Ask an expert

After years of enjoying company cars, the job I have just accepted comes with a car allowance package and I now need to buy a suitable vehicle.

After doing the numbers on yearly costs and loan repayments etc, I figure I have around $10K to spend on a vehicle to keep within my agreed monthly allowance.

As a sales rep I will be spending a lot of time driving around Auckland so the car I drive needs to look the part (good sales people drive good cars) and be reliable. I have a few ideas but would value your opinion on cars in general especially those have travelled between 100 and 150K's.

The makes and models I am looking at are; Toyota Altezza, BMW 520i, Mitsubishi VRX and a non turbo Subaru Legacy.

Life was a lot easier with a company car!

Wayne

From the "Ask Jack" archives - 24 August, 2010

We had to go through small claims as the new owners felt they had been hard done by. As a result we've been ordered to pay half the repair bill, as even though we had the car regularly serviced it needed $2400 worth of repairs.

The ruling was the car should not have been advertised as being in “excellent condition” as we stated.

There are thousands of sellers out there tempting fate by claiming their cars are in “excellent condition”. Judging from our experience those sellers run a real risk of having legal action taken against them if a problem was to surface a short time after purchase.

It would be great if our experience was highlighted on the AA site. It has been an expensive lesson for us and one we would we like to highlight to other current or future private sellers.