Car Advice

The list of electric car and hybrid car options in Australia expands with every passing year, but their often prohibitive cost – particularly in the case of EVs – remains a major barrier to their uptake.

The instant asset write-off scheme was introduced in 2015 as a way of allowing small business to claim the depreciation amount (i.e. the amount of value something is likely to lose over time) of a work-related purchase like a car or a computer in one hit, rather than gradually over a multi-year period.

The global coronavirus pandemic has placed most of the world, including the auto industry, into a state of constant flux. As manufacturers raise their hands to create life-saving ventilators and car dealers brace for a sales slowdown, many consumers are left pondering the practical repercussions of mandated social distancing rules. And during a period of such great uncertainty, there's no such thing as a dumb question.

If you're in the market for a new vehicle, or even a used one, there are many things to consider, but one items sometimes overlooked is servicing. Aside from the inconvenience of taking a car to a dealer or mechanic, opaque and uncertain pricing has in the past made it the automotive equivalent of visiting the dentist — necessary, but unpleasant. For a while now, local distributors have tried to make things a little less gruelling by limiting, or sometimes eliminating, servicing costs.

Chances are that when you’re buying a car, you’ll need some form of financing to help pay for it. Here are some tips that should help smooth the process a little. Note that in this piece we're not going to discuss the different types of financing that are available, that will be the topic of an upcoming article.