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Buying Privately?
OK, although here at Private Fleet, we work with customers to help them get the best deal on the sort of car they want (). But we do know that sometimes, people will use our site for research via the car reviews and then go and buy the car they want through a private sale that’s been advertised on an online auction site of the EBay type or through the good old classified ads in the newspaper.
For those that are buying through private sales directly from the owner rather than through us or from a dealer, here are a couple of tips to help you get a good deal (of course, you can avoid the hassle by going through us, etc. etc. in shameless plug for what we do).
1. Don’t agree to meet the car owner in a park or anywhere apart from their house. For one thing, you won’t be able to see those tell-tale pools of oil on the driveway or in the garage. For another thing, the owner will have driven to the meeting place, so when you see the car and try to start it up, it’ll be hot and you won’t have the chance of starting it from cold.
2. In a similar vein, the first thing you should do when inspecting the car is to put your hand on the bonnet. If it’s warm while the rest of the car isn’t, the owner has warmed it up. This is a warning sign about what the thing is like when starting from cold.
3. Sellers who are about to move overseas are more open to negotiation, as they just want to get rid of the thing for a price that’s more or less in the right vicinity. What’s more, the car is likely to be in reasonable condition – they would have been driving it still if they hadn’t been moving to Japan or wherever.
4. Wealthy people can be easier to haggle with, as a couple of hundred bucks don’t make much difference to them, even though it can mean a fortnight’s groceries to you. However, some wealthy people became wealthy by watching every single penny. In this case, keep your fingers crossed and hope that they sympathise with your situation as they were there once and know what it’s like to be on a tight budget, rather than Mr Scrooge.
5. Be very, very suspicious about cars being sold privately by mechanics or panel beaters. If they’re selling it, it’s probably because they can’t fix it up any further and want to get rid of the thing before it explodes. If you’ve ever had a courtesy car from a local Mum & Dad garage/mechanics (as opposed to a courtesy car from a specialist garage), you’ll know that these tend to be in rather rough condition, although they are road legal. Something being sold off is probably worse. Stay away from them unless you own a wrecker’s yard. Stay even further away from amateur car mechanics, as the resulting junk heap is a failed project and is best used as scrap or given a second life as a hen house.
6. Also be a bit dubious about cars that have been given after-market modifications such as lowering, fat tyres and sporty accessories. Guess how this car has been driven.
7. You are less likely to find them being sold off in private sales, but ex-taxis and ex-cop cars tend to have high mileage and good maintenance histories.
Get Me To The Church On Time
I don’t know whether it’s because it’s summer time or whether it’s to do with Valentine’s Day being just around the corner but I’ve seen quite a few cars running around the place on Saturdays with white ribbons on.
Now, once upon a time, probably back when my parents got married, there was less fuss about what sort of car was used to get the bride to church on time. The thing that really mattered was that she arrived there, preferably on time. I’m not sure when the tradition of having a fancy car (or a horse and carriage) to turn up in and go from the church to the photo shoot location to the reception in came from, but it appears to be fairly recent. My suspicion is that it dates back as far as the early 1980s and the start of the glamour-wedding industry that started after the royal wedding of Charles and Diana.
So what sort of car makes a good wedding car? Well, the only hard and fast rule about wedding cars is that you have to be able to get some white ribbon going from the sides of the windows and/or the top of the car down to the front of the car. The best sorts of cars are those that have a large medallion on the bumper, which simply begs to have ribbons attached to it. This means that classic Jaguars and Mercedes-Benz cars tend to be rather popular, although thanks to the design of modern vehicles and the demands of aerodynamics, the big medallions seem to be disappearing.
A wedding car should be luxurious in some way, and preferably largish. We’re talking about high-end vehicles here – usually European luxury models such as BMW, Mercedes, Jaguar, Audi, Alfa Romeos and the like, although you could probably throw a Lexus into the list these days, along with some of the classier American numbers (Dodge and Chrysler). However, if you are passionate devotees of the blue oval or the lion, then a big V8 Ford or Holden – or the upmarket FPV or HSV – could also fit the bill. Custom seems to dictate that the wedding car is driven by a chauffeur (who can be Uncle Fred or the person who owns the car rather than a pro) and the bride needs to sit in the back in all her finery. After the ceremony, the groom needs to join here there. This means that although you might love the idea of a nippy little Alfa Romeo sports car as a wedding car, it’s going to be a bit awkward getting in and out of it. Four-wheel-drives don’t seem to be used as wedding cars much. I’ve certainly never seen one all decked out with the white ribbon, but given the tendency to find interesting and out of the way locations for photo shoots and outdoor weddings, a nice, luxurious Range Rover wouldn’t exactly be out of place.
