Gary Crick car dealership

After our lovely drive over the Sunshine Motorway ( which is just off the Bruce Highway ) which boasts lovely palm trees and gumtrees all over, our first task was to find a car. We had rented our Thrifty Ford Focus for only 3 weeks and thus would need another car quickly. We did some research prior to coming over here and found out that second hand cars are very very pricey here. As an example, a second hand Subary Forrester with 150000 kilometers and 7 years old will still cost you about 17000 dollars. A completely new Forrester including 3 years warranty costs 32000 : You do the math and quickly come to the conclusion that buying second hand cars is not something you do lightly, especially when you find out that Queensland has no M.O.T. test at all ! You can buy a barrel of rust for 17000 or a reasonable second hand with 150000, but we didn't want to take that risk. I always liked VW Golf new DSG automatic , and thus we went in and checked the Golf dealership. To make a long story short : A 1.6 TDI DSG7 automatic Golf with air conditioning and no further extra's will cost you 40000 dollars. That's about 22000 euro's which would still be a reasonable price in Europe. The problem , as we later found out from someone we met in a grocery shop, is that European cars aren't accepted in any garage over here, and you'll pay dearly for any repairs at an official VW dealer, who ofcourse knows that he is the only one who has the parts from Europe. This would be a very , very expensive mistake. We left Gary Crick's VW dealership and never looked back.

On the other side of Gary Crick was a Toyota dealership though, so we decided to have a look there. We had to walk all the way around because BOTH dealerships had built big walls between the VW and Toyota dealerships, something that made me think a little of the Berlin wall, but it's length was more reminiscent of the Chinese wall. After going all the way around the wall, we finally walked onto the Toyota dealership. We were amazed how cheap the toyota's sell for here. A brand new Toyota Corolla Edge , including 16" wheels, navigation GPS, 1.8 VTTi engine and LOADS more options was priced at 28.000 AUD dollars ( RRP = Retail Price, which means you can usually get around 10% off this price ). Dealers here love to haggle about prices, so make sure you always pay less than 10% of the RRP ( they are legally obliged to quote you the RRP using their computer systems ). They are only allowed here to speak in "Drive Away Prices" which means that whatever they quote you is what you pay at the counter and drive off. There are no hidden costs after this.
When I say there are no hidden costs, I'm actually lying , because although your car will drive fine, you'll find out that the sun and sea salt will have a disastrous effect on your car's overall health, so you really need to protect it. They have a whole arsenal of apparatus to fight this, and this could be seen as a "hidden cost" although technically you can drive away just fine and have no trouble for 1-2 years. A few of the options are buying 35 tinted windows ( keeps the car cooler when standing in the sun all day ) and paint protection and rust protection. When I say "protection" it basically means you get 10 year warranty on the paint and rust of the car : If the sun bleaches it, you get a new paint job , if there's a little rust, it's insured too. It's worth getting these extra's because they will make your car a lot more valuable in a few years down the road ( hence, now you understand why the second hand cars are so pricey ). There are a lot of other options beyond titanium paint, ECI ( electronic rust inhibitor which prevents rust ) and tinted windows which block 65% light and 98% UV ( helps against cancer, some people say ). The tinted window foil is placed on top of the already tinted windows so the car will have very dark windows ( but they all have that over here ). Some options are definately worth getting, and personally I would choose the Tint, the ECI and the titanium paint job, because they will ensure your car will maximize resale value in the future. You can only fit some of these options ( like the paint for instance ) when you initially buy the car because it's basically like an extra coating of very strong protection-paint, so choose wisely.

We did not decide what to buy that day. Perhaps a Golf, or a Corolla, or a Tiguan, or a Rav4. And that was just the two dealerships we went to , there are plenty other dealers here who all want your business and will fight for it ( price-wise ).

From what we have seen on the roads here, this is how the cars are divided :
20% of all cars are Toyota
15% of all cars are Mitsubishi
15% of all cars are Mazda
15% of all cars are Subaru
15% of all cars are Holden
5% of all cars is Nissan
1% is Peugeot + VW + mercedes + BMW ( these are very very exclusive cars here )
We never saw a Renault, I think they don't exist over here. We saw 1 ( !!! ) Peugeot and about 10 volkswagens ( compared to about 100000 Toyota's ).

50% of all cars are SUVs. Small cars are almost non-existant and the smallest engines here are 1.8 liter 130 HP cars ( 100 kw ). Big sedan cars like Holden Aurion or Toyota Camry are very popular here too. Either people have a big sedan, or a big SUV.

Small cars are for "men who sit down to pee" ( gays )