Buying my first AU - Any advice appreciated :-)

[Chamelion]

Good morning all,

I'm sitting here buzzing with excitment after finding a car that I want. About 6 hours from now I'll be taking it to my mechanic for a pre purchase inspection.

Some details:

2002 FORD FALCON FORTE (Aug 2002 build + compliance)

VEHICLE DETAILS
Price: $8,990
Km: 152,115
Body: Wagon
Colour: SILVER
Transmission: 4 speed Auto
Summary:
This series 111 Falcon is a great family wagon with room for everyone. The 4ltr EFI motor is a quiet, responsive and fuel efficient motor. This is a well kept vehicle that represents excellent value for money on todays market. We are an RACQ approved dealer.

· Air Conditioning · Power Steering
· Power Windows · Metallic Paint
· Central Locking

It's an August 2002 build date, which means it must be one of the last?

It has a stamped service book to 150,000km..

Excellent visual condition, just shy of immaculate due to a few scratches on the rear hatch and the rear left tail light has sustained what looks to be a trolley attack. But it's not terrible and I hazzard guess easily replaced.
Reasonable KM compared to other options
Engine bay is nice and clean, but not too clean.
It drove fantastic. Power, gearbox, aircon etc all performed as expected.

I couldn't pick any out of place panels and the colour looked the same all the way around. So my amatuer opinion is that it has not been in an accident.

It has ABS, aircon, cruise, reading lights with storage compartment, dual air bags, cd player, immobiliser, remote central locking, tow bar, front electric windows.
The tyres are all rather new looking Good year something or others.

Pending a mechanical inspection tommorow morning I've negotiated it to be $8500 on road with 6 months rego. It, of course, comes with the statutory 3 month 5000km warranty. Dealer also guarantees clear title.

It is definitely a tad over budget ($1000~), but it's manageable for the rigt car.
Certainly, it is worth the extra $2000 over what I was prepared to spend on a rather spartan AUI wagon thats 3 years older, in a not as good condition and with 50,000km more on the ODO.

It compares to falcons fetching the same ammount under private sales with no warranty, less rego, more KM and older more worn tyres. That is when they can be found locally.

Any opinions, thoughts and suggestions most greatfully appreciated.

Cheers

Matt.

[TE029]

Hey Chamelion,

That sounds like a pretty good bus,
I just bought an AU2 forte wagon with 127,000 km for 9K
Paid a little more cause i needed one with the extra row of seats (7 Seater) to fit in the family but that is a good price considering for most of the other examples i looked over the last couple of months. It needs Front brakes but checked out pretty good other than that.

IMO - If it checks out ok with the mechanic sounds like a good buy.

P.S. If you want to get a ROUGH idea of Market Value
Check on www.redbook.com.au

Cheers Michael

[RG]

Looks like a pretty sweet deal, told you you'd find one.

[Chamelion]

Originally Posted by RedXR347

Looks like a pretty sweet deal, told you you'd find one.

You did mate, and I'm happy you're proven right.

There was a little more damage than I previously noticed.. There is a half ciggie sized bit of damage next to the cracked tail light, it's really minor though and really hard to notice and the front/rear bumpers have some scratches on them. Very obviously some car park bungles... None of it is enough to worry us though.

My mechanic looked it over, under and through. His report I'll quote (roughly, I left the report with the dealer so he can get issues sorted).

Oil leak
Crank case seal? Rear main seal?

Turned out to be the former I believe, so the dealer is having it fixed up along with a new harmonic balancer tommorow morning, price won't change.

The radio antena is also in poor shape, but I'm obtaining a new head unit and a couple of speakers from my Dad's dead 4wd (pioneer something or others, sound decent!) so I'm not worried about the radio.

We coulnd't find any rust, but I'll go over it a few times over the next few days and if I find anything I'll see what can be done about it. As it has 3 months statutory warranty I immagine any road worthy'esque rust would have to be fixed... Funnily the cars build date makes it only one month out of Fords 5 years rust warranty.

Interior is immaculate, there is literally not a bad thing about it. Pedals don't look worn, neither does the hand brake or gear stick. It was a reps car it seems so it's rather obvious he/she has done mostly highway cruising with cruise control on.
Suspension has no leaks and responds normally to pushing down on the car. It felt fine when I was driving, I couldn't fault it.
There is no play in the steering whatsoever, unlike the last two AU's I drove.
The brakes are fine with plenty of pad life left.
The gearbox provides extremely smooth shifting, it doesn't surge, hesitate or act in any way that makes me feel uneasy (and I recently had to spend $1000 replacing my camry's gearbox, so I'm fussy in that department!)
It has 5 newish tyres, obviously including the spare. All matching Good year somethings. I should have written it down.

It's more than I wanted to spend.. But it's just too good to pass up. I could have spent $2000 less, but I would have had an AUI with more K's and likely more problems.

Matt.

[BLACKAUXR8]

sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me. You wont find much better in my opinion

[Mihocek]

Looks good chamelion
4 weeks ago, I bought an AU11 which had done 133,000 for $8500 but it was not through a yard. I reckon that is a pretty fair price. Check out the stereo. Our tape deck did not work which was about the only thing i did not check! Not as if it would stop you buying a good car anyway

[Chamelion]

Cheers lads It's nice to have a bit of reassurance between deposit and full payment.

I've been looking.. The closest I can find is this:

http://www.carsales.com.au/used-cars...7156&trecs=154

But that's a private sale with no warranty, less rego and what not. Really isn't anything else. So we're feeling confident. :

I'll be sure to take some photos tommorow and post them up.

I'm looking forward to having a car I feel happy and content to drive.

EDIT: Nope, the radios function won't be a factor at all. It just means I'm 'forced' to replace it with an aftermarket head unit sooner. ;)

[TheSly1]

I recently bought an 2002 Ford AUIII SR Sedan... 180,000kms a few kms.. but it has service books and such and appears to be very clean... Its the nice dark grey metallic paint.. I like it

With 12 Months Rego, RWC done only few minor things (power steering line and rear muffler need replacing) wasnt much else.. Im very happy with my car.. drives real nice.. motor feels strong and the auto transmission shifts smooth..

I paid $9,200 from a yard...

Funny thing is i didnt even intend to buy a Ford.. lol... I was sorta looking for a Holden Wagon of simular years... but this caught my eye...

Im happy...

[Mark351]

Buy mine

[Chamelion]

Nooo.. Loan didn't clear overnight. I suppose it couldn't ALL be perfect, nothing ever is. :p

Hopefully he doesn't mind waiting until monday. :O

[Chamelion]

All good, he's keeping it for us until we can pick it up. Pretty cruisy bloke to deal with.

My parents are looking at a 1998 Nissan Maxima 30GV (top of the range, $50,000 when new) that he's selling with an asking price of $9990 with 150,000km or so on the clock. They're having trouble knocking his price down though, but they're still considering it.

Matt.

[MoreHPformyXR6]

Originally Posted by Chamelion

My parents are looking at a 1998 Nissan Maxima 30GV (top of the range, $50,000 when new) that he's selling with an asking price of $9990 with 150,000km or so on the clock.

Matt.

They where over priced when they where new :

[Chamelion]

Originally Posted by MoreHPformyXR6

They where over priced when they where new :

They seem alright for $10,000 though? I've got him considering a Falcon. It would suit his needs extremely well. He needs a reasonable size, a reasonably powerfull engine for some light towing duties and something that doesn't cost too much to maintain.

Matt.

[Chamelion]

They bought the Maxima and are so far, very happy with it.

Matt.

PS: I prefer my Falcon ;)