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Best way to buy a car?


vongole83

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Hi

We are in quarantine in Melb right now and thinking about what comes next. 

We desperately need to sort out a car, and will just hire one for a bit, but it isn't cheap!!

Longer term what are the most common ways people finance car purchases here? In the UK there are a variety of ways to fund it, do things like hire-purchase and PCP exist here? Is there anywhere we can look for good info on this topic?

We are looking at buying a nearly- new family car and have a reasonable budget.

Thanks

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You will balk at the horrendous prices of second-hand cars over here, but generally cars fair better because of the drier climate. I normally start on Autotrader to get an idea of prices - Gumtree is also good. When I find what I need, I basically rock up with the cash. My budget was always $5,000, but the last car was $5,500 - inflation is a killer!

You can spend a fortune on a car here and end up with something pretty average. If you want to tie yourself up with finance, then I'm sure you'll have no problem find that once you're employed.

https://www.autotrader.com.au/

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The best way to finance your car may be through salary sacrifice with your employer. It’s called novated leasing.and can reduce your tax. 

Cars are horrendously expensive in Australia due to Covid- new cars aren’t being shipped in at anywhere near the normal rate. 

Rather than finance, consider something like Carly or Carbar which will work out much the same cost and buy later when the borders reopen

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6 hours ago, vongole83 said:

Longer term what are the most common ways people finance car purchases here?

The most common ways - apart from novated leasing mentioned above - are finance loans arranged through the dealer (if buying second hand from a company) or a personal loan from your financial institution.   There is useful information on car loans from the government's official Moneysmart website here:

https://moneysmart.gov.au/loans/car-loans

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10 hours ago, vongole83 said:

Hi

We are in quarantine in Melb right now and thinking about what comes next. 

We desperately need to sort out a car, and will just hire one for a bit, but it isn't cheap!!

Longer term what are the most common ways people finance car purchases here? In the UK there are a variety of ways to fund it, do things like hire-purchase and PCP exist here? Is there anywhere we can look for good info on this topic?

We are looking at buying a nearly- new family car and have a reasonable budget.

Thanks

Make sure you do research,

in NSW if the car has over 160.000km or over 10 years no warranty, watch wholesale sellers etc ... do your research, just like back in UK , you have popular brands and unpopular .... 

 

I have japanese cars, because reliable and better IMO  however in london I had a mondeo and Vectra didnt trust other makes there. 

If you are going to rent a car, might as well buy a cheap old banger for 2k run it into the ground ... hire cars are dead money.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Either peruse Gumtree in your given area (i.e.https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-hervey-bay/l3005249) or simply use carsales.com.au. Also look on your local supermarket notice boards as these can be a good resource.

As far as financing goes, you can go direct to the car dealer for it or better still go to your bank. Either way work out who gives the best deals. There are plenty of 0% fees going around at the moment to entice you in... 

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  • 7 months later...
On 26/05/2021 at 01:35, vongole83 said:

 

We are looking at buying a nearly- new family car and have a reasonable budget.

 

Hello

Had some recent experience of buying cars

I hated the used car sales and found some bad quality cars there, not to mention some slippery Del-Boy like characters running the yards!

In the end after four months of searching, we got:

One was a ten year old car. I just wanted a small cheap second hand run-around for local trips and shopping. Something small and easy to park in tight spots. It was advertised on Gumtree, and also on display on the street (some suburbs have an area or street, where locals advertise their cars for sale). 

Other other car was sort of new. We brought it during the end of financial year clearance sales. It was the test drive car at the showroom, and last years model, so although technically new, it was also used.

It had a few scuffs inside on the door leather (which didn't bother us), but the body paintwork was perfect. Between the same car - the model being 2018 and the brand new car being 2019, we saved $15,000. So it pays to ask at showrooms just before new car releases, if they will sell you their test drive cars. 

What I have noticed, is some people in Sydney are quite pretentious, and would NEVER dream of buying last years car model. We even copped some catty comments for buying last years model. We don't care about stuff like that, are were extremely happy with the savings and car we got.  

With this experience, it is possible too find a nearly- new family car, at a reasonably good price

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 23/01/2022 at 11:41, rammygirl said:

At least buying from a dealer gives you some warranty cover. Some good deals going on Kia cars with the old decals, everyone wants the newer updates (not nec new models) with the trendy new logo.

It depends on the age. If you’re buying a car that is older than 10 years or done more than 160000km, here in NSW you don’t get a state warranty. You pretty much need to be paying $10k+ to get a (small) car that qualifies from a dealer  

I got burned. I bought a $7k car from a dealer that lasted 6 weeks before it broke down and after another 6 weeks of towing it between garages it was confirmed the transmission needed re building. There was zero warranty. You have more consumer rights buying a cup of coffee, I’m sure. Quotes were between $3.5k to $7k. I got rid of it at a $5k loss  

 While some dealers may offer a warranty of their own when I asked for the wording from (a different) one and they simply wouldn’t give it to me. To make matters worse the dealers make it difficult to get an independent inspection, either offering their mate to do it for you or refusing to hold the car while it’s scheduled.

9 months later I bought another, through Car Sales. Had a look at the car. Arranged a pre purchase inspection (who goes to the seller to do the inspection and test drive). Then arranged another test drive myself. It’s been fine and despite knowing nothing about cars the process was much easier than going through a dealer.

my takeaway was unless you’re spending enough to actually get a state warranty, go private. Otherwise you pay over the odds and it’s riskier and the inspections have more awkward to arrange. the only benefit of a dealer was having all the cars under one roof  

 

Edited by GeeBee
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