Reidy wrote:I've been looking for the car that unfortunately lots of people seem to want. An MY08 (for the back seat arm rest, rear vents and electric passenger seat) Liberty wagon manual around 100,000kms. There was an STI recently that was listed for 32k (overpriced?) and sold a few days after breaking my heart.
Don't forget that these cars are built like Lego. Any features you don't have you can easily pick up and swap yourself from a wrecker. For example, my MY08 2.5i was the "safety" model that only came with cloth seats, so I replaced them with leather seats from a wrecked MY06 GT.
Reidy wrote:Looking at insurance at the moment and I'm tossing between AAMI and RACV. I've looked at a few others including Coles. I'm under 25 so it makes it more difficult.
Who would be the best to go with?
Until you build your history and your No Claim Bonus, go with whoever can provide you the cheapest insurance. When you get your quotes, jack up the excess to the highest possible amount to reduce the Premium. Remember that in the event of an at-fault total-loss accident, the excess will come out of the payout figure, not your pocket. And if you aren't at fault, then there's no excess at all anyway.
Never EVER do a Market Value policy. You are just shooting yourself in the foot just to save a miniscule amount of money on the premium.
Personally, I'm with AAMI. I figured Coles would be cutting too many corners to be able to beat my current insurance price - last year I paid $300 for full comprehensive with agreed value. This year it went up to $380. My policy has maximum excess and maximum NCB applied, but I'm also over 35 and have been with AAMI for while now earning me about 20% loyalty discounts which helps a bit.
Reidy wrote:Do I need windscreen cover?
Unless you plan to follow trucks and caravans across dirt roads a lot, for the most part, no.
The windscreen insurance is certainly a lot cheaper than buying your own windscreen outright, so if any damage you do sustain is not significant and can wait until next year, add the windscreen insurance on then and get your windscreen replaced then. Some insurance companies also allow you to add-on the windscreen insurance mid-year with no penalty as well. Just ring them up and ask questions - there's no penalty for asking about what-if scenarios.
I was going to procrastinate, but I put it off...
