Guide on buying from PI

[Patrick]

  On 1/13/2010 at 6:34 AM, Johnlynn said:

Hi all, can someone with experience advice me with some stuff? My family members have decided to buy a used car and have ask me to check for them stuff. Is it possible to buy a used car if u only earn 24k per year? Cos we are all deciding whose name to use to buy. And my dad drives a truck, those container types, he had 2 accidents last year. Will it affect the insurance? Thanks

 

definitely you can but depend on the car value.

 

Yes it will affect the premium, why not using your own name to start building up the NCD.

[Nimm12]

  On 1/13/2010 at 6:34 AM, Johnlynn said:

Hi all, can someone with experience advice me with some stuff? My family members have decided to buy a used car and have ask me to check for them stuff. Is it possible to buy a used car if u only earn 24k per year? Cos we are all deciding whose name to use to buy. And my dad drives a truck, those container types, he had 2 accidents last year. Will it affect the insurance? Thanks

 

frankly speaking 24k per yr earning = 2k per month = 1.6k take home cash = not enough to support even a small car

why?

owning a small used 2nd hand cheap 1.5l car in spore already easily cost >800 per month (car depreciation ~300, petrol ~200, road tax ~50, parking ~100, maintenance ~50, insurance ~100, erp ~50)

 

that is 50% of your take home pay! so u r left with 800 cash per month... can survive meh??

 

i wont spend >15% of my monthly take home cash on owning a car, as a guideline, for a used 1.5l car costing 800per mth to own, your monthly take home should be ~5k cash (meaning u still have ~1k cpf to pay for your house monthly)

Edited February 9, 2010 by Nimm12

[PRiNcEsSCaRly19]

very infomative thanks alot

[Nimm12]

in other countries, owning a car may cost people only <10% of their monthly take home pay

 

in singapore, many people fork out 20~40% of their monthly take home to service car expenses

(assuming average person take home $4k cash and spend $1.2k on car every month, ie 30% of the pay!!!)

 

why?

 

because singapore is the most expensive place to own a car in the world!

ARF, COE, ERP, roadtax, expensive non-subsidised petrol, expensive insurance cost, expensive traffic tickets (ok ok , leave this one out), etc etc

 

if you dont take home 4k cash every month, better take public transport

 

no meaning to spend 30~40% of your pay on a car, because its just a transport and it is a fast-depreciating item

 

15% or less is more reasonable

Edited February 9, 2010 by Nimm12

[Lafille]

looks like there is potential danger everywhere....

[Neweraimports]

[Extramint]

nice calculations here.. very helpful.

 

and one last thing, all the calculations here are based on normal scenarios. havent cater in accidents, minor or major, all will mean extra cost to you. if owning a car is causing you to save and scrimp on other aspects of life drastically, i'd say public transport is the safer alternative here.

 

people who earn 4k per month and tries to sustain paying a car, on a borderline situation, means just enough to make ends meet, suddenly accident (assuming you caused it).. gone case jialat, big time trouble.

[Cruisecontrol]

I've a question:

 

Has anyone imported directly (fm UK, Germany or elsewhere) rather than buy through a PI and paid import duty and cleared customs without any issues?

[Cteo101]

Hi

 

I'm interested in getting a BMW Z4 23i, does anyone have any GOOD PIs they could recommend?

thanks

[Bau_ong]

agreed

[Skiver]

Which PI is reputable or good in selling SUV like GV and Forester?

[Johniest]

toyota launching new type car???

[Becool73]

Ohh Boy. I was thinking of changing my ride from a civic to VW scirocco. And the PI's price is cheaper and i thought with some of the big PI's in this game, it should be reliable. After reading all the thread, i feel threatend people. ANybody bad exprience with PI's in buying VW before. SOme advice from the experienced would be greatly appriciated.CHeers!

[Cleefho]

  On 3/14/2010 at 6:28 AM, Mrxc90 said:

Hi everyone,

 

Let me warn you about my experience which i hope you won't repeat when buying from dealers. I would like to warn you about a guy from Zenith motoring whose name is Joe and number 91528168. This guy has serious credibility issues. Very recently, he bought my 2004 Volvo XC90 (ie: mileage 72900) and he informed me that he will be exporting my car.

 

I had asked him several times that i did not want my car to be sold in Singapore and i wanted it to be exported. He told me not to worry and my car will be exported. Little did i know he actually sold the very car to Presto Motoring. I am not sure what kind of arrangement do they have but i am really angry about the whole episode.

 

The main thing that really annoyed me is that how he was trying to be so reassuring and that i did not have to worry and he is very concerned about delivering good customer service. To make it worse, he was trying to sell a beat up Toyota Wish to us and claimed it is a good deal. We did not buy the Wish though.

 

 

This car was sold by us to Zenith Motoring for $69,000 and now the same car is being sold for more than $76,000 at Presto Motoring. The license plate number is SJB7779L. All, i can say is that i have some concerns about this car and there was a reason why i wanted the car to be exported.

 

Please contact me directly and i can share it with you. In a nutshell, it is better to export your own car if you can or trade in at reputable dealers. Please beware and hope you don't make the same mistake i did by selling to this guy.

 

Also, the guy at Presto Motoring claimed it was an expat driver who sold the XC90 to them and i can assure you i am Singaporean. I am really dissapointed.

 

Mrxc90

 

no matter what happens, i tink u should not publish full details and break other peoples rice bowl. Once the car is sold to them, it is their rights to do whatever they want, but the dealer is wrong to promise u that they will export.

 

but you are been unfair to presto for this irresponsible posting here. mayb u feel that selling ur car at a few K markup is unfair?????please note that the dealer will have to bear all cost until the car is sold, tax, interest and misc to make the car showroom condition.........................

 

btw i m not related to the motor industry and this is just my personal opinion.

 

[Jl255]

tks

[Konstrain]

let's keep the thread on topic.

 

i bought a car from a local PI as well. perhaps we could add in the following tips as well?

 

- make sure the PI hands you 2 sets of keys during collection.

my pi only gave me a normal one, and said the remote key is still in japan.

after 1 month, they tell me japan shipped to their supplier.

after probing, they don't know who their supplier is and now they're asking me to make a remote key myself and claim from their supplier.

many doubts regarding the key case, but hopefully this same scenario doesn't happen to other potential car owners especially buying from pi

[Extramint]

use the new car checklist that is stickied somewhere in the forum.. it was intended to help buyers of new cars. whether buy from AD or PI, it will prove useful in both situation.

 

in the case of PI, i dont trust the company no matter how established or long it has been running.. if you are on close terms with the boss, that makes a very big difference.. then size of company will be a bonus.

 

for me, when i collected my dad's car on his behalf.. i made sure of the warranty. different PI companies will give you warranty at different workshops. even if they give you a really good workshop, its not enough.. these workshops usually have different package for servicing.

 

e.g package a is most basic.. during servicing you pay alot more.

e.g package b is so-called gold package.. during servicing you pay alot lesser.

 

i was told by the boss of a company (PI), they give basic to normal customers and offer the package B as an option.. whereas i got it free. could be a few Ks.

of course, some PI companies just give you the package B right away. most wouldnt i guess. if they do, good for u

i can be sure of what i heard because my family is on really close terms with this company, not sharing only the buyer seller r/s.

 

better to bring up this point before signing on dotted line.

[Skiver]

Can recommend which PI is good to get Axio or Allion from?

Thanks!