Tricks of a Used Car Salesman

We recently bought a second hand car from a car dealer in Perth and learnt an interesting lesson from the experience. As we all know, there are many tricks in different industries and there are certainly tricks in the used car business. So how should you go about buying a car?

First of all, as with all sales people, don't rely on the sales person to inform you about anything. Do your own research. They are there to sell. You can use your research as a guide to work out how honest the salesperson seems to be. Ask them questions that you already know the answer to.

The other lesson we learnt was when it comes to the price, check all sources of the car yard's advertising. We saw a car that we were interested in, in their car yard for $18,990. A few days later, we were looking at the car yard's website and found the car advertising on their website for $16,990. We thought that the price had dropped so we went again to the car yard a few days later, the price was still $18,990. I asked the salesperson whether $18,990 is the price and he said yeah. When I told him about the price on the website was $16,990 he said, 'yeah, we can do that'. Of course you can, it's your website!

When you think about it, that makes perfect sense. When you are walking around the car yard, the salespeople pretty much see that you are ready to buy. When you are researching online, you are comparing their price with everyone else's price. So be aware, there could be a big difference between an internet price and a car yard "stupid tax".

5,000 Point Breaks in Asia and Europe

Every month, the Intercontinental Hotels Group posts a list of hotels that allow you to book a night for 5,000 Priority Club points per night. This is compared to the usual rates of 40,000 and 50,0000 points that it normally costs to redeem a night's stay. Here are the locations for the Asia and Europe regions this month.

ASIA

CHINA-PEOPLES REPUBLIC
CROWNE PLAZA HOTEL TIANJIN BINHAI
CROWNE PLAZA HOTEL XIANGYANG
HOLIDAY INN SHENYANG ZHONGSHAN
HOLIDAY INN HANGZHOU THOUSAND ISLAND LAKE

TAIWAN
HOLIDAY INN EAST TAIPEI

INDONESIA
INTERCONTINENTAL JAKARTA MIDPLAZA

FIJI ISLANDS
HOLIDAY INN SUVA

EUROPE

BELGIUM

HOLIDAY INN GENT - EXPO

CZECH REPUBLIC
HOLIDAY INN PRAGUE AIRPORT

FINLAND
HOLIDAY INN TAMPERE

FRANCE
HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS MARSEILLE - PROVENCE AIRPORT

GERMANY
HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS COLOGNE - MUELHEIM

PORTUGAL
HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS LISBON - OEIRAS

SPAIN
HOLIDAY INN ELCHE

UNITED KINGDOM
HOLIDAY INN GARDEN COURT A1 SANDY - BEDFORD
HOLIDAY INN CORBY - KETTERING A43

How Easy Is It to Replace a Lost Passport Overseas?

There are times in a world of convenience that we forget not everything comes to us as fast as a Big Mac with fries. One of those things is the replacement of a passport. We can quite easily underestimate the importance of a passport when travelling. You will often need to travel to the country's capital such as Bangkok in Thailand to get a replacement passport. But how do you get there? In Australia, you don't even need photo ID to travel by plane within the country but in Thailand even if it is a domestic flight, you will need your passport. Have a read of this article to see how hard it was for one reporter to get back to Australia after losing his passport and you may cling a little more tightly to your passport when you are next abroad.