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Congrats on the Mazda. Post some pics.

Did you cancel within the 24 hour cooling period? If yes, then you are legally eligible to get it back. Read through the document you signed. Also, when cancelling, did you call them to inform, or via email/in person?

Hey Rishi... I have the same car but mine is GT spec! Given there are so many bhpians now in OZ, we need to have a tbhp meet sometime. I am in Melbourne by the way.

I don't think it was cancelled within 24 hours. I had called and texted the dealer to cancel. However, they got the finance arranged by then. So the chances of getting the amount back is less. I will know in a few days.
Big lesson learned to stick to the budget and not to take hasty decisions. stupid:

That's sad. This is the reason they have cooling off periods. Guess you may have to accept the money wont be coming back if finance was arranged. But fingers crossed.

I had 3 days of cooling off after i bought my Pajero. Good time to think it over, hehe. And during that time, the dealer gave me a X Trail with fuel to drive, while the finance was being arranged. I had traded in my previous car, and so didnt have a car during this period.

Well, I take that as the price you pay for being stupid. Hopefully, they may arrange to refund at least part of it.

I am happy in a way that it saved me more money by not buying the Camry Hybrid. I felt I might have to shell out more to maintain that car. Also, with the Mazda and the considerably less investment, I have the freedom to upgrade when ever I am up for it.

Sure we can plan one, Probably Melbourne F1 to be seen? I am in Sydney unless we travel to either of city for a mini meet.

Count me in too, not too sure about making it, but would be good to try.

Congrats on the new ride, basilmabraham.

Sorry if I missed, did you pay $1000 as cash or through card? When I purchased my new WRX, they only took an purchase authorisation of $500 on my credit card and the money wasn't taken until the day I took delivery. I paid the money and signed the loan documents only during delivery. Was quite surprised how fuss free the process here was.

Driving license process is making sure the above pleasant experience is compensated with pain.

I paid with card, but the money was taken the same day.

Took the car out for a longer drive today. It is performing as expected, no worries there.

Congratulations Basil.

Shit happens and we have to move on. I too wasted $500 on a Hyundai Elantra as a deposit and later decided to back out and wasnt aware of the 24 hr cooling period. The dealer refused to refund the amount till i managed to negotiate a bit and get $150 back. Something is better than nothing.

Price we way for hasty decisions. Well have fun with the new car. And lets hope for the tbhp oz meet soon.

Regards,

Thanks for the wishes Harshal. Yeah the price we pay for not being patient. I am sure I have missed out some awesome cars, many 2013/14 Mitsubishi Lancers, Nissans etc. But afterall said and done, it was a good adventure.

Looking forward to the meet-up.

Some great words from John.
http://autoexpert.com.au/buying-a-ca...-make-me-happy
I had contacted him and he promptly got me going. His agent had called up and helping me get deals on the Kia Cerato, dropped the idea mid-way though.

I had bought a 2007 Mazda 3 last year, when we moved to Australia. It has been a great car and served us well for the past year. The rego is now due for renewal and the thought of getting a better, safer (as uch active safety gadgets as possible), newer car came up. Price was set to around 25K drive away, taking a loan so could stretch a bit. Current Mazda to be traded in and would serve as deposit too.

Few cars were also in consideration,

Kia Cerato - for the absolute value it brings for the price you pay, 7 year warranty
Nissan Xtrail - for its seven seats and since it was on run out, never needed 7 seats, only rarely to be used, however nice to have
Hyundai Elantra - I had owned one back in India and thought it was great value
Mazda 3 - I own one now and always been fascinated by the engineering and looks

Went on a test drive spree last weekend. Mazda showroom was the first. The 3 had some offers on it, but my wife felt its too small for us with two kids. Enquired about any 6's on offer. They had a 2016 plate 6 Sport in Machine Grey, the last they had. It was on a good offer of around 5.5K discount. Test drove a top end 6 Atenza and was floored by it. The 6 was just too good, we were all sold. Didn't want to spend so much over budget and wanted to check other options.

Moved on to Kia showroom, test drove the base version Cerato. I was bowled over again. It ran really well and never showed the cheapness. Front parking sensors was present even on the cheapest one, my wife loved this. Absolute value! However, to get some nicer features like auto climate control and keyless entry, the price to pay increased to 28.5K drive away. Was convinced to buy this, but wanted to look around before deciding.

On Sunday went to Hyundai showroom. The Elantra and the i30 felt too cheap in the price point I was looking at. Even the Sonata looked not much value. Cerato shined here. Test drove the Elantra, a decent car, nothing great to write about.

ON the way back went into a Mitsubishi showroom to look at Outlander, luke warn response from the showroom staff. Also, my son could not sit properly in the 3rd row. This makes it unusable and hence was dropped then and there. Nissan Xtrail was also dropped for the same reason, never visited the showroom.

Looked at Skoda as well, Rapid and Fabia were too expensive to get to a decent kit level. So dropped.

Went to Toyota showroom, looked at Camry and decided not to go with it. Nothing impressive about it, just another car. Also less in features. Had a look at their used range, there was a 2009 Nissan Dualis, full option with dual sun roof et all, but didnt bother test driving.
There was also a 2015 Sonata Premium 2.0L turbo. Fully kitted with everything you would want in a car. It had only done 900kms, as the owner won it in a raffle and sold it. Test drove it, awesome when the turbo kicks in, all good, however didnt buy it. I had once burned my hand buying a used Hyundai and those horror stories came back to mind. Also, recently a friend had his brand new Tuscon Highlander taken away for a transmission replacement. However good the car was, Hyundai didnt just cut it for me. It was beyond my budget too, was over 30K. I may regret this decision later as this car had around 4 years of factory warranty too.

Went back to Kia to seal the deal. Wife didnt feel great about the Cerato anymore after seeing the Sonata. So quickly went out of there too.

Now, the only logical choice was to grab the Mazda 6 at the heavily discounted price. And that is what we did, paid the deposit on Sunday, getting the car in two weeks. Overall 31K for the car, 4K for my trade in, rest on a bank loan.

Am I missing something or did you loose nearly two-thirds value on your pre-owned Mazda3 in less than a year?

No you are not missing anything.
I had paid a premium price as it was bought from a dealer. It came with registration and CTP insurance for 7 months, this adds to the price. Current trade in value for the car as per redbook.com.au is 3.5K to 4.9K. The rego and the CTP are due on the car, and hasn't been serviced in the last one year. All add up to approximately $1K for the dealer to put in before it can be sold. This gets reduced from the price they pay. Unfortunately, this is how trade-ins work in Australia. You pay a premium for the hassles you avoid by not buying/selling in private.

Congrats on the Mazda 6. I love the way it looks and rides.
Your ownership experience reminds me of how i kept my first car here for only 1.5 years, before i moved on to something i actually liked, rather than being just a commodity. :D