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« Last post by galumay on May 16, 2023, 08:09:03 PM »
Looking at buying a car to replace either or both of our existing cars. I have been thinking for a while about purchasing a car to replace the troopy & or hilux in the future as we move into retirement for both of us. I think we need a 4wd for towing and occasional off road work, but not something with the capability of the troopy. The Troopy is 37 years old and needs quite a lot of upkeep to keep it on the road. Its hard for Sal to drive so not an ideal only car, the hilux is 20 years old, quite rusty in parts and not 4wd so not suitable as our only car.
We dont need something yet, but I have been researching what would be suitable and settled on a twin cab, Volkswagen Amarok 4WD with the 2.0L engine. I actually found a good cheap ($25,000 for 2005 model) one in Darwin, in White, which i want for the tropics, but we decided we didn't need it yet and by the time we did it would be a couple of years older so we decided not to buy it. Then a very well specced one came up in Gove, for about $25k as well, but it was in dark blue and a 2014 model, after talking with Sal we decided once again to give it a miss, mainly because it was a dark colour.
I am now down in Melbourne seeing mum and I thought I should see what is available here, and came across a private sale of a 2019 model, in white, no bull bar and standard tyres, with 171k km. Its a lot of k's for a 4 year old car, but they are all highway miles, from daily drive geelong to melbourne. So not really an issue and we will add very few miles. If I can get it for $25k or under its a very cheap car - price range is $28k to $32k. It also has an alloy tray which is probably a detractor from value but I actually prefer. I think if I could get it for under $25 and ship it to darwin it would be a very good buy, $2k to get it to darwin and then bring it home when I go over in August.
Really the only question is, is it worth buying sooner than we need it? The reasons to say yes are, I am actually already here to look at them, so it saves a fare to inspect a car at a later date, I already have to come to darwin in August and dont have to pay the airfare so could drive it home then, i doubt we would ever find a 4 year old car like this for $25k again, its white, has a tray and under 200k kms.
The reasons to say no are, the two cars we still have are both operational still, so wait until we actually need a new car, maybe an even better deal will come up, maybe a white one will come up at home.
I am going to have a look at it tomorrow.
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Ended up buying this Amarok, it checked out with a full service record from VW, it was a one owner car, he bought it new in June 2019 on finance thru VW, no write off history and looked in very good conition as expected given the history. I was able to buy it for $24k inc GST, so the real cost was about $21800. Cost me $2750 to get it to Darwin, and as I said we are flying over in August at no cost to us, so I will drive it home then. In the end I found the price to overweigh any concerns I had about buying it now, I really doubt I would find one that was better value in the future.
The decision we now have to make is whether to sell the troopy or Sal's ute, but we will wait until we have the Amarok here to make that decision.
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