15 July 2021

Running the used car gauntlet

| samsez
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Buying a new car was a near vomit-inducing experience a few years ago due to the smarmy salesmen.

READ ALSO The best used car dealerships in Canberra: your ultimate guide to buying a used car

We’re now wanting to get a small, reliable, inexpensive second car and the idea of dealing with used car salespersons is making my stomach turn.

Any recommendations on car yards in Canberra worth visiting – and avoiding?

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russianafroman3:50 pm 27 Apr 21

Educate yourself. Know the common faults of the car you’re buying. Dealers buy from auction houses and trade-ins, often these cars have major issues and are being dumped. Dealers do their best to make sure their cars are good, it’s in their best interest. Although much of the time, their cars are hurriedly slapped together and repaired using the cheapest methods possible. Your best bet is buying privately. Find the right seller. If a car is cheaper than what they sell on average, there’s usually a good reason for that. Although dealers often get a bad rep and many are genuine sellers and have a passion for cars.

Lynne Dickson3:32 pm 27 Apr 21

Check motor dealers google reviews, this will you give you a good indication on quality of service and vehicle.

There are two Braddon automarts in Braddon, one opposite the roundabout and one at the corner, next to National Capital Motors. The one opposite the roundabout has a really annoying salesperson straight out of Texas ( if you know what I mean) The cars there weren’t so special either. The one on the other side had better salesmen ship.

I would prefer private sellers as you save coupla thousands by cutting out the middlemen .

brightworks329:46 pm 24 Jan 10

Samsez, I used to be a running dog of the evil used car industry (I painted used cars, often to make them seem better than they were).

Buy (and sell) privately. Yards put on about 30%, and the warranty covers only items that are unlikely to wear out in the warranty period.

Buy a copy of the Dog and Lemon Guide(from your newsagency -if they don’t have it, seek it out), a truly entertaining detailed review of all cars on the Australian and New Zealand markets, with $ values, likely faults, good features etc. written by complete cynics (their words).

Get more accurate car values by going to an online car sales site and using their car valuing screens – either Red Book or Glass’ Guide (the only two that research sales comprehensively)

This is more work and anxiety-making than delivering yourself into the loving arms of a car dealer, but you’ll end up glad.

Oh, and private sellers lie too, even the mostly honest people.

Go with private sales

but first research the sorts of cars/models/years you are looking at then walk through the commercial caryards looking at said models, number of kms for the years, prices over a couple of weeks and then look to the Canberra Times for private sales of similar cars: you’ll be amazed at the difference in price and kms.

Get the one you are interested in checked through REVS and looked over by a mechanic (really worth the money) and be prepared to walk away from it

P Taker said :

realityskin said :

http://www.aclasscarsact.com.au/

Mate owns it, they sell a ton, top blokes.

I have looked at this website recently. All cars look tidy and reasonably priced.

$6,000 for a 12 year-old Daewoo Nubira is “reasonably priced” ?! He’s got two Nubiras, the other one is $8,000.

troll-sniffer6:04 pm 19 Jan 10

Chris Clearihan of Braddon Auto Mart in Mort Street has been around for a lot of years so must be doing something right. Like any used car salesman he’ll sell you a $6,000 car for $10,000 if he can get away with it but if you go looking with a good idea of what you should be paying he’ll give you a fair deal and honour warranty work.

The quickest way to get conversant with what you should be paying is to select a few models and ages of cars for your needs, and then do a Red Book search for the book value of the car, followed by some research on eBay’s current auctions and completed sales. Generally you need to add $2,000 to a $10,000 private sale for the dealer’s warranty and other expenses, which is a fair margin for the peace of mind. If you don’t think the warranty and expenses are worth $2,000 then you need to spend the time to buy privately, which could mean several long weekends occupied and many kms travelled.

