Quick Update 12/11/15

Just a quick update, I got the phone call from the Ford dealership today, that my finance is all approved, can't wait to come back from my holiday and pick up the car!!!

I've gone with the Frozen White paint as shown below.

Can't wait to have this sitting in my driveway.

Please comment/share

Anthony Liang

Ford Fiesta ST vs Ford Focus ST : My Opinion

For those who viewed my first post would have known that I have been looking at getting myself a new car, I had two cars in mind, the Fiesta ST and the Focus ST. These two cars were not the only ones that were in my interest, in fact I was considering a Polo GTI, Golf GTI, Toyota 86/Subaru BRZ, Toyota Aurion and even the WRX, in the end my two choices were the Focus and Fiesta ST as they were the most appealing and more fun to drive.

When the Fiesta St is pitted up against it's older brother the Focus ST, people generally lock onto the Focus ST straight away assuming they can afford it, I was one of those people as the Fiesta ST in Australia is only the 3 door version, so the Focus was more appealing with its 5 doors, more powerful engine and the slightly bigger cabin space. I was all for the Focus ST before I test drove it despite it costing more than the Fiesta, yes the Focus is slightly bigger, yes it has 5 doors for the convenience of picking people up, and yes the 184 Kw and 340 Nm engine figures are A LOT more appealing to anyone looking at buying a sport car, that's the point, a sport car. The Focus may look better on paper but in fact it did not feel as sporty or as fun as the Fiesta ST, the focus was very cruisy, even with the papers claiming to have peak torque from 2000 RPM, but it really doesn't kick in til 3000 RPM, however for the Fiesta you can feel it from 2000 RPM and have it kick hard at 2500 RPM onwards. The Focus was very comfortable, almost to the point that I had forgotten I was even sitting in Sport Recaro seats.

The Fiesta ST may seem a lot smaller than the Focus ST but it's only by a small fraction, the Fiesta ST gets max torque much quicker and pulls harder than the Focus, this may be due to the weight advantage it has over the Focus. Everything in the Fiesta ST feels more sporty than the Focus, with it feeling faster as mentioned above, the seats in the Fiesta and Focus both hug you nice and tight except for the Focus feeling very comfortable and cruise like with the torque coming in at a later RPM, the brakes in the Fiesta St are almost instant barely any brake fade, but in the Focus the brake fade was too much for my liking as I like to know that my car can stop as soon as I step on it especially with the 184 Kw figure.

Overall both cars are great, both are exceptionally fast and fun cars to own and drive, if you are like me who wants to buy a car for the pure joy factor and doesn't carry much people in the car then go for the Fiesta ST, but if you want something a bit more mature, with a bit more space and need to take people around, then go for the Focus ST, however in Australia our cars are always expensive so you are looking at paying nearly $15,000 on top of the Fiesta ST to own a Focus ST, but if you are in the market for used then you can find them easily for a few grand more than a new Fiesta ST.

I hope this can help anyone that may be considering a Fiesta or Focus ST.

Please comment and share

Anthony Liang

Importance of Exercise Warm Up

Hello again people, this time I'm here to share my short story on exercising, whether it be a jog/run, gym, combat sport etc. For me I currently go to Jetts gym as it is more beneficial for me in terms of access and money, I use to do Muay Thai kickboxing and a bit of boxing as I had grown up around a lot of martial arts philosophy and movies.

The other day I went to the gym during peak how, due to the amount of people there, equipment was limited. My main focus that day was back, and normally I like to start my back workout with deadlifts as they are a pain to do at the end of all your workouts. Normally I would start off with the lightest weight on the rack to warm up my back as I slowly progress through each weight, I do 8 reps per weight/set, but due to the peak traffic I was unable to start off light and move up, because of the limited time I had to stay at the gym I just decided to grab whatever weight I could, which was only 40 Kg at the time. I proceeded to do my deadlifts as normal except starting off at the heavier weight and no warm up, into my second set I felt my hamstring twitch on my right leg, but I continued with the set and finished at about 4 sets. I continue with my other exercises where I went to do my upper back on the chin up bar and then proceed to the machine to finish off my workout of the day.

The next day I went to visit my girlfriend and was laying stomach faced down on the bed, and at this point my girlfriend says "what the hell is that, does it hurt?" I was confused and questioned her as to what she was on about, only to realised the twitch I had felt I'm my hamstring had turned into a bruise, this could've been from a burst inside where it is now forming a blood clot as there is a lump there now.

I will have the picture below to show you what it looks like.

