Hi Guys,
My girlfriend is starting her graduate job soon, she is looking for a medium sized car as her first car, something below $9K.
Do you guys have any suggestions? Is it ok to buy a corolla or civic over 100k km?
First Car for My Girlfriend
kelkel108 on 24/01/2016 - 09:57
Comments
let me have a look at carsales
just saw this one
http://www.carsales.com.au/dealer/details/Mazda-3-2008/OAG-A…On the ad they say they changed the engine to one that has only run for 67k km, does this look dodgy?
I wouldn't touch that one personally.
avoid!
check out the diesel ones. They're very economical and powerful!
Depends.
What kind of job does she have?
What kind of car does she want? A vanilla Corolla, or a Ferrari? I prefer the latter.
What is her mass? Will she fit?
What's your budget? Because FYI can't get a Ferrari for 2k.
Does she mind driving a fridge?
Nursing, she only needs it to drive to and from work.
She doesnt want something too small, like yaris or jazz, or too big like a SUV.
She is very slim she will fit any car
less than $9k
Hey, more cushion for the pushin'…
Gla we aren't ealing wih a hippo here.
Please use a dictionary.ffs
My sister got her first car in 2011 and it was a 2006 Corolla. It had 200,000+km on it but it was still running well. She used it for all her placements during her nursing degree and for a year during her grad job. She ended up trading it in for a new car.
I recommend a Corolla, even a Yaris. The interior of the Yaris isn't that small and if she rarely has passengers, there's no need to get a bigger car.
Do you think buying off dealer is more safe?
Personally i dont think so, have had a bad experience with one that has put me off ever buying from a dealer, all depends which one you get though..
Have had a few mechanics tell me you're better off going privately.Thanks, my parents' have had good and bad experiences from a dealer. I see that it's easier with a dealer since they organise all the documents for you.
I've been reading this on buying cars:
http://whirlpool.net.au/wiki/buying_car_advice
It mentions to have "official letters with signatures from both parties (buyer and seller) stating agreed sales price and transfer/acceptance of initial deposit". if i'm buying privately, how do I organise these letters?
@kelkel108: Well for everyone we've bought/ sold we just write up and print out our own receipt and get them to sign that
I don't have experience with buying off private sellers but I believe dealers are a bit easier. You can easily haggle at least 10-15% off the price.
For your money you will be buying used naturally… a lot of cars today have inherent problems thru faulty design or manufacturing penny pinching, you want to avoid them especially if they over 3-4 years old. Some of those cars are still recommended by many even though they know the pitfalls.
Don't be led by gimmicks / accessories or things that are of no concern like colour, fancy rims, etc…
For cars in that category Toyotas rule, no argument. Then again, it depends on the past history of the car so just being a used Toyota does not mean its previous owner didn't put it thru hell.Ignore the kids that call Toyotas fridges.. yes, they are boring, but anything well made and is reliable can be called boring.
Don't buy extended warranty. Get a thorough inspection done before handing over the full payment. Don't take delivery until any fault is fixed. The car yard will be your best friend and tell you to take it now and bring it back later for them to do any repairs. Don't do that..
If I buy through dealer, should i still get it inspected?
Do I just find a mechanic to get it checked?
Dealers can be as dodgy or worse than a normal used car seller.
A mobile mechanic would be able to give a good appraisal of the car on site for a reasonable fee.
First cars should always be junk as they always get scratched, dinted and crashed. Buy her a 180B.
Haven't seen one of those for years, I think they are pretty much all piles of rust now. Did see a 1973-5 galant wagon like my first car today though, mine died of rust about 20 years ago.
Yeah thats the only thing that would kill them cars - rust… definitely a rare sight these days
Drove a 180B for 4 years from new.. not a speck of rust and was a perfect car.
Can confirm, had one and did all that. I would look at a cheap 2k car, in syd you can get a lot for that and use it for a year or so and pretty much get most of your money back if you dont crash it etc. Then spend 9k on a car.
9k car used for a year with bumper and car park damage might be only 6k in a year. 2k car is still going to be roughly a 2k car in a year with or without minor damage.
Honda civics and Toyota corollas over 100k, provided they have evidence of service history (and I mean, religious service history, without a single service missed) are excellent. Especially those from the mid to late 1990's. But of course that may not be to her liking. What I can recommend to you is a Hyundai i30 diesel. I bought one second hand for about 10k with 35,000km on it (deal of the century!) and put about 15,000km on it over the past 8 months. Its extremely economical yet not underpowered, reliable, and comfortable. Plus I think they look pretty nice without being too showy. The first generation i30's can be purchased for under 10k. Manual diesels are the way to go in terms of economy and price but they can also be bought in auto for a bit more.
You could pickup a 2007/08 Mazda 3 in that price range they have 6 airbags and are very reliable.