus the the straight 6 engines in the older stuff were sweet as. The quality of German cars is vastly overatted by Joe public down the pub IMO......when questioned and surveyed by JD Power they sing a slightly different tune, it used to be the Jap Crap that came in the top spots not sure if thats the case now though?

Amazulu

I think Mazda, Subaru and Honda come out well in this.

Trevski

If you buy european please make sure you get it serviced by a good european mechanic not a australian mechanic that says he knows the car.I was a manager at a well know service centre and a mechanic in another branch said to a lady that owned a bmw that he was upto date with all bmws, so she let him have a look at it and he told her it needed this expensive part, so she bought it and when i found out i told the person that that model of car did not have this part fitted to it, so to say the least a mechanic might tell you anything to get money out of you

killerhales

I've got a Mazda 6 (coming up to 5 years from new) and the wife used to have a Mazda 2 (4 years from new).

I would strongly recommend both cars for reliability and value for money. The 6 comes with 2.3 litres over here rather than (I think) 1.8 in the UK, so it's got a bit more oomph.

Got an excellent price when we sold the 2 after 4 years.

You can tell by the above that I'm a fan, I think the 3 is pretty good too.

(My wife moved on to an Astra, but this was because she fancied a relatively cheap convertible!)

"Jap Crap" is a phrase from the 70's I think (although some manufacturers have had these mass recalls I don't recall a big Mazda one, yet?)

Good luck

mark213

Its made is South Africa thats why not stupidly over priced, but watch for quality - mate of mines VW Golf (only 1 year ago) has been in the shop 3 time

Amazulu

Mazda got top marks for reliabilty and build quality. I recently test drove the Mazda 6 2.5l diesel. Although I was impressed by the car, I was not impressed by the 136kW diesel engine, It had no 'go' at all and for that size engine just did not feel right. The new Mazda 3 diesel looks good and is priced well but in Australia we get the 110kW diesel whereas in Europe they get the 136kW version (same engine as the 6). The 136kW 3 is like a diesel GTi.

I've gone for a VW Jetta instead and I only buy diesel cars.

Amazulu

Actually it's made in Mexico. I currently have a mk5 Golf that was built in SA and I have had no problems with it at all and I've had it for 4.5 years. The current mk6 Golf is built in Germany and is also priced well compared to the UK.

furkew

nobody has mentioned motorbikes, but there arent many types that you cant get here that are available in the Uk.

Some take a little longer to hit the market here, and a very small segment dont ever arrive because the market is too small.

Dirt bikes/adventure bikes are 10x more popular here, so a massive choice in all the brands. Honda, Yammy, KTM, Suzuki & BMW.

Beemers are getting very popular now and waiting lists for the new bikes are quite long as well.

cornishexpat

We bought a new toyota corralla,very impressed with the build quality and economy.I also bought a honda cbr fireblade(had one in the uk),looking for a ktm as well.
harley's seem very popular over here.
"jap crap" that term went out with the demise of the british motor industry who never moved with the times and continued to try and flog outdated junk.