Re: Help for some Newbies...Buying a car
 

We decided to get a Kia Rio, new, as they were very reasonable........wish I hadn't bothered. We changed it after a year for a Toyota Camry.

Re: Help for some Newbies...Buying a car
 

The market is heavily protected to protect domestic industry. There's a guide to used cars and prices called something like the Dog and Lemon Book (someone will know the right name), and prices in Australia are much higher than even e.g. New Zealand, despite it being a bigger market.

Re: Help for some Newbies...Buying a car
 

Great idea..

Can you lease cars in Oz like you can in the UK for personal use?

Anybody have any comments on this or experience.

Thanks

Mark

Re: Help for some Newbies...Buying a car
 

Hi, I am a car dealer in the UK and I was astonished when I went to OZ for a year at the values of what I would call a shed in the UK. I heard at sometime in the past that the average life time for a car in the UK is 13 years, I can only presume that is because of all the pesky salt we throw all over the road rotting them away. The other thing to consider is our strict MOT system which is a good idea to keep dangerous cars of the road. I believe that in some Ozzy states that you only have to have a safety check when you want to sell the vehicle, so if you own a car for ten years it does not need checking for ten years (seems dangerous to me). I have just scrapped a 1998 Vauxhall Vectra just because it had only a months MOT and it would probably cost more to MOT the thing then it is worth, just imagine what a 1998 Holden Commadore would go for!!!

Re: Help for some Newbies...Buying a car
 

It is not that second hand cars hold their price over here, it is just that they are grossly over priced. The "MOT" or state equivilent is either a joke or none existant. If they had standards the same as the UK for MOTs then half the shite would be off the roads. By having very low standards only artificailly inflates the prices of these pieces of junk.

If the government was really concerned about road toll (Deaths) then they would introduce strict vehicle inspections and get these death traps off the roads. This would greatly reduce the price for the buckets of rust that you see going around the place. WA and the ACT are the worst offenders for this. There are no inspections in these States/territorys so cars that should have been removed from our roads years ago are still being driven around and are sold for far more than there real worth. I vist WA and the ACT a lot and always see cars with axles broken just abandonded on the side of the roads. If there were strict controls then these vehicles unroadworthiness would have been picked up years before and the death trap removed from public roads.


Barney