Car buying advice please..?

[geoffuZz]

I was wondering if anyone could give some advice on buying a car...

 

We are arriving soon () and will need to buy a car. I guess our budget for a first car would be upto around $5,000 (less if possible). Is that a good price for a first car? How high would you expect the mileage (Kilometrage) to be on such a car? Would this buy a relatively good quality car that could be used to runaround within South Australia while searching for jobs, houses, schools and for doing some limited travelling?

 

How are dealerships in South Australia? Generally are they trustworthy? Are the prices a lot higher than from a private sale? Haggling is expected and are prices better for cash? Do they offer to include "on the road costs" with purchases to encourage you to buy from them?

 

How about roadworthyness (I may have just made that word up...)? Are dealers allowed to sell you a car that could fall apart as you drive it off the lot or is there a law which protects buyers for a limited time? How much does it cost to bring a mechanic or the RAC to check the car before purchase?

 

How about manufacturers - which would be the preferred manufacturers with regards to repairs and spare parts? Would cars manufactured by Holden and Ford perhaps be cheaper to repair in comparison to European cars such as VW, Peugeot, Citroen?

 

Fuel costs - I have never bought a car with a bigger engine than 1.8L - how do the australian 3 and 4L engines compare? What would be the difference regarding other costs such as registration, insurance, etc?

 

I understand there are no MOT's in South Australia - how are cars tested for safety and roadworthyness (there's that word again...) or does no one care?

 

There are a lot of questions here and I'm sure that most will have a simple answer (that have been asked a million times before) but still, any good advice would be appreciated...

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Geoff.

[Growler]

Hi call Mick at MD Auto's. Hes great. He will tell you where to go, and you can hire a car from him and he wont sting you like i got stung from one of the car hire places at the airport. I went to see Mick last week at his garage we were over on a reccie and he gave us good advice. I asked him the same question about getting a car for $5000 he said you can get something half decent, any less than that though not a great idea the more money you can spend on a car hopefully the less it will cost with repairs in a year or so down the line. basically second hand cars are quite expensive over there. He also told us some of the garages to go and have a look at and who we could get to check the car over as well. Google his company and give him a ring hes great!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was wondering if anyone could give some advice on buying a car...

 

We are arriving soon () and will need to buy a car. I guess our budget for a first car would be upto around $5,000 (less if possible). Is that a good price for a first car? How high would you expect the mileage (Kilometrage) to be on such a car? Would this buy a relatively good quality car that could be used to runaround within South Australia while searching for jobs, houses, schools and for doing some limited travelling?

 

How are dealerships in South Australia? Generally are they trustworthy? Are the prices a lot higher than from a private sale? Haggling is expected and are prices better for cash? Do they offer to include "on the road costs" with purchases to encourage you to buy from them?

 

How about roadworthyness (I may have just made that word up...)? Are dealers allowed to sell you a car that could fall apart as you drive it off the lot or is there a law which protects buyers for a limited time? How much does it cost to bring a mechanic or the RAC to check the car before purchase?

 

How about manufacturers - which would be the preferred manufacturers with regards to repairs and spare parts? Would cars manufactured by Holden and Ford perhaps be cheaper to repair in comparison to European cars such as VW, Peugeot, Citroen?

 

Fuel costs - I have never bought a car with a bigger engine than 1.8L - how do the australian 3 and 4L engines compare? What would be the difference regarding other costs such as registration, insurance, etc?

 

I understand there are no MOT's in South Australia - how are cars tested for safety and roadworthyness (there's that word again...) or does no one care?

 

There are a lot of questions here and I'm sure that most will have a simple answer (that have been asked a million times before) but still, any good advice would be appreciated...

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Geoff.

[geoffuZz]

Hi call Mick at MD Auto's. Hes great. He will tell you where to go, and you can hire a car from him and he wont sting you like i got stung from one of the car hire places at the airport. I went to see Mick last week at his garage we were over on a reccie and he gave us good advice. I asked him the same question about getting a car for $5000 he said you can get something half decent, any less than that though not a great idea the more money you can spend on a car hopefully the less it will cost with repairs in a year or so down the line. basically second hand cars are quite expensive over there. He also told us some of the garages to go and have a look at and who we could get to check the car over as well. Google his company and give him a ring hes great!

