Round Up

2014 is almost over folks and you might have noticed that TV shows and news bulletins are filling their airtime with yearly round ups of all that has gone on over the last 365 days. So not wanting to miss out I figured I'd do the same for my blog. The only catch being I've only been doing this for 6 weeks. Not to worry though, consider this my month a bit a review instead! Have I achieved what I set out to do so far?

My main aim,by drawing on personal experience, was to show people new to Australia and Australians alike that buying a European car in Aus didn't need to be expensive nor difficult. Second to this was to show people some absolute automotive crackers for sale, cars that some might have thought were only attainable in Europe. All this would be mixed in with a little bit of news and some reviews. As of yet there have been no reviews, no one wants to give me their car quite yet! However some will come in the new year, I have given you readers out there some new car news though, so expect that to continue. 

What I am most proud of though is my car of the week feature, a chance for me to do my favorite thing, search the classifieds for lovely, reasonably priced European motors. Since November I've shown people everything from hot hatches, German super coupes to bonafide classics all for under $20,000 in almost every state in Australia. Which given a brand new Kia Cerato could set you back that if not more, the chance to own something a little more interesting is a tempting proposition. 

Plenty S3's out there for under 10k

Or how about becoming a driving god in an M3 for under 20k?

Now I know that there are some flaws with my reasoning, lots and lots of people pick a new car for the security they offer, things like reliability and warranty's. So for this I offered a comparison between some brand new Asian and European mid sized hatch backs. And low and behold a Skoda Octavia turned out to be one of the cheapest new cars you could buy in Australia, with French manufactures like Renault and Citroen offering 5 year plus warranty's on their cars. Since writing that piece though manufacturer offers have changed but I will say if your in the market for a new car right now, Volkswagen are offering the new Polo for under $16,000 and a big new Jetta for $19,990 (that's Kia Cerato money by the way). I'll be sure to do more comparo's like this in the new year.

Octavia is cheaper than you might think, it's just a Golf in Czech suit don't you know

My final thought of the year though, if you still need a bit of convincing about acting on my car of the week feature is this. You want the reassurances a new, reliable Japanese car can give you, especially in a country as vast as Australia, fine, I totally get it. You budget $20 to $30k for it, also fine. But how about opting for a model or spec below, an S instead of an SE for instance, who really needs a rear view camera anyway? With that extra wedge of cash you've just saved go get yourself a European weekend warrior! A two car garage is always better than one in my book.

One of these in the garage for the weekend maybe?

Thanks for reading thus far, Happy New year everyone!