desperatehousewife

We'll be looking to buy a couple of new cars when we arrive, at least one would have to be a 7/8 seater 4x4 (for camping trips), at the moment we're thinking a landcruiser as our main car and a smaller saloon type for our second.

The thing is over here at the moment there are great deals on new cars, I've even heard of buy one get one free, which would seem ideal for us! Anyway I was wondering what kind of deals any of you guys had seen or any websites you would recommend to have a look at?

Lindsay x

hantsfamily1

Not really worth doing much about it until you are here but Toyota`s are superb cars. With that amount of money to spend you will not have a problem anyway, Landcruiser`s dont come cheap. If you are going to buy new be prepared to drive a hard bargain and try to dealerships selling the same cars and play them off against each other, I saved $5k on a new Hilux doing that.

desperatehousewife

Thanks for that, I take it theres no shortage of Toyota dealerships on the gold coast?

Lindsay x

hantsfamily1

There are plenty of them dotted around and lots of bargains to be had, specially something a few months old.

hantsfamily1

You are almost expected to make an offer on pretty much anything over here and quite often save a few dollars or a lot of dollars just for asking. Once you get over the embarrassment of asking for discount everytime you buy something.

desperatehousewife

We're scottish! Not much of an issue for us asking for a discount!

Lindsay x

viviennef

If you buy out of area you can negotiate more. I got the dealer down 9k on a Hilux sr 4x4 dual cab. Check out http://www.discountnewcars.com.au/

Remember when you buy a car you need to add stamp duty and rego on top. adds up to be quite a bit

I used that site as my guide price for an on road cost - so if they had a car at 20k plus on road I considered I wanted a dealer to give me the same deal but on road (so 20k with no additional charges).

I didn't find it hugely difficult to get to that - dealers see out of area customers as additional to their target audience and therefore more worthy of capturing.

I didnt actually buy the car though, I am still planning to but other priorities came up work wise.

Vivienne

hantsfamily1

you will fit in out here for sure....!!!!!!..plus they like a drink here too....good luck

hoofie2002

I hope you have got lots of money; a new Landcruiser [not Prado] STARTS at $74K + stamp/rego/delivery and before you discount. They are stunningly good vehicles but you are paying for it.

Grayling

They are also completely unnecessary for most people.

A big percentage never leave the tarmac.

desperatehousewife

Thanks Vivienne I'll have a look at that site



We've got a 4x4 here and I love it, I was thinking the landcruiser would be comparable to what we have here, either that or we're looking at a big people carrier but it wouldn't be ideal for camping trips esp as we're hoping to get a trailer tent at some point so we need the towing capacity. When you work out the cost of my lot taking hotel/apartment holidays against a nice 4x4 and camping holidays it starts to seem less like the expensive option!

I agree probably not a necessity for us either but we have used our 4x4 here quite a bit off road and we're hoping there will be more opportunity to do so over there.


Lindsay x

Kingsly

we are the beer drinking champions of the world at the moment :P so we will give you a run for your money.

Tubbs2Oz

Hi Lindsay,

I just wanted to say that your house looks really cool. I'd love a house like that one day!! We're trying to emigrate too though, sorry can't buy it.

Also, I've been off-roading in Oz. There are some brilliant places to visit which you couldn't do without one (yeah you don't need one all the time and we probably won't have one, but hey). We went to an old mining town way out past the blue mountains, it took us hours to get there, we got a puncture on the way back, a couple of beers smashed in the back the ride was so bumpy and having put on a wrong sized wheel apparently my cousin-in-law had a broken diff. Nevermind, all fixed now.

Good luck, when are you off.
Shirley.

desperatehousewife

Thanks Shirley, we're off in June, 13 weeks tomorrow!

What about you when are you aiming for?

Lindsay x

Tubbs2Oz

We're hoping to get our visa in June. We need to put our house on the market yet, so hoping to be there September/October - but definitely before Christmas.