The Saga of Buying a Cheap Car in Brisbane

You wouldn't believe just how difficult it is to buy a cheap car in Brisbane.

In London, you can pick up a reasonably good bomb for around £600-700, which is about $1500.  For that, you'd get something that would have a bit of tax (rego) on it, maybe it wouldn't have MOT (safety certificate - but that's not a legal requirement til you have to renew the tax) and it would go relatively well.  As bombs go.

But here, you can't get anything even in that condition for under $4000 (£2000).  And actually, its a legal requirement that if you are selling the car with rego (tax), then you must have a valid, recent safety certificate (MOT).  So seeing that cars under $4000 are usually the sorts of things you would be selling because they're too expensive to repair, or too expensive to be made road-worthy, you can be sure that there is absolutely no point in buying one.  But my problem is, I have only just got back here, and Redcliffe has no decent public transport, so if I want to go anywhere, I need a car.  Which brings me to problem number 2 - money.  As the £ is crap now against the $, instead of me getting 2.5 times (i.e. £1000 = $2500), I'm only getting 2 times (ie £1000 = $2000 - and in some cases, with the necessary transfer fees, even less).  And seeing as I am currently unemployed, and won't be paid for some 2 months anyway once I start my new job, that means that the situation is dire.  I don't have that much cash just lying around - and I'm not able to get a loan as I don't have any Aussie payslips. 

So as a result, I am on a very tight budget.  Dad and I have been going around so many car yards that my head is literally spinning - and there's nothing remotely suitable in my price range, which means I have to re-evaluate my budget.  I bring Dad because, let's face it, I don't want to buy something that will fall apart the minute I drive away - and actually we did test drive one like that, the engine literally fell apart during the test drive and we only just made it back.

So for now, it's back to the drawing board, more car yards to hit, more newspapers to read - until I find the one.  Meantime, what do you think of this one?  If I had $8000 I could buy it....

Pretty swish, eh?  Wanna lend me some cash?  Support the "Kylie needs a car so I'm going to help her buy one" fund?  Come on, you know you want to...