The picture may not show how bad the bruise is but as the days pass, the bruise got bigger. After this it has taught me to properly warm up before an exercise despite what it may be, as it is better to be safe than to risk it due to a temporary obstacle, please give yourself a good amount of time to  warm up and stretch to prevent your body from injuries, luckily mine is not severe as I've experienced a lot worse when I was training Muay Thai.

I hope this was helpful to some people, please like and share

Anthony Liang

Newbie Car Dealership Mistakes

Hi all my name is Anthony Liang, currently 19 and living in Perth, Western Australia. Recently I visited a car dealership south the river, as most young adults are when looking at cars and especially test driving them I was excited, really excited. I did a lot of research on this specific car that I went to rest drive, the Ford Fiesta ST, I researched all about the car, and read/watched the reviews that are out there for this car, it had incredible reviews on and off paper. As any other person would do when they are this interested especially after test driving the car, I was curious as to how much this car would cost me in repayments for a standard 5 year fix rate loan. Before I go more into my story, I did not have any experience with salesman at dealerships and I was also naive to not bring along my parents to this test drive, I thought I was old enough and would be able to avoid the little tricks and gimmicks from the stories I have heard over the years. I was wrong, very wrong.

After my test drive with the salesman, he had asked me to go inside and take a seat as he had to photo copy my driver's license and get me to sign the paper to say that I would be reliable for any damages or fines to the car, now this is something that is normally done at the start but due to lack of experience I didn't know and it was in fact a trick to get me to sit down and have a talk with him about the car. As I'm signing this paper he asks me about what I think of the car, of course I say yeah I like it as I really genuinely liked the car, in fact I was in love with it after the test drive, all those reviews had not steer me wrong. Due to my huge interest in this car I asked the salesman how much is the retail price for this car and he gave me a figure of 30k but I remembered him telling me on the phone that it was 27k. I quickly paused the salesman and questioned him whether the car was at 27k or not as that is what I was told, he quickly apologises and says the boss wants to give me a deal so it's at 27k instead of 30k. Now that we are somewhat on the same level, the salesman and I, I ask him how much would it cost in repayments for this car as I'm interested in just want to know how much it'll cost me, he tells me that it's fine and I just have to sign an 'application' along $500 so that the dealership can find out what the finance would be for me, he tells me that this is a no-obligation application and that the $500 is refundable whether the bank denies me or I am not happy with the figures.

Due to my inexperience along with the amount of information my brain is trying to process at one time, I am unable to concentrate properly and work this out. The salesman brings me the so called 'application' after I said ok and flips the 'application' to the other side and says "I am one of the only salesman that actually reads the fine print" and continues to tell me that point 1 is him and I getting together and talking about the car, and step 2 is about sending this application through to find out what finance would be like for me if I wanted to buy the car, and the rest of the points are not important as of now as we cannot move to those steps until we pass point 2. After he skips many points and tells me to forget about the rest, he gets me to look at the bottom and sign, because of my messy brain I was very unsure and confused so I clearly ask him 3 times before I sign the 'application' if the $500 is refundable and that I can get cancel it after if I am not happy with the figures or the bank just rejects me. He assures me all 3 times that the $500 is refundable and that it is a no-obligation application, because of this reassurance I continue to sign the 3 applications as he said one is for me, the manager and the finance agent.

Now that I have signed this application, he comes back to me and has the contract with an added option, the x-force package with includes tint, paint and fabric protection, I obviously ask him what is this and I'm informed that it was included with the rough finance number that was given to me earlier, but I wanted to know the exact figure and the only way they said I would be able to find out is by giving the $500 and signing the application. Any how because I wanted to know the repayment figure and I only wanted to know the repayment figure I said ok it's fine to have it in as he told me that I can opt to take it out after if I don't want it. I proceed to the finance agent to fill in more papers and pay the $500 as it was required by their words.

After 2 hours of talking and signing I am finally able to leave and go home, I felt somewhat accomplished as I went without my parents, I felt somewhat more like a real adult, able to do things on my own and without the aid of my parents, because of this slight over confidence, I joke to my mum "I just bought the car", as any person would do after reading those words would be to call, which is what my mum did but I was driving so I had to call her back when I got to my girlfriend's house. My mum asks me did I buy the car and sign any contracts and I tell her of course not I just filled out an application to find out how much it will cost me I'm not actually buying it, it's what they told me, but during my phone call, my girlfriend got her mum to look at the application. This is when I get told "why does it say contract to purchase a new vehicle", at this moment my heart sank everything I believed was not true, I was not capable and I got tricked, I was stressing, I didn't know what to do, I didn't know how to face my mum after I was so confident to her that I did not sign a contract. 

