thebears

Any recommendations for intial car buying in Melbourne?
Are auctions safe?
Can we trust dealers?
Do you get anything for under $15K suitable for a family that is not an estate or more than 7 years?

Matt Sabin

hiya
We're in the same predicament - dunno what to do.
At the moment we're using trams but it'd be nice to have a car to go to the Great Ocean Road and Wilson's Promontory etc. Any advice from anyone gratefully received. We've had a look at the Drive section in The Age online and there seems to be lots of bargains to be had...but ...who knows whether the car will do more a 10km before it breaks down...
Gulp...more money...we seem to have spent so much since we got here about 3 weeks ago... :scared:

thebears

Matt

We are arriving end of April and have booked to hire a car for 2 weeks to look for car and rental property.
What areas are you looking at? What additional costs have you had to incur? We budgeted for £3K for short term accomodation but hope to find accomodation sooner.

Matt Sabin

Hiya
Right, this is how we did it. We were lucky 'cos we got hospital accommodation but it was still reasonably spenny. Expect to pay $300-$400 per week! Yes, per week. There may be backpacking places that charge less but we wanted somewhere clean and to ourselves. Dunno where you're gonna be based, we were pretty central. Costs about $90 per month on the tram so that's a helluva lot cheaper than renting a car. We looked around and got the tram to all sorts of places and within 2 weeks found a fab place at St Kilda...amazing...bit rough at times...BUT...there's a million bars, restaurants and it's 200 yards from the beach. Can go kitesurfing after work...love this place... 32 degrees tonight though so not so cool...

Teliko21

Look at:

http://www.carsales.com.au/pls/carsales/!racv_content.welcome_used

These cars have all had a RACV inspection done and so you can read the reports online and see if there is anything wrong with them.

Sass73

Looking at previous posts, don't go to car city!
Best bet is start looking on the internet, then switch to the trading post when you get here.
We got a Daewoo Nubira (Yes I know they've gone bust in Oz now) which is ideal as a family car, and while the Ozzies class it as a small car, it's bigger than a new ford escort.
We went to a dealer as we didn't know the requirements for documentation here and thought a dealer was safer. We probably paid a bit more but we were satisfied. The moment we signed the papers, they gave us a car to use until our one was ready and they were very helpful.
For additional info, it was Max Kirwan on Bell Street, corner of Albert Street.

Sass

thebears

Used to work at the Daewoo Design & Development Centre in Worthing West Sussex.

thebears

Thanks Matt
Have set the wife a budget up to $500 per week - she is fussy with accomodation. I will probably also get the tram or train to work. We will however need to get a car as we have a young daughter and my wife still has a large pin in her upper arm from a recent car accident.
We will be closer to the CBD ie around Malvern, Armadale.

thebears

Thanks Sass - going to look up address on my Melways.

thebears

Cheers mate

thebears

Forgot to mention we need a car with ample rear leg space.

My daughter is over 100 cm and still only 26months old. We currently have a X5 and a 535 which we decided not to take with us. These have plenty of space but if we try to put her in a friends Punto it looks really uncomfortable even for only 20 or 30 minutes.

Sass73

Just read the amounts you lot are bandying around for rent - you could get a mansion for $500 a week. The tower blocks in the city are only $350 a week for a big 2 bedroom appartment (check out MICM). We stayed in one for our first year and it was really nice, if impersonal. Also check out domain.com.au for rental properties and look at all the pictures. Should be able to get something really nice for $400 a week and be close to local ammenities. With a child, I'd be looking around the beach - Albert Park and Middle Park are really nice and Bay Street shopping is so picturesque, but for a bit cheaper could try Elwood, Brighton, Hampton and Black Rock. All walking distance to beach and so nice. I'd go with the first 2 though as the view is just amazing and everytime I drive down the beach road, with all the palm trees, it puts a smile on my face even if its cloudy.
Hope you don't mind the suggestion but I'm biased and love the beach and totaly loved it as a child whenever we got down to Somerset or Devon

Sass

Teliko21

Wow only a year? We stayed for 3 years until it finally got too much and we moved out to Newport

thebears

I grew up on the beach but need to be closer to CBD as relocation to Melbourne was for a specific school. We stayed in Southbank on first visit and wife was put off because even on the 28th floor we could hear motorway noise and the build quality was very poor - Cant exactly remember the builder but they run big property shows in London. ??

Teliko21

Yes, the Westgate freeway is awfully close, the apartment buildings could have done with some shielding from the noise.