Buying a car - help!

[yetsla]

I must admit I am a self confessed car nuffy.

I am about to lease a car, want to spend up to a maximum of 25k on a car a few years old. Must be Australian built for my lease, so basically I am tossing up between a VE commodore or the comparable Falcon.

In a nut shell, which is better and why?

Where is the best place to buy a used car? Dealer? Private sale? Auctions?

Help would be great!!

 

[Tormented Tiger]

Get a Ford territory or similar. Bending into cars is a thing of the past, let alone them back breaking boots.
Carsales

 

[Ledger]

Get a Ford territory

Do NOT do this. Territory is incredibly plagued with problems, a mate of mine's old man had a Territory (company car) and a ball joint gave way..entire suspension collapsed. Just read the Herald Sun Cars Guide; so many letters sent in from owners. Avoid at ALL costs.

 

[Tormented Tiger]

Do NOT do this. Territory is incredibly plagued with problems, a mate of mine's old man had a Territory (company car) and a ball joint gave way..entire suspension collapsed. Just read the Herald Sun Cars Guide; so many letters sent in from owners. Avoid at ALL costs.

Fair enough, got a Kluger myself and the Territory was the only Aussie Made SUV I could think of.

 

[krusden]

I must admit I am a self confessed car nuffy.

I am about to lease a car, want to spend up to a maximum of 25k on a car a few years old. Must be Australian built for my lease, so basically I am tossing up between a VE commodore or the comparable Falcon.

In a nut shell, which is better and why?

Where is the best place to buy a used car? Dealer? Private sale? Auctions?

Help would be great!!

Here is my only tip.

GET THE CAR CHECKED BY RAA/RACT/RACV/RACQ... or what ever state you're in.

it will be the best $130 (or roundabouts) you have ever spent.

If the seller baulks - the car is a lemon
If the dealer wheels out their own check and looks iffy at letting the organisation check it - its a lemon.

Here is why you should do this. Got a car a few years ago, private sale off a friend of my mum's. Didn't get it checked cause this person was "trustworthy" and had a service history blah blah blah.

few weeks later there's a ticking noise in the engine. Engine was f****d and had to be replaced.

Dont have an expensive lesson like this mate.

 

[Team Mo']

Check the engine. Mate of mine bought a car (shit one at that) and didn't even check the engine.

The car is still sitting in his front lawn waiting for the fried battery and god knows what to be fixed. Pretty comical stuff...

 

[scooterb]

Definitely avoid Ford Territorys. A family friend has had two for business cars and both of them have had numerous problems within a short period of time.

You're probably better off sticking with Holdens, as they are proven to be much more reliable from what I have seen.

 

[MadMac]

Definitely avoid Ford Territorys. A family friend has had two for business cars and both of them have had numerous problems within a short period of time.

You're probably better off sticking with Holdens, as they are proven to be much more reliable from what I have seen.

Territory is no good because the engine was designed for a sedan type [Falcon] and not for a SUV. Holdens however are even worse. I'm a taxi operator and would never consider buying Commodore simply because they don't last as long as Falcons or even Camrys. Granted, you may not make as big a mileage as a cabbie, but still. Over 90% of taxis in Australia are Falcons and there's a good reason for it.
My tip for everyone buying a car regardless of make is to go to local Auctioneers. You don't neccessarilly have to bid for a car as there are lot of cars on fixed prices. If you want to go to the actual auction most of the time you can buy those cars even cheaper. Even car dealers buy cars there and then re-sell them with jacked up prices. Last time I went to Pickles Auctions in Balcatta here in WA I saw a bloke from Brian Gardiner's Holden buying 7 two year old Commodores for around $13.000 each. Their market value at the time would've been at least $18.000. My Falcon that I bought that day [3 years ago] already has over 500.000 kms and so far I haven't had any major problems apart from the diff which I replaced recently @ 490.000 kms. At the time it was only 2 years old, had 89.000 kms on the clock, LPG powered and I forked out only $13.500. Ex- Westpac company car. All ex-govt or company cars have full service history and have been checked. Peace of mind.

 

[krusden]

All ex-govt or company cars have full service history and have been checked. Peace of mind.

- I had an ex govt car before my lemon that my parents picked up in 1989 and sold to me in 98/99 that ran until 2006.

The only reason it stopped was that my dumbs*** cousin pranged it.

 

[Jesse Custer]

Im a mechanic and i can safely say that the Ford Falcon is a better product by far. Its Ford's marketing team that lets them down. That and personal bias is the only reason the inferior commodore sells more.

Go the Falcon. Better still, go a japanese car.

 

[Bodicifer]

The current Falcon is better than the Commodore. Whatever happens, get a pre-purchase check.

 

[we57st]

Im a mechanic and i can safely say that the Ford Falcon is a better product by far. Its Ford's marketing team that lets them down. That and personal bias is the only reason the inferior commodore sells more.

Go the Falcon. Better still, go a japanese car.

What are your thoughts on European cars?

 

[Jesse Custer]

What are your thoughts on European cars?

Over engineered hence the price. Plus the cost in terms of tax to import these cars to Australia. Thats why i rate Jap cars. They have the same technology, better reliability, are cheaper to maintain and obviously a cheaper price tag.

I've seen the underside of a lot of cars, brand new Falcon and Commodores already leaking oil, squeaks, rattles etc. Get a jap car that has done over 200,000 kms and its crystal clean!!