Thread: Small Runabout Car

How much money are you really saving if you buy a second car as you still have out lay the purchase cost (that’s a lotta diesel) then you still have to service it, maintain it, fix any mechanical issues which do arise in even small cheap cars, insure it and rego it and then you still have to pay for the petrol that goes in the tank…

Another one that's worth a look is the corolla/fielder wagon, should be able to pick up for less than $4k.
I have one for a work car at the moment, good on fuel and heaps of room

if its got a toyota badge on it...job done. our wee corona has over 200,000kms on clock and the previous one had similar... never given bit of trouble.

keeps the $1400 + set of rubber on ute usable for a lot longer too.....

One thing I'll point out is you'll find that your total bill doesn't quite work out to where you thought the savings would sit. Insurance, maintenance, fuel, wof, rego, ruc, all adds up FAST.

We have been running three vehicles as have my dad's while he's not driving due to health reasons, and you'd think they all chitter chatter between themselves to organise the servicing requirements and repairs to all occur at the same damn time.

The cheapest thing you can put into a vehicle is fuel - and I'll note that in a year or two all vehicles will go to ruc and the road user tax will drop off petrol same as with diesel. Size for size, and mileage for mileage it's pretty damn close for mileage and servicing costs between the diesel's and petrols now - the mates 3L petrol ute is only about $50 difference in servicing and by the time you add in RUC to fuel and equate the petrol's higher fuel consumption it's very slightly weighted in favour of the diesel. More if towing though as the diesel doesn't gulp like the petrol when dragging.

My ute runs currently 8.1L/100Km all up, the olds mans car around town runs 8.6L/100Km or more but 6.9L/100Km open road. There is a savings if purchasing tyres new, what I've been doing with the ute is picking up factory fitted boots that someone has popped off after a few thou to fit mags or muddies and paying around $75 a corner which is way cheaper than what I can get for the car. Also get around 70,000Km's out of a set of those so bloody economical for a work vehicle as well as if I want to get hold of muddies I have a spare set of rims or two now!

Suzuki swift. Great wee car, we have one, nominally my wife's car but use anytime we can super cheap to run. Easy to park in town. Might have to get one for the kids in a year or two.

Mazda Demio, the most stolen car in NZ

Originally Posted by outdoorlad

Mazda Demio, the most stolen car in NZ

Exactly, loiter near any Michael Hills long enough, eventually a cheap one will get parked inside it.

Always had a Toyota. First corolla did 700000km just on usual maintenance and was still going when I sold it. Current fielder is on 380k rav is on 260k. And the only costs so far are your usual maintenance which you would do on any car. Kids started off in starlets. Daughter has still got hers and is a simple she can fix a lot of the stuff herself. We spend a lot of time on the road so reliability is a high priority.

Mates got a lovely Toyota Corolla 5 door. 2.5km paint job. Lime green lol. Actually so a great wee wagon and obviously cheap as chips to run.
$3850 is asking price. In Rotorua. I’ll ask for a photograph of interested.


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Fuck that

I would never put my wife and kids in anything other than the safest vehicle I could find

They have only ever travelled in 4wd double cab ute’s with a chassis underneath them

Don’t obsess over saving money, your wife and kids are more valuable than $$$$$$$$

Originally Posted by 7mmsaum

Fuck that

I would never put my wife and kids in anything other than the safest vehicle I could find

They have only ever travelled in 4wd double cab ute’s with a chassis underneath them

Don’t obsess over saving money, your wife and kids are more valuable than $$$$$$$$

It’s not for the wife and kids mate, it’s for me alone 90 percent of the time. Just needs to be able to take the kids when I get them from school and daycare on the odd occasion.

Wife had a Suzuki Baleno ran it for 10 years took it up to 300k, only got rid of it as the insurance would repair it at last minor scrape. It went to auction and was napped up for way more than the asking price they put on it, so gave us the extra amount above what they had already paid us. Those older Suzuki manual cars like Toyota's just keep trucking on.

It only ever failed one WOF in those 10 years and that was for tyres that we forgot to change.

We have an 07 yaris with 260k on it. Goes sweet as, hardly anything goes wrong with it, once got 630km off 32 litres.
Great little cars. Toyota for life.

One other thing I've run into is with cheap runabouts - add in changing the shocks and brakes out, possibly a new set of boots especially if it's been sitting and then alignment and suspension/steering components etc etc. Once you've got that far the aircon will crap out followed by the speakers and central locking then the battery starter and charging setup haha. I got all that sorted with the wife's little runabout while she was working at schools and the little bastards were into keying the adult workers cars, then the waterpump shit itself - but before I got onto that she got rear ended as the fourth car up a 6 car pile up at a set of lights after a ute and boat couldn't stop. Her car took the crumple for the entire line of thump thumps!

Power windows and central locking are the other piss-me-offs, and driver's seat frames falling to bits. Had a run a while back around Tauranga where they must have been told to hit driver's seats at WOF time - anything with a bit of wiggle got the big F.

Basically get whatever you are looking at fully checked out so you know what you're in for - probably won't save you from all the surprises but it might give you an idea what you're in for.