Personally I buy privately because I start looking well before I need to buy and can usually get a better deal than the car yard can offer me, but if you don’t have the luxury of time, and are prepared to arm yourself with a clear idea of current values for specific models, then a car yard is definitely worth a visit.

icantbelieveitsnotbutter said :

Stay clear of Canberra Fleet & Wholesale (out in Woden somehwere)… I saw I nice car on the internet that took my fancy, I rang them up to take it for a test drive. I was happy with the car, but not the price. When we couldn’t come to an agreement, I was accused of taking the car for a ‘joy ride’, wasting petrol money, their time etc… They basicaly told me to F-off.

I had a similar experience with a certain northside Nissan dealer… oh wow, same company! 🙁

realityskin said :

http://www.aclasscarsact.com.au/

Mate owns it, they sell a ton, top blokes.

I have looked at this website recently. All cars look tidy and reasonably priced. In saying that i have not seen or drive the cars in person.

Do as much research on the Internet as you can, decide how much you want to spend and stick to it – except if you happen to find a car that is in excellent condition with low mileage and has full service history. Take it for a good test drive, if they won’t let you do that, move on. If you do test drive they will ask you for your licence and photocopy it and ask you to sign a form – this is so they can direct any traffic infringements your way if you are naughty while you are driving it. They will keep the form, but make sure that you get them to enter the time and date you took the car back and get a copy so you don’t get charged for someone elses’ misdemeanours.
If you are looking at a dealer’s car, buy at the end of the month – they need sales then to make their sales figures look good to their boss. Don’t be afraid to bargain on the price, if they won’t reduce the price see what you can squeeze out of them as extras (car mats, mud flaps, full tank of petrol, full service, new tyres, etc, etc).
I can recommend McGuinness Motors in Fyshwick, that’s where I bought a very good used car in November 2009 – the sales guy is Robert I think. But I don’t know if they have the sort of car/budget you’d be looking for.
Good luck.

icantbelieveitsnotbutter10:11 am 19 Jan 10

Stay clear of Canberra Fleet & Wholesale (out in Woden somehwere)… I saw I nice car on the internet that took my fancy, I rang them up to take it for a test drive. I was happy with the car, but not the price. When we couldn’t come to an agreement, I was accused of taking the car for a ‘joy ride’, wasting petrol money, their time etc… They basicaly told me to F-off.

Oh, and buy private

for second hand I think private sales are the way to go too.

I’d look at the EPIC car fair (weekends) or on allclassifieds for any of these:

Daihatsu Sirion – tiny, but lovely to drive, and has 4 doors. downside is that Daihatsu has left the Aust market, so parts might get expensive. But I had one for 5 years and nothing ever needed doing. cheap petrol. You can pick these up pretty cheaply.

Honda Jazz – fair bit bigger – lots of people love how you can change the back seats around to fit big stuff in the boot.

Or any small mazda or toyota not more than 5 or 6 years old.

Clown Killer10:53 am 18 Jan 10

Go private. a used car dealer will be looking to get anything between $500-15000 clear profit on a vehicle.

New car retailers generally don’t want to deal with a trade-in so they discourage it (an honest salesperson – if that’s not a tautology – will tell you straight out that you’ll get a better deal by no offering a trade-in). As a result, lots of folk who have bought new cars still have their old one parked out the front of their house.

Working against you is the sad reality that the majority of people are reluctant to accept the fact that their car is worth a minescule fraction of what they paid for it two, three, five or more years ago – so getting a sensible price in a private market can be hard – if you can’t get the seller to be sensible walk away, there’s lots of cars out there.

georgesgenitals said :

Oh, and never, ever, under any circumstances, buy an older european car. It’s asking for trouble.

Quite a few friends have had older European cars – and it seems the only way to keep one running is to make sure you have a spare car of the same model to use for parts. They may be reliable but parts can cost a lot.

I’ve bought 3 of 4 cars privately, and only really had major trouble with the third one (which was my own fault for buying the car in a hurry – if I’d had time to think about it I probably wouldn’t have bought it). The phrase to remember is definitely buyer beware. Getting a mechanic to check it out is definitely a good idea, as is a REVS check. I had my father and my brother (a mechanic) accompany me each time I checked out a car and they were indispensable – noticed things I would never have picked up on.