Classic cars tend to be quite popular. If you are lucky enough to own a classic, you might like to consider hiring it out as a wedding car (and you go with it as the chauffeur) as a way of making a bit of pocket money on the side. These days, you get some of the quirkier classics being used as wedding cars, such as the cute VW Beetle (the old style), Minis and Kombis.
And what do you do if you want a car that doesn’t have a big medallion for getting ribbon onto? Here’s how you do it: Start by threading the ribbon through the grille above the front bumper – there’s usually somewhere you can do this. If you can’t get it through the grille, then feed it through the bumper. Get the ribbon even. Take one side up and put it through either the passenger side window or through the passenger side door and fix it to the sun visor. Do the same on the other side. If you want a bow out the front, make this separately and attach it to the bit of ribbon going through the grille. If you’ve fed the ribbon through the door, don’t slam the door; if the ribbon has gone through the window, don’t open the window.
There is another sort of wedding car, although this sort seems to be going out of fashion a bit (or else I’ve never been in the right place at the right time to see it). This is the getaway car, which tends to be what the newlyweds use to leave the reception in and head off on honeymoon in. This can be any sort of car, and if it isn’t a hired car, then it’s traditional to do this car up with balloons, tin cans, shaving cream, confetti and “Just Married” signs. There are two rules for getaway cars:
- Don’t put a potato over the exhaust pipe or you risk gassing the newlyweds.
- Wash any shaving cream messages off the back asap. If you leave it overnight, it can etch itself into the paint. This happened to me and for ages afterwards, you could see what was written when the car was in the right light. What made it worse was that my brother, who had done the car up, had made a spelling mistake so that little car had “Just Maried” on it for the rest of the time we owned it.
Going Smaller
Big engines that guzzle the gas are getting the boot. Over in America, the popular Dodge Ram is big on the outside but getting a whole lot smaller under the bonnet. In the past, the Dodge Ram housed the very powerful and thirsty hemi engines. We love the performance, but when it comes to filling up at the pump you felt rather like a deflated balloon. Modern times have put the squeeze on these gas guzzler types, and we’re seeing the smaller 3.6-litre Pentaster V6 engine doing the job for the Ram really well. In fact, the same Pentaster V6 engine is showing up in the Jeep Wrangler, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Dodge Journey and Dodge 300 C.
In North America, the latest Car of the Year was the new Cadillac sedan. In the past Cadillac sedans have housed big, powerful engines under the hood. This is certainly not so with the new Cadillac sedan which is an AWD or RWD vehicle that is similar in size to the BMW 3 Series. Now, four and six cylinder engines are used for moving the new Cadillac, and the result has been hugely popular. Rave reviews for the car’s performance and handling goes to show that smaller engines can still produce an enjoyable and satisfying drive.
It’s working in America, and I think we can expect more of the same here in Australia. People are turning to thriftier Holden and Ford products, with a marked drop in sales for the current Falcon and Commodore models showing that people are making careful choices about what size engine is going to drive their new car. If it’s not a new Toyota or Mazda, then Holden’s Cruze is outselling the Commodore. The Holden Commodore currently sells about 15,000 units a year – which is less than a third of what Holden sold in the nineties.
Ford, like Holden, has worked really hard on producing LPG variants to bring the running costs of the big Australian icons more into line with what consumers want as far as economy goes. Ford also has brought the EcoBoost 2.0-litre Turbo engine into the Falcon mix which I like the look of, and it appears is very economical.
I hope that we won’t lose the Commodore and Falcon models altogether, but it’s hard to see how Ford and Holden can make them viable. What they’re up against is people’s tastes, because when people want the smaller engine size, there are a whole lot of cars on the market that offer this in a package that’s as good as, if not better, than Ford and Holden’s models. The competition all of a sudden becomes much, much tougher for Australian car manufacturers.
