Right, we arrive in Perth on the 16th of August and I was after some
advice re car hire and buying a second hand car.

Basically, my plan was to hire a car for our first 10 days, during which
hopefully, we would find a car to buy.

My questions therefore are 1) is this the best way to do things, or could I
get a car sorted a lot quicker than 10 days?
2)best company for car rental and any links to decent second hand car dealerships.
3)hoping to spend around $7000, will we get much for this?
4)do you haggle over price more or less than the UK?
5)can you sort out tax insurance etc. at the same time you buy a car?

Anything else I should be thinking of before I buy?

Fully appreciate any advice forthcoming.

Steve

Use M2000 for car hire, cheapest around, much cheaper than the comparison sites. Paid about $400 for 2 weeks!!!!!

http://www.m2000car.com.au/

Steve what size car are you looking at to hire and is it an airport pick up ?

Lots of good deals available from not the big ones i.e (Avis/Hertz/Budget)

John

thanks for that

Not sure, I think a focus type should be big enough for us, both for hire
and to buy.
Think we might be waiting until the day after we arrive to sort the car, but
again, we haven't decided for definite yet
Steve

Totally agree we used them when we arrived too and reccomend our friends who come over to use them too...

$7000 wont get you much i'm sorry to say maybe a smallish Hyundai or Kia,

Don't bother with the car auctions you wont save anything unless you are really lucky.

John hughes is a big second hand dealership here (just south of the river) we were reccomended them and bought a nice little runaround from them too..

try www.johnhughes.com.au and check out the internet specials

PS most ford focuses are saloons here (with boots!!)

Hi Steve

If you not too sure what you are looking at, I recommend and RAC Vehicle Inspection. They will go to the car yard (Vehicle Sales dealer) and inspect the vehicle and gve you a report. On the top level inspection, the warrant anything they don't find, so you can't loose!

http://www.rac.com.au/Motoring/Vehicle-inspections.aspx

Regards to model and makes, Hyundai Getz is a great small car, no real problems apart from the rear brake wheel cylinders which always leak. Hyundai call it 'weeping' and are not too concerned.
Stay away from the European stuff, Holden (Vauxhall) Astra's, Barina,s & Vectra's. Very expencive to run and maintain, with new timing belts every 60,000km's and brake rotors wearing thin constantly. Also cooling problems and with the Vectra's a bottom radiator hose is arounf $400 (+ labour), just not suited for the Aussie climate, in my opinion.

M2000 car rental is very good and will deliver the vehicle to the airport. You pick the keys from the ticket booth in the car park (at the exit barrier) NOT inside the airport terminal.

Here's some places to research car prices.

www.redbook.com.au
www.autotrader.com.au
www.johnhughes.com.au/passenger-vehicles.php
www.giantautos.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=1550
www.carsales.com.au

Used vehicle (statutory) warranties
A 'statutory warranty' applies only to vehicles brought from a licensed motor vehicle dealer.

The Motor Vehicle Dealers Act requires licensed dealers to fix certain defects in used motor vehicles they have sold.

The statutory warranty also applies only to motor vehicles that have a purchase price of $4000 or more and motor cycles that cost $3500 or more, together with limits on age and the number of kilometres travelled at the time of sale.



Car yards are late night opening on Wednesday evening. You must haggle and play one off against the other to get the best price. Once you have made the purchase be VERY careful of the after sales up-selling they try.
You can get you own window tints done later and save at least $200.00.... the After Care they will tyr and sell you (to protect from salt corrosion) is basically a bottle of polish they smear on with a wet rag.... don't get caught in the trap! (again, my opinion)

Watch out for hidden costs
Remember that the advertised price of a car is not your only cost.

Some other compulsory and standard charges you need to be aware of are:

Vehicle licence fees - paid when the vehicle is licensed;
Dealer's delivery charge - for buyers of new cars;
Government motor vehicle stamp duty - for buyers of new and used cars;
Transfer fee - for buyers of used cars;
Vehicle inspection fee (if vehicle unlicensed).

When you pay your vehicle's licence, part of the fee is for compulsory third party insurance. This covers you, or anyone else, for death or injury if your car is involved in an accident. However, it does not cover you for damage to your car or anyone else's.

You will have to pay tax on the vehicle you purchase, a lot of newbies don't know this. It is incremental depending on the market value of the vehicle.
More info....

Stamp Duty

This is payable to the relevant state or territory body and is a function of the priuce of the vehicle.

WA probaby has the most complicated stamp duty structure in Australia!

2.75% of the vehicle price up to $15,000
A sliding scale is used between $15,000 and $40,000 from 2.75% to 6.5%
6.5% for every dollar over $40,000

Stamp Duty Calculator
http://www.dpi.wa.gov.au/licensing/yourvehicle/1382.asp

Get a GPS sat nav to get around with, save yourself time and effort. Good plce for car yards in the Northern Suburbs is Wangara. Here you will finad ALL the major brands PLUS many independants. Head north on the Waneroo Road from the city and you cannot miss the area.
Vic park just to the East of the City is also good. John Huges is there PLUS others and are pretty good. I found John Huges a little cheaper but would not drop the price at all.

Good luck.
Neil.

Hiya,

Where abouts in Perth are you looking to settle? If you are looking north of the river, look at car places in Wangara. We bought 2 cars from there, and you can get a car for $7000, they may be a bit older than you are looking for but it doesn't mean it won't be reliable.

If you look on www.carsales.com.au there are loads of cars and you can enquire about them, you will then find out at which garages the cars are at.

We hired our rental car for 2 weeks but took it back a day early, probably only needed it really for 1 week but we had 2 cars to get and I took ages picking something, my husband had his within 5 days.

Hope this helps.

Sarah.

Does anyone know if the compulsory third party insurance in WA covers anyone driving my car, or just me as the registered owner? Thanks x

Cheers

Might have to up that figure if we see something we like, depends on how much driving we'll need to do and if we end up needing a second car.

Many thanks for this Neil

This is the sort of info I probably wouldn't have found out about until I arrived Do you work in the motor trade?

I like the idea of the RAC inspection, I'm not really car savvy and I tend to rely on mates to advise me over here

I would like to get a Japanese car if we can. The missus runs an old Honda over here and I've been impressed with how much trouble free motoring we've had out of a car with well over a 100k on the clock

One other thing, are there many dealers offering long term leases on
new cars over there?

Steve

Hi Sarah and thanks for the info

We'll be living in Pearsall when we arrive and both travelling into Joondalup
for the first 3 months, before I then start working in the centre of Perth.
Ideally, we will manage with one car and if that's the case, should be able to up that figure to nearer $12000, but we wont know until we get over I suppose.

Hi,

Pearsell is right next door to Wangara. As for only having one car, you will hav to see when you get here but it is impossible to get to some places if you don't have a car. If you can get dropped off at the train station or maybe get a bus to the train station you will be alright if you work in the city. It will be worth living near the station or on a decent bus route if you only want the one car.

I live in Ashby, and you have to drive to everything. My car was in the garage not long after we moved here and it was very hard, had to get my friend round the corner to get my son from school every day. I would definitely live closer to the school and will move closer when our lease runs out.

Feel free to ask any questions.

Sarah.

We have found booking our car rental cheaper with Emirates!!!!