I bought my fourth car (a 2001 Lancer) from Canberra Toyota in Belconnen last year and have not had any difficulties (touch wood). After visiting all the caryards in Braddon I was about to give up – the salesmen either tried to bully me into buying a car I didn’t want (if I say I don’t want a hatchback, I don’t want a hatchback!), bully me into spending more money than I had, or even just flat out ignored me. I stopped in at Canberra Toyota on the way home, and the salesman was lovely, didn’t try to talk me into or out of anything. I saw the car I wanted, took it straight out for a test drive, and bought it that afternoon. The price was the same as private sellers were asking for the same model – but it was clean, well detailed, and I have a warranty.

Pommy bastard7:57 am 18 Jan 10

Why pay a dealer premium on top of the price of a used car?

nothing new in my post so feel free to skip away. but yeah, go private sale after doing your research (choice, consumer reports are good places to start–use your local library and avoid the subscription fee), use this to decide on the make, model and year of the car you want. avoid anything that has been used professionally and be careful if it has a tow ball (i.e., try to find out if it has been towing a camper car twice a year or a two ton work trailer every day). but i suspect make, model and year, a review of service records, and the kind of people you are buying it from (little old lady vs. strung out teenager–not to generalise, of course) will be the most important factors in determining–as much as possible–the reliability of the car. in the end anything used is a bit of a crapshoot so you just have to suck it up. my advice – buy a subaru. so far as i can tell the things are damned near indestructible.

small reliable car is mazda 121.

i bought mine for 1500, and hasnt missed a beat. runs on nothing, bought thru all classifieds, not the prettiest, but for cheap reliable motoring, there is not much better.

other reliable optons is a diahatsu charade.

georgesgenitals said :

Oh, and never, ever, under any circumstances, buy an older european car. It’s asking for trouble.

That’s odd; my older european car (a high-mileage Mercedes bought for $3,000) has 450,000km on the original motor yet it’s been 100% reliable and proven significantly cheaper to maintain over time than my wife’s much newer Falcon.

I have a small and inexpensive car you can have… Very cheap to run, cause it doesn’t run….

Seriously though, I second all the buy privately suggestions. Only benefit would be if the dealer ship offered warranty &/or a trade in good enough to counter the higher prices.

Got my car from Belconnen Cars and Boats a few years back. Basically they had exactly what I was looking for. Make sure you’re talking to the right people though. One of the salesman made a great offer on trade-in value of my old car which quickly disappeared when he double checked with the boss. Also if you do go through a yard, not unreasonable to expect to knock some dollars off the sticker price – it usually incorporates a mark up.

They also told me that my old car was going straight to the scrap heap, interesting when I saw a bloke with it at the shops a couple of months later. *SURPRISE ME* – a misrepresentation from a used car dealer. No big issue other than I didn’t appreciate the bull from the dealer.

I second buying a car at Pickles Auctions. You can look at the cars on the web before the auction, then check them out in their huge indoor lot with no sales pressure from guys breathing down your neck. I love my little ex-govie Laser I bought it at Pickles in 2002 and it’s never missed a beat.

Toby Field (House Of Cars) at Phillip did the right thing by me. I know, I was shocked too. 😉

Also, don’t bother with an inspection from the NRMA or an inspection company. They’re too busy covering their butts to be useful. Take it to a self-employed mechanic (not a litigation-averse chain) and ask him (or her) to tell you verbally what he *really* thinks.

And watch out for warranties. If they offer you one from a third party insurer, ask for proof that they really paid the premium. When my car died, the insurer had never heard of me and the dealer claimed they’d paid it. I was $7K out of pocket.

I would research your “small, reliable, inexpensive” cars online first before you do anything. Put your budget into carsales and see what catches your eye then read as many reviews as you can on that model.