Feeling Sleepy?
It can be as dangerous as driving drunk and probably contributes just as much to accidents, including the fatal ones, just as much. But you won’t find the boys and girls in blue standing on the side of the road asking you to breath into this little meter so they can find out whether you’re under the influence of this thing. You can’t regulate sales of this or perform any tests at the side of the road. Even clever Swedish cars like Saab and Volvo can’t be fitted with a gadget that prevents you from driving when you fail the test (both these marques have optional accessories that prevent you from driving drunk).
It’s about sleep. We all need it and an awful lot of us don’t get enough of it in the modern world. And if you don’t get enough of it, you can end up nodding off at the wheel. As anyone who’s had a cranky baby could tell you, the sound of a car engine is rather soothing and can easily lull you off to sleep. It’s particularly bad on country roads in Australia that involve long straight stretches where there’s nothing to see except the road markings whizzing past you at a constant and predictable pattern. It’s quite hypnotic late at night. It happened to my brother-in-law when he was working on a farm out the back of Adelaide. He was driving back from town late at night, perfectly sober, and fell asleep at the wheel. He lived to tell the tale, luckily for him, but others aren’t so lucky and end up going off the road into a ditch or a tree or, worse still, another car.
According to the NSW transport department, there are three main things we need to keep in mind to avoid driving tired. The first is your body clock. Humans are diurnal creatures rather than nocturnal animals, which means that we are designed to be awake when the sun is up and asleep when the sun is down. Our hormones are sensitive to natural light and when it gets dark, the signal goes out to tell you that it’s time to go bye-byes. Driving at night means that you’re more likely to feel sleepy and fall asleep at the wheel – and the risk absolutely soars in the small hours (i.e. between 12 midnight and about 5:30 in the morning). We also tend to have an energy slump at midday, so this can be another time when you can get sleepy.
Number two to consider is the state of your sleep account. Most adults need 7–9 hours of sleep every 24 hours, with 8 being a good average to aim for. If you don’t get enough, you go into a sleep debt. Now, a small sleep debt can be paid back quickly by skipping a few TV programmes and going to bed early but a long-term one can cause major problems, with a tendency to fall asleep at the wheel being only one of them, although it is the one that is most likely to be fatal.
Number three is down to the individual. There are Night Owls and Early Birds. Early Birds usually just bounce out of bed ready to go (and have a tendency to fall asleep earlier in the evening). Night Owls hate alarm clock and even though they’re up on their feet, they don’t get fully underway until being awake for half an hour. Night Owls should be careful not to get up so late that they have to drive while they’re still in zombie mode. On a long journey that’s going to take all day, it’s wise to share the driving between a Night Owl and an Early Bird, with the Early Bird doing the driving during the first part of the day while the Owl sits groggily in the passenger seat, and the Night Owl taking over in the latter half of the day. If you’re alone, plan long drives accordingly: if you’re an Early Bird, start your trip earlier in the day; if you’re a Night Owl, start at the normal time and keep going for a bit longer.
What can you do if you’re miles from home and you know you’re tired for whatever reason? The following can help and might literally save your life:
- • Coffee. It should only be a short-term solution, as a serious coffee habit can lead to a bigger sleep debt. But as a one-off, it can literally be a lifesaver. So can other caffeine-laden products such as Coke, Pepsi and those energy drinks.
- • Fresh air. Wind down the windows to avoid the womb-like effect of a warm, enclosed space.
- • Sit up straighter. When slumped back in a comfy leather seat that cushions you in all the right places, it’s easy to nod off. Put the seat upright.
- • Music. Choose something with a strong, bouncy beat that isn’t too hypnotic in its effects.
- • Avoid eating carbohydrates, as these make you feel sleepy. Go for something light. Apples are supposed to be quite good at waking you up, and they certainly won’t hurt.
- • Pull over and sleep. Instead of fighting and fighting that haze that buzzes around your head, just find a nice place to park, lock the doors and put that seat back as far as it can go (or hop into the back seat). About 5 minutes should be enough to refresh you enough to keep going and get home.
And if you’re reading this late at night while surfing the net and you’ve got some driving to do tomorrow (who hasn’t?), stop now and go to bed. Yes, you. Now. Sweet dreams…
Level 2, 9 Help Street