annie b

Just wondering if anyone has any advice re:car purchase?

New cars seem relatively cheap and second hand seem to hold their value well.

We are looking at a budget of $10,000-$15,000 for something that will comfortably hold our family of four.

mr mover

here,s a good start, www.tradingpost.com.au ........... MM

renth

Mitsubishi Magna wagon, can't go wrong with that.

Ceri

Buy a second hand four wheel drive - they will hold their price. I say a four wheel drive because they seem to hold their prices a lot better than most second hand cars here.

New cars lose money each year. Second hand cars hold their prices - they don't lose so much money in say two years as a new car would (percentage speaking)- they lose money of course but not as much as a brand new car would.

You will not get much of a brand new car for $10,000 unless you are looking at the small cheapy "Jap" hatchbacks - they lose money fast. You see plenty of these "newish" small cars in the auctions which I go to , around 2 year old , one and a half year old - and they tend to go for peanuts - $8, 9 grand grand etc (for what was once a 14 grand car only two years ago)

When you get here go around the auctions - I picked up a 4 wheel drive for 7,500(not telling you what - because there are not many of them in the Brisbane area - you'll see me coming! lol - it's an import that's all that I'm saying) - anyway the vehicle is worth $14,500 privately - or around $15,000 to 16,000 from a second hand dealer. - bargain or what. Check out the auctions - it's where the dealers get their cars from - why pay a dealer a couple of thousand extra when you can get it for the same price as them.

watch buying privately too - a lot of these private sellers around me in Brisbane ( in the trading post etc) are no cheaper than the second hand dealers prices - a lot .. not all

Get a grip with the prices before buying straight away . walk around a few garages with a pen and paper taking prices - go to the auctions - even if you do not intend to buy anything from there - just to get a grip on the prices here, and what is a bargain and what's not.

Just my personal opinion
Good luck

mr mover

[
When you get here go around the auctions - I picked up a 4 wheel drive for 7,500(not telling you what - because there are not many of them in the Brisbane area - you'll see me coming! lol - it's an import that's all that I'm saying) - anyway the vehicle is worth $14,500 .

I suspect a Mitsubishi delicia, oh oh.............. MM

Slater

Thanx for the info, I've bought a few motors out of Auction and wondered if there were any out there, can you tell us where we can find them, are they advertised to the public and do they have a web site?


Slater

PeteY

My car here in the UK was bought new...and i vowed never to do it again ! Yes you get a nice smell in the car, and theres 0 on the clock, but the thing depreciates 20% on the drive home from the garage!

Buy secondhand.

If you know anyone over there hows good with cars (or maybe you are?) give it a good check over before you pay up.

I would also agree with Ceri and say that 4wd is the way to go in oz, even if you don't want to do much 4wding. They are more comfy and you can fit more stuff in. Especially useful when your settling in and buying new furniture etc...

We will have roughly the same budget as you for our car, and although we will be having a look at the auctions, we've been scouring the web to get an idea of prices/makes we might be able to afford.

Top of my list at the moment is the Nissan Patrol, which you can get for about 15k for a 93-95 model.

If you don't want a 4wd, the common family type cars you can get are the Mitsubishi Magna, Ford Falcon and the Holden Commodore. Ive only driven the Magna (inlaws have one) and i really liked it. Build quality was'nt fantastic, but it was great to drive, and being a 3 litre V6 was plenty pwerful enough to tow a tinny or other small boat. Guzzled fuel a bit though....as do most ozzy cars (most have big block engines....). Luckily petrols pretty cheap.

Once we've both got work my wife wants to get a small car like a Honda Civic, as she does'nt like driving big cars much. Strangely (as the are not very common i guess) smaller cars tend to be pretty pricey secondhand, compared to a full size of a similar age.

Check out :

www.carsales.com.au
www.drive.com.au

Cheers

Pete.

Amazulu

Don't buy a Mitsubishi, they're rubbish. Get a Toyota (we have a RAV4, one of best cars I've owned, voted most reliable 4x4 by Whatcar magazine), Mazda or Nissan, proper cars, well built & very reliable.

annie b

Thanks for all your replies...very helpful.

