[WhiterodFamily]

Hi,

My family and I are moving out to Auckland in September and one of the many things to do is buy a secondhand family car.

Where is the best place to buy a secondhand car in Auckland? Are there any areas where car dealerships group together?

And also are there any things I should look out for?

Thanks for your help, these forums have been a great source of advice and information, making the move a little less daunting.

Thanks

Terry

[jubjub]

There are several car "hot spots" Great North road, Great South Road, Ellerslie Panmure Highway, and Turners auctions

http://www.turners.co.nz/Branches/TurnersAuctions/tabid/285/Default.aspx

Thats just off the top of my head, there is certainly no shortage of places that you can buy a car, we bought ours from a little bloke in Henderson called Roly....

I have also seen recommendations for Moyes on Ellerslie Panmure highway too, think it was Babette&Andy that got their car from them?

Edited, just found this too http://www.carfair.co.nz/

[kiwidebs]

And if you're on the Shore there's always Wairau Rd and Albany.

[Tia Maria]

I have PM'd you!

Cheers

Tia

[diforsyth]

I asked the same question outside this forum and received the following reply: -

"A great place to buy a reasonable second hand car on the North Shore is Turners Auctions. They import Japanese cars and are very reasonable, they also do the necessary checks to make sure you are not getting a dud and will register the car for you for the first 6 months. There is no shortage of 2nd hand cars in Auckland. You can get a good idea of the prices of vehicles from the Trade and Exchange paper/ website http://www.te.co.nz/."

[funkster_uk]

hi,
i have just moved from the UK about 2 months to auckland and am in the process of buyying a car. the things i have found out:-

99% of cars in NZ are auto

Prices at the minute are quite good for second hand cars as there is an over supply of cars, however manuals are quite rare and in turn are quite more expensive than the autos. I want a manual and am having a hard time.

Petrol is much cheaper than in the UK. However when you are earning and living on the dollar it is more expensive and the best bet is to get small engine car. You will see a lot of high powered engines going cheap, but are simply too expensive to afford.

Road User Charge - Diesel is much chepaer than petrol and more economical however you also have to pay ROad USer CHarge on top of your petrol when you buy a diesel engine car. This works out at approx $350 per 10k kms. and bumps the cost of diesel up to the same as normal petrol. you have to pay this up front and cannot let it run out.

The standard of driving in NZ is absolutely apalling. Far worse then in the UK whcih i couldnt beleive to start with so dont buy a fancy car if you are scared of getting it scratched or dinged.

Wages do work out a lot less here and certain costs are relatively a lot higher. I was looking to get a new BMW 5 series but i am now looking at, taking into account the above, a toyota estate..... and an old one at that.

hope this helps
mike

[Babette & Andy]

Hi Terry & family - welcome to the forum.

We were totally overwhelmed by the options available to us in the way of auctions and car dealerships. Some of us are more knowledgeable when it comes to cars, engine sizes etc than others. We just wanted a decent size family car, good for most terrains and camping holidays but no 4wd needed. And we also preferred a manual (I know there are many debates about Automatics being easier etc, but it's everyone's own preference at the end of the day).

Having looked around for 2 weeks, mainly around the Great South Road area and on the web, we went to Moyes (www.moyes.co.nz) which is a bit like a 'car supermarket', however they are also a dealer for General Motors / Holden / Vauxhall / Opel (all the same really).

We've been really happy with our find: 3yr old Holden Zafira, 95000km, towbar, roofbars $16000 (just to give you an idea).

Turners auctions also have a great name, but you do need to know what you're after.

As Mike mentions above, a lot of fairly high powered cars seem to go for lower prices than expected. We allmost fell into this 'trap' - a lot of these cars (with huge exhausts to match!) are in favour with the boy racers of this country - AVOID if you can!

4 wheel drive cars are great but do you really need them in Auckland? We reckoned not. Also, be aware that many Japanese cars have radio/cd's installed with Japanese instructions only . . .

Best of luck!!

Babette

[xanctus]

You can always check www.autotrader.co.nz, I have found my wagon from the dealer that advertise the car. However, make sure when you buy japanese car sometimes the car are freshly imported from Japan, and some of the stereo device are in "KANJI" or other words in Japanese...mamamia...it shocked me quite a bit at first. :D:D:D