Tasmin
Sydney
A question about this place:
Answers:
wrumsby
Queenstown
You know, you might find you don’t need a car. I lived in Sydney for almost 5 years and didn’t have a car (neither did many of the people I knew – in fact some friends sold their car because they found they never really used it).
I’m not too sure about rents now, but somewhere like Liechardt or Annandale might be in your price range. You can catch the bus and might be able to catch the light rail or train depending on your exact location.
Tasmin
Sydney
My husband & I really like to travel, so I see using a car more on the weekends to see different parts of Oz. Plus I have family in Croyden and Greenwich & I would hate to have to orchestrate bus transfers and the like just to see my cousins.
When we lived in Auckland 2001 we ended up renting a car for 16 weekends that year to travel & it was more expensive than if we had just bought one.
We will also have a baby within a year & the idea of carting around baby crap on a bus scares me.
Here in San Diego the trains/buses run frequently on weekdays but practically stop on the weekends – do Sydney’s run more frequently on weekends & holidays?
wrumsby
Queenstown
The price of cars in Auckland is significantly less than the price of cars in Sydney mainly because New Zealand imports 2nd-hand cars from Japan and this doesn’t really go on in Australia. It would definitely make sense to buy a car in Auckland/NZ rather than hire.
You can probably compare car prices on http://www.trademe.co.nz to prices on http://www.ebay.com.au for an idea of the difference.
The Sydney rail network is pretty extensive and the weekend schedule is pretty good too. For instance you can catch a train from downtown Sydney to the Blue Mountains – the price is pretty reasonable, the time taken is probably equivalent to the time taken to drive and the last train back to the city will leave quite late at night.
With a baby I can see that you’d want to get a car, but if possible I’d suggest you give the public transport system a try in your first month (that’ll probably happen anyway).
Given that, I’d suggest you try to find advice on where to buy a good car. I know that there is/was a weekend market in Kings Cross where backpackers and other travellers would sell cars – these would probably be pretty cheap, but would have probably covered a lot of miles too. Other than that, I’m not to sure.
