Case Study: Derek

We sat down with Derek and asked him a few questions on his experience, challenges, and how he overcame them.

I took out a home loan with loans.com.au about four years ago. There’s never been a problem with the home loan. It’s been great - set and forget. The home loan rate was great and it still is.

Then, I started looking at getting a new car. The car I had – a Mazda 3, was a great car there was nothing wrong with it, but I was just starting to find that getting down into it – because I’m 6’2 – I couldn’t get into the car!

It was also a manual and I was starting to get sick of manual. I like driving manuals but in my job when I go out, I sometimes get caught in traffic and then you’re putting your foot on the clutch, taking your foot off the clutch. I made the decision that I want to go to lazy man driving and get an automatic.

And that got me thinking what am I going to get for mine? Where can I go with this? I did some research and decided to get a Mazda CX-30, which is a middle-sized SUV. I rang around and found a dealership who said they had a red one coming in next week that had fallen over on a finance deal. I put a deposit on it and then arranged my own finance with loans.com.au.

• If you were going down the new car route, the biggest challenge was finding stock because this was a very unusual period where Covid-related supply disruptions had really limited the number of cars arriving in Australia.
• If you decided to look for used cars, the biggest challenge was trying to get your head around the cost. I paid $36,500 for a brand new vehicle. There was a second-hand one a year older than mine in the colour I wanted, but it came with miles on the clock and less warranty and it was only $500 cheaper!
• Dealing with some car salesmen was a challenge. The guy I ultimately bought from was fantastic. He said this is the deal, this is what we’ve got. We’ll throw car mats in and various other things. Then I went to another Mazda dealer who had a car that would be ready a little bit later and you had to force that out of him. To get a fair deal, you had to constantly come back and say “this is what the other guy is offering me"

“It was never a hassle, never a problem, he always had the right answers and just made it so, so easy. It was a good experience and then I put it through. Got the approval done. Got a great rate.”

• To find stock, it’s all about ringing around. I contacted four Mazda dealers before I tracked down the car I was looking for
• When it comes to dealing with car salespeople, you’ve just got to be firm with them. You’re in there. You’re the customer and if you don’t like the way that they’re selling to you just pull the pin and say I’m not going to go ahead with this
• Dealers make their money through their finance so you’ve just got to be firm with them and say no: I’ve already got finance that’s approved. You’ve got to stand your ground with them