 

Thanks Growler. I have always thought that by paying that little extra you get a car which will cost less down the line, but sometimes the extra paid out to get that "better car" could simply have been used to repair a less costly car and in the end costs the same, with no surprises since you expect the worst with a "cheaper car"...

 

Thanks for the advice though - how much would you have to pay to rent a car and which car would it get you from Mick?

 

Geoff...

[Growler]

Thanks Growler. I have always thought that by paying that little extra you get a car which will cost less down the line, but sometimes the extra paid out to get that "better car" could simply have been used to repair a less costly car and in the end costs the same, with no surprises since you expect the worst with a "cheaper car"...

 

Thanks for the advice though - how much would you have to pay to rent a car and which car would it get you from Mick?

 

 

Mick does rent cars but you need to call him, hes very easy to talk to on the phone and wont rip you off im sorry i cant remember the amount he told us. All i know is i paid £140 odd for 6 days from another company then the insurance £230ish plus the sat nav (which was faulty) and ive come home and theyve charged us fuel even though they checked the fuel was full when i dropped it off. basically had a nightmare with them and yes they are refunding the fuel but wish id have gone to Mick, hes got a very good reputation on here, let me know if you need the number and ill send it to you x

[chrisfen46]

We hired a car off him when we got here he bought it out to where we where staying great bloke .

[geoffuZz]

Thanks guys, I'll get in touch with Mick when we arrive - in the meantime, I want to get back to my questions here...

 

I was wondering if anyone could give some advice on buying a car...

 

We are arriving soon () and will need to buy a car. I guess our budget for a first car would be upto around $5,000 (less if possible). Is that a good price for a first car? How high would you expect the mileage (Kilometrage) to be on such a car? Would this buy a relatively good quality car that could be used to runaround within South Australia while searching for jobs, houses, schools and for doing some limited travelling?

 

How are dealerships in South Australia? Generally are they trustworthy? Are the prices a lot higher than from a private sale? Haggling is expected and are prices better for cash? Do they offer to include "on the road costs" with purchases to encourage you to buy from them?

 

How about roadworthyness (I may have just made that word up...)? Are dealers allowed to sell you a car that could fall apart as you drive it off the lot or is there a law which protects buyers for a limited time? How much does it cost to bring a mechanic or the RAC to check the car before purchase?

 

How about manufacturers - which would be the preferred manufacturers with regards to repairs and spare parts? Would cars manufactured by Holden and Ford perhaps be cheaper to repair in comparison to European cars such as VW, Peugeot, Citroen?

 

Fuel costs - I have never bought a car with a bigger engine than 1.8L - how do the australian 3 and 4L engines compare? What would be the difference regarding other costs such as registration, insurance, etc?

 

I understand there are no MOT's in South Australia - how are cars tested for safety and roadworthyness (there's that word again...) or does no one care?

 

There are a lot of questions here and I'm sure that most will have a simple answer (that have been asked a million times before) but still, any good advice would be appreciated...

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Geoff.

[Guest Guest12727]

For roadworthiness get an RAA inspection done. Relatively cheap and will give you an independent assessment and report. They will come out to where the car is. (well they used to, assume they still do this?). You can check out the RAA website.

 

Go for Aussie or Asian cars over European. Holden, Ford, Mitsubishi, Subaru, Nissan, Toyota, Suzuki, Hyundai etc. Harder to get parts for european cars and you will probably find them more expensive up front too if you are on a tight budget.

 

For general use a 1.6 to 2.0l engine is fine. Only really need bigger if you intend towing a caravan, boat etc. More economical to run smaller engine. Large ones going out of fashion as petrol costs go up. You might buy a cheaper car because of this, then spend all your saved money on fuel. Consider diesal engine.

 

I certainly care when I see clapped out cars spewing black smoke. You can still get done for unroadworthiness by the police and cars defected if they are missing essentials. No MOT doesn't translate to no rules.

 

By the way, I know nothing about cars, so long as it is reliable and gets me from A to B and there is somewhere handy for my coffee cup.............

[chrisfen46]

$5k should get you something decent there is a lot of crap out there due to no mot we bought first car for $2 k took it to mick for service and had 1 A4 paper with defects on it part exes it for a Mitsubishi 380 best car I have ever owned .

[chrisfen46]

Have a look on gumtree when you get here I bought a car got work on there they wanted 700 for it offered them 250 and got it so be cheeky look for something with rego on it aswell. .