[Tia Maria]

I have posted this on the 'other forum' also, but I really would like as many ideas as possible. I wonder which forum will come up with the best suggestion!?!

"Right, I really need everyone's help/ideas,

We're about to buy our first car in New Zealand. We will probably be looking at second hand, as our money pit of a villa, just keeps eating more and more of our savings.

So suggestions please, we need:

1) Reliable family car (automatic)
2) Room for 2 car seats plus 1 passenger in the back
3) Room for buggies and all extra stuff that comes with children, in the boot.
4) Mainly for use around Auckland and weekends away (no off roading for us!)

And the practicalities:

1) Where is a good place to buy, allowing for the fact I have no car knowledge?
2) How do you pay?
3) Do you drive off with it straight away, or do you get it delivered.
4) Anything else?

As you can tell, I really have no idea, as I've never needed a car before. So any info would be helpful. Lots of ideas please!"

Cheers

Tia

[Aydon]

Hiya,

We just bought two cars here in Chrsitchurch. Can't help you about choices as we got a small runaround for Mags and a 4x4 for me, but we got to the dealers at 10:00 Sunday morning and drove off the forecourt at 14:00 with the cars!

Paid by cheque. The cars have to be registered by the dealer before you drive away. No problem apart from trying to stick to our budget (Which we managed!) :)

[Cardiff Irons]

Blimey, that's a pretty good turnaround. Wouldn't that take about 6 months here in the UK?:laugh

How's it all going with you guys? You missing sunny Wales yet?:cheers

[Aydon]

Absolutely not! :D Getting a bit down that I haven;t found work yet, but it's only been 2 weeks so not too worried.

[StevieD]

Missing all that lovely Welsh weather though eh Aydon! :laugh

[willsken]

Absolutely not! :D Getting a bit down that I haven;t found work yet, but it's only been 2 weeks so not too worried.


Treat it as a well deserved holiday...... I'm hoping no one wants to employ me for a good couple of months! ...... bet this is a comment that will come back and bite me on the bum!!!! :laugh

[Tia Maria]

Thanks Aydon, might sound like a daft question, but is there a limit to which you can pay by cheque? Or do they just phone up your bank to confirm funds?

Back to types of car:

Anyone own an Odyssey or a some kind of suburu estate (or is it called a wagon here?)?

If you do could you plese let me know if you've been happy with them? Did you buy new or 2nd hand? Can you fit a buggy in the back, with all seats in place?

Cheers

Tia

[Tia Maria]

Just thought I'd Bump this, to see if I could get any more replies before we have to buy.

Cheers

Tia

[Marie P]

Hi Tia Maria

We have a Subaru Legacy with a big boot ,get a buggy in easily .

Marie x

[sizzlingbadger]

Just watch that you can get a car seat in the Subuarus. We had trouble with where the seat belt clips into (don't know the technical name :D ) We found you couldn't move it as it was static and right down into the seat, so no lee way trying to get the car seat in. When on the forecourt try fitting the car seat in along with you and your hubby along the back seat, I know sounds like a daft idea but at least you get an idea of space. Also take the buggy along and fit it in the boot. We found with the Prados no room for the buggy and shopping once the boot seats were in use, totally impractical with a family of 5 and two dogs :uhoh If you're also thinking of having any more kids in the future try and get hold of a second car seat and fitting it in as well as sitting some one in the middle. All sound silly things to do but well worth it as you don't want to be changing the car 6 months down the line like we ended up doing. Bought a Isuzu Wizard when we first arrived and found it was too small in the end for getting extra kids and luggage in. Seem to be forever picking up extra children here and there :roll

Looked at the Odyssey, fantastic cars and we would have gone for one of those if we hadn't had the 4x4 beforehand, got used to being up high :D Definitely got plenty of space even with the boot seats in use.

[Tia Maria]

Thanks for the replies, we're going to go with the Odyssey, we've just got to work out which year, and what all the different letters stand for: Odyseey M, Odyssey Prestige, Odyssey S-Vtec, Odyssey Coach, Odyssey Aero Spirit etc etc etc.

Its probably just the difference between whether they have a built in ash tray or not!

Cheers

Tia