When Steven and Serena returned from the states in September 2004 they came to stay with us until they sorted out their priorities. They were driving a rented car and wished to buy a cheap second hand car for temporary use. I took them to Turner’s auction to get a feel of the market trend for second hand cars in NZ. After seeing a nice car sold for $1750, they gave up the idea of bidding for the 1.5L Honda Civic at a reserved price of $5000. They have test driven the car earlier in the day and initially wanted to bid a maximum of $6,300 for it. The Civic was not from a car yard which has folded. It was imported by Turner’s directly from Japan just for this auction! It has never been registered in NZ.
The other one, a 1.8L Nissan Primera at $4500 was also a good buy; but the panels and bumpers suffered a lot of scratches. The nasty thing was the horrible smell inside which suggested one of two things.
It was in the recent Kobe floods or it has dried blood in the carpets or upholstery! Either way, it was not a good buy even though it was a newer model than the Civic. The Civic’s rear bumper shows a wide gap between the body and the bumper. This could easily be fixed by a mechanic; but the market price appears too high when compared to other cars sold at auction last Tuesday.
It takes time to find a good car at auctions. There are risks involved because a car worth 10k at the car yard usually sells for around 6k at auctions and 8k at the Ellerslie car fairs. First a buyer needs to decide on the model, age of the car, engine size, manual or auto, colour, appearance etc. He needs to take the short listed car for a test drive (we would never have known about the smell otherwise). Time needs to be spent looking all over the car for tell tale signs and listen to the engine at idling speed. Check that everything like wipers, electric window and lights are all working properly. Ensure that there is a jack and a spare tyre. Many cars nowadays carry only an emergency spare which has a speed limit of 60 kph and also a distance limitation. Speedometer readings are only a guide. Many speedos have been wound back by dealers to deceive the unwary buyer. Cars which are over 12 years old and have done over 150k are to be avoided like the plague. Most mechanical parts are starting to fail and require expensive repairs and replacement parts.
Carol bought a car successfully from Turner’s car auction. Chai Kee’s partner brought her there. It was a Nissan Sunny for around 5k. Compared with Lisa’s car from Collin Walker at 9k, Carol’s car was a better buy although it has no power window. Robert Chua bought his Toyota from a car yard also at around 5k. I think the morale of the story is not to buy a car worth less than 5k no mater what. It was a good idea to use a rental car while the Huangs hunt for a suitable car to buy, either from the car yard, car fair or auctions. There are also the classified ads’ private sales. From personal experience private sales are not a good source because of limited choice. Private car owners are notorious for over valuing their personal property.
A few years ago, cars were over priced from source and owners were caught like children playing musical chairs, left holding the product which no body else wanted. Prices of cars have come down a lot since 1995 when I bought my 12 year old Honda Accord for 6.8k. Today the same age car is worth less than half that price. In fact I sold the Honda privately for $500 after only two years’ use. It is very easy to buy a car in NZ; but not so easy to sell it. Apparently, nobody has the same taste for cars as I have.
Comments
Post a Comment