So now it is approaching 24 years old, has done almost 200,000k's, is showing signs of rust, and the paintwork on it is absolutely 'shot'.
A few years ago we were offered $200 as a trade in on a new small Hyundai which we declined. It now has a couple of small oil leaks, makes a heck of a noise when first started and can chug away until you give it a few herbs before it settles down and runs smoothly. But generally, you hop in it, the motor starts straight away and off you go!
Very good friends' son in law runs a Mazda dealership with his brothers in the SE suburbs of Melbourne and he said he could get us a good car at the right price when required. With the old Telstar showing a few signs, we are rolling around to the idea of upgrading.
We are looking at something not too big, cheap to run, lows kilometres, a good make, and at the right price. To buy from Melbourne has extra costs of around $200 in fuel to bring it back up here, the cost of a Safety Certificate so we can register it here, and then there is the question of Warranty if something goes wrong.
There is nothing worse than buying a second hand car and having something go wrong almost immediately. We would have to get it back to Melbourne for the repair of any major warranty items. That would need to be a risk we would have to take and really impractical.
We have spotted an older Honda Jazz which has only done 70,000k's, it kind of fits into what we want if a little smaller than we would ideally like, is a little dearer than we hoped, but has a 3 year warranty on it. It is from a local car dealer up here
Being a great make of car and only 70,000k's seems to indicate it would serve us well for several years.
So there is our dilemma, Buy locally, pay more money but have great back up. Or save money, buy from down south, bring it back up here, register it (with associated Safety Certificate costs) but have restricted backup if something goes wrong!
What to do?
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