At least then you can deal with the smarmy salesmen armed with a bit of knowledge and an idea what you’re looking for!

I would personally buy privately but there’s no harm in a car yard if it has the model you’re after and the price is competitive. Just get a proper mechanical check whichever way you go!

Went through this last year myself. Braddon Auto Mart is where I bought mine (the guys who are on the roundabout in braddon – as mentioned in the post above though there are about three or four in that same area). The Auto Mart guys sell at around the 10k point as a starter and their cars are reasonably new (most have done about 60000k or thereabouts). I found their prices and quality of car to be the best after suffering through Fyshwick (poor selections most of the time) and making the serious mistake of actually venturing out to woden to look at their dealerships (seriously bad selections and very poor pricing). Belconnen’s second hand dealers are decent selection wise but you should expect to pay a bit more round their way (good cars just closer to 15k – you’ll also find the trade-ins at dealers to be fairly decent though totally, radically overpriced in my experience). As noted, after all that I came back to Braddon (I suggest you leave them to last too if only because by the time you get there they’ll probably make you a direct offer on a sale the minute you walk onto the lot – such as it happened to me). Usual used car salesman jargon will be exchanged (I was told the car was locally owned, not true at all) but at the end of the day it was a sound vehicle whose previous owner had taken reasonable care of it (and is only 4 years old). Dealers reveal themselves by the quality of cars they allow on their lot and in that sense the Braddon Auto Mart and Belconnen fellas seem to be at least setting a ‘standard’ whereas some others would try to sell you a vehicle that is frightening just to look at (see Fyshwick for what I mean). Best of luck!

definately go private!

and if you are interested, I am selling a very reliable small car, which I love, and only selling due to needing a larger family car…

georgesgenitals2:40 pm 16 Jan 10

Oh, and never, ever, under any circumstances, buy an older european car. It’s asking for trouble.

georgesgenitals2:39 pm 16 Jan 10

Buy privately – the majority of used car sales yards are shonks. Stick with mainstream models, preferably Japanese if you want a small car. It’s a good idea to set your budget, but try to spend $1000 less than your maximum, so you have some spare cash to ensure your new vehicle is completely up to date on servicing, tyres and insurance. Always look for a good service history, and get the vehicle checked. Don’t be afraid to refuse to leave a deposit until after the inspection. If you miss out on a car, there’s plenty more.

Given the cost of new cars (can be had for $12-13k driveaway), consider whether this will be a better option, given the inclusion of warranty, and that it will be brand new.

Any recommendations on car yards in Canberra worth visiting

Nope.

– and avoiding?

All of them.

Basically what Damian Haas said – don’t put too much weight in an NRMA ‘inspection’ though.

http://www.aclasscarsact.com.au/

Mate owns it, they sell a ton, top blokes.

Holden Caulfield12:54 pm 16 Jan 10

An idea of your proposed budget will help, too.

I bought my last couple of used cars at the Canberra Car Fair and have been happy both times. Of course the ex govt auctions are best if you want to spend about $20k for a second hand commodore, falcon or camry.

http://www.canberracarfair.com.au/

http://www.pickles.com.au/cars/

Buy privately.

Identify which type of car you need. What model, what year, what options.

Look in classified ads and online to estimate how much you should pay for this model. Taking into account condition, kms travelled etc.

Always ask to have the car checked before purchase. Use a mechanic you trust. Expect to pay $100 for this service. The NRMA may offer this service, i know the RACV do. You may need to leave your licence or a deposit.

If you decide to buy, use REVS and make sure the car is unencumbered.

Pay cash, haggle.

If the seller wont meet your maximum, walk away. There are plenty of cars in the world.

Weaselburger10:22 am 16 Jan 10

there’s a half decent caryard in braddon where i got my commodore, Can’t remember the street name but it’s just near the big roundabout up from repco with streamers all around the place

Unless you’re trading in a car, you’re probably better off going private. If you don’t know much about cars, get someone like the NRMA to do an inspection.

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