We currently drive a Landrover Freelander which is lovely, so maybe we will find another??

Thanks again...

PeteY

Freelanders are great over here.....but you will have problems with spares and service in oz. Also.....they are'nt known for thier reliability....

If you want a Landie....the discos the way to go, just make sure you get one with a series 3 engine, the series 2 are a nightmare.

Unfortunatly the discos (or the good ones...) are too pricey for us. A Series 3 (1995 onwards) will start at about $20k...

Ceri

Way off -lol, "You're very cold and not getting any warmer"

Anyway ... no.

Cheers

Ceri

If it's Brisbane you are going to, here's two of them. (Fowles group also hold auctions in the other cities - but I haven't got a
clue what their auctions are like anywhere but Brisbane)

I bought my car at Pickles

http://www.fowles.com.au/filenotfoun...onList.asp</a>

http://www.pickles.com.au/search.html

In Brisbane they are advertised in Saturdays courier mail, in the business section/pull out - the back page. Also in the Motor section pull out..



For anywhere else in Aus - I don't know - I suppose it's the same as in Brisbane - they are advertised in the Saturdays paper.

The good auctions here are usually held on the Tuesday mornings- we do have Saturday morning auctions here , but the saturday ones are more expensive because there are more private buyers at these, where in the week it's mostly dealers and you will only be bidding against dealers.

Cheers

Slater

Thanks again, I have saved the links, I note that they expect you to have an Aussie drivers license as ID. before you can bid, I expect that there are ways round this.
Yes we are going to the Brisbane/ Gold coast area area. Can you tell me if there are also furniture auctions there as we are not taking much stuff with us.

Many thanks


Slater

tinaj

Try looking on www.Autotrader.com.au

It is the same as the British one and gives you adverts for most cars country wide. Gives you a good idea of what you should expect topay.

People have said on here before that you should haggle with the dealers, as they always over price the cars. Remember there is tax on top as well I think it is 1% for second hand cars.

Jolyn

My father and two uncles have all been car dealers at different times in Oz. At different ends of the spectrum too - one owned the biggest BMW dealership in the country, another sold used cars on Parramatta Rd in Sydney.

I've had plenty of advice from dad on what car to buy...much of which I'll ignore of course but I'll pass on to you in case you want it...

His tips:

Don't buy anything new. Like in the UK they lose huge amount of their value in first 2 years (even first 2 minutes out of the showroom). As long as your secondhand car costs you less in servicing than the depreciation on the new one would have been you're winning the game...and you might get a really good car with low service costs v the depreciation which is a guaranteed loss when you sell it on...

Everyone loves 4WDs in Oz now (even though noone goes off road) and they hold their value well if bought secondhand but you can't fit as much in the boot as in a big family stationwagon (estate). The Subaru 4WD is well known for reliability.

Most popular big family wagons - known as "The Big 4" Holden Commodore, Ford Falcon (BA not AU model), Toyota Camry and Mitsubishi Magna. I had a Magna wagon in Oz and it was great. Toyotas are very reliable. Commodore and Falcon are bigger (huge luggage space!) and have different driving positions to each other so you need to test drive. In my opinion the Japanese cars have better handling than the Oz cars and are more reliable but you can't beat the Aussie ones for space and cheap parts/servicing.

Get an inspection first from NRMA or RACV or whatever. Plus a REVS check - Register of Encumbered Vehicles - tells you if it's nicked or HP money is owed on it.

Government auctions are good for car buying if you want the basic spec model just a couple of years old.

Buy privately not at dealers as they all charge a whopping mark up and their 'warranties' are practically worthless - anything that might actually breakdown is excluded! The mark up for used cars at authorised dealers for particular brands is even more astonishing...

REVS 02 9633 6333 for ownership check
RACV 13 1955 for breakdown cover and vehicle inspections (Victoria) - NRMA do the same in NSW

Websites:
www.drive.com.au - sales & reviews
www.carsales.com.au - sales
www.redbook.com.au - sales
www.carpoint.com.au - sales
www.mynrma.com.au - reviews

Good luck all.