My mind was messy, very messy, I couldn't sleep, it was something I couldn't accept as I had so much trust and confidence with the people at the dealership, I had no choice but to tell my mum that I had been conned into signing this contract and that I did not know. My girlfriend got her parents to go in with me 2 days later to have a talk with the people at the dealership to get me out of the contract, we waited an hour as the staff kept saying they're busy, and that they need to call this customer and that customer. After the hour long wait to see the manager we were bombarded with a serious of questions below

- How did you not know this was a contract?

- No one told you the $500 was refundable, it's a deposit on the car

- My staff are professional unlike the older days where you play around

- From my office I can see the table clearly here and that he went through the contract with you

- We are a new car dealership, why would you come here and test drive if you weren't going to buy?

The list goes on, I was pretty much being told that I knew it was a contract despite me telling him my story and that not one person told me it was a contract but in fact it being an 'application' a 'no-obligation application'

The manager tells me that I can terminate this contract by paying 15% of the total amount or that I have to buy the car as I signed the contract, we talked for a bit more only to come to the conclusion of not being able to do anything as the finance has not come back yet and that it will most likely take a few days and that he will call me on Monday as it should be back by then. I waited until Monday for the call only to be disappointed and left clueless as to what was happening. I told my girlfriend's parents that I had not received a call and I was told by them to go call them, but I had no business card from any of the staff, not a single business card, only the number I could find on their website. I decided to email the finance agent as I had his email from sending my payslip, two days later I don't get a response from the agent so I email again asking how the finance is going, again with no response.

This is when my mum came in and help me call the dealership only to be told that they will call her back and with no surprise they didn't call her. She let it go for another day or two before she calls again this time with the agent picking up only to talk for a few minutes and tell her that they will call her back in 10 mins and with no surprise again they didn't call her, my mum wouldn't let this go so she calls hours later and this time the manager picks up asking her in a nice and subtle way, what does she want, of course my mum being my mum and like any other parent would do for their kids, she questioned them as to why they had conned me into signing a contract and how could they cheat me etc, the manager responds with the same set of questions used on me except this time my mum responds to him with

- I test drive before I buy, don't you like to test before you buy?

- Yes he is my son so of course I believe him but it's the same with you and your staff, you are going to believe and protect them

- Yes you can see them but were you there to hear every word they said, how do you know what was said

My mum responded to every question with common sense which I did not have at the time, she told them that it was unacceptable and that they have cheated me into signing this contract, he manager says that the dealership has had good reputation with being in top 5 salesman of the year and so on, but my mum tells him I don't think you want me putting in a complaint then as your staff member has conned my son, the manager tells her that as long as she doesn't mention or file a complaint against the dealership and staff that they had 'cheated' me then he will void the contract for me, they also tell her that an email will be sent to me to confirm the termination of the contract.

During the call my mum had with the manager, my mum had got me to call a guy in Department of Commerce, Consumer Protection where I could seek advice, from my call I was advised to file a complaint but due to my mum's conversation, she said to hang on to it as the manager and herself have given each other their words, so I lay off the complaint and wait for the email only to be in disappointment again and with no surprise no email after days of waiting. It had been nearly a week since her phone call with the manager so I tell her that I have no received an email yet, what did the manager tell you, she asks if I had given my bank details in which I said no because they never asked for it, so she decides to call the finance agent again to ask what is happening with the $500 refund, and he tells my mum that someone was suppose to do it but he will do it now, and with great surprise I actually got an email form this finance agent after my attempts to get in contact with him.

The moral of this blog/story is to never ever ever go into a car dealership without an experienced person and to never sign anything the salesman asks you to as you may fall into their trap just like I did and sign a contract that you were told to believe was an 'application'. I cannot stress how thankful I am for my mum helping me out with this situation as I did not know what to do and did not want to go back to the dealership and face those people, it was really unprofessional of them to con me in this way by telling me it was an application and that it was refundable and how not one single person had the conscience to tell me that it was a "contract to purchase a new vehicle", please remember to read carefully even if it takes you 20 minutes because I told the people that I'm going on holiday and that I will be going back to University next year so that my income may not be the same, that is why I wanted to find out the figure to then decide later if I can afford it or not, but with evidence, they do not care and will con me into signing their so called application.

Please consult your parents or an experienced person before entering into a dealership or any sort or place which requires you to spend significant amounts of money.

Anthony Liang