Buying a car... wagon recommendations?

[Buddybee]

A couple of points to remember.

A diesel is only more economical if you are travelling over 30,000 kms a year. A diesel will also cost around $400-$600 per service, and as mentioned European Cars (and diesels - European and Japanese) are expensive to repair once out of warranty.

I currently drive a Mazda 6 diesel which new cost about $36,000, and have been very VERY happy with my car. It's driven like a dream from the day we bought it, and the fuel economy is excellent - about 6L per 100 km's with lots of short trips, 4L on long trips. The leather finish of the Mazda is of excellent quality, and the hatch is certainly big and roomy (especially when the rear seats fold down flat). I have no problems with fitting in a pram plus shopping and school bags, or a couple of bikes. The downside is I pay around $500 per service. I only drive around 20,000 kms per year and now it's out of warranty.

With 3 growing kids, I think I'm going to upgrade to a Commodore wagon. The fuel economy will not be as good, but the overall cost for the kms I travel, plus the cheap Holden servicing will make up for that.

Cheers
Buddybee

 

[buster]

Buddybee, You must be getting ripped off , it only cost $ 90 to $ 120 to service a diesel. That is one of the points of a diesel, low maintainence, just change the oil every 5 to 15 k and oil filter 10 to 15 k. Fuel filter, Timing belt 80 to 100k.

 

[goonandtell]

why does it have to be one car. You can spend $40k chasing a big but fun car but its not going to be as partical/roomy as a real wagon/hauler or as fun/fast as a real sports car.

For me i could have a twin turbo liberty wagon but i would be concerned with the driving i do (lot of country and some dirt roads), would cringe when loading all my crap in the back and it would also be chewing sports tyres running up and down the freeways no munching corner, enjoying fine 98ron petrol while running errands etc... From experience a sports/fast car will have fast car running costs and you will be replacing parts at the pace of a daily driver.

Instead of one be everything to me car I have a 3 year old gas falcon wagon which has the parts cost of a falcon (read cheap) and a 1 year old GSX-R 600 sports bike which will flick up to 100 in less than 4 seconds ... all up my 'fleet' cost sub $30k and has the advantage of being able to be used by both me and my partner. (you could consider some nicer jap import for $15-$20k in place of the bike).

 

[Buddybee]

Buddybee, You must be getting ripped off , it only cost $ 90 to $ 120 to service a diesel. That is one of the points of a diesel, low maintainence, just change the oil every 5 to 15 k and oil filter 10 to 15 k. Fuel filter, Timing belt 80 to 100k.

Every major service at Mazda costs that much, the low soot oil alone is somewhere between $50-$80 per service. I guess with modern diesels with emmissions equipment and DPF's/regens it's not as simple as it once was.

We priced it at 2 different dealerships and have a friend who works at one of them - unfotuantely that's what it costs to service Mazda diesels.

Cheers
Buddybee

 

[RumpledElf]

Bad news on the home loan front means we'll probably not get a new car anytime soon. Our car has almost zero tradein value, it has a nice dent at the moment and 230,000 on the clock.

We got a new 'compact' car seat yesterday. It is significantly bigger than the 1995 car seat we've been using that fits beautifully, but much smaller than the current 'normal' sized car seats on the market. It leaves a gap of about 25cm wide for me to put one of the kids, which doesn't seem very comfy but we have no choice in this matter as despite having $50k sitting in the bank gathering dust, we'd rather have a house than a car.

Why are car seats so big anyway? What changed that required all parents with more than 2 kids to buy an SUV or a Tarago?

I did a quick google for this and the answer to all "what car seat can I get" threads on various baby forums ALL ended in "buy a bigger car"

 

[buster]

Buddybee, Did you try to find an independant self employed mechanic? You might just find you can get your car serviced for less than one third what a dealer charges. Sometimes dealers make about $20 when they sell a car but make $ 400 twice a year when they service it. They also have higher overheads so have to charge more. The emmision control sysems are more compicated on a petrol engine. The diesel are not complicated, you have a filter that traps soot when the exhaust gets hot enough it burns the soot and turns it into carbon di oxide. If your DPF is clogging it is probably because your car is not running hot enough, too much slow short city driving , you may need to alter your fuel injector pump to increase exhaust gas temperature, you maybe using poor quality fuel. Any way if it is not working why dont you just take the bloody thing off, or put on a differnt type. It is wrong to make a big statement to say it cosst $600 to service a diesel in your case it maybe if that is what your willing to pay. but niormaly it is much cheaper. I do have a Mazda made vehicle it is a 07 diesel ford courrier, cost $6 for Z9 oil filter, I buy 20l oil for about $100, does 4 services, my mazda diesel cost $31 dollars to service it would be another 35 if I took it to my mechanic its done 185,000 k. I have a hilux diesel the filter for it cost $ 30 so it cost $60 to service done 200,000k. I have holden captiva( I 85,000 k)still under warranty so my mechanic sevices that to keep warranty valid cost $130 , but for a holden dealer to do the same service cost about $400 and they are no-where near as thorough, and I have to wait all day for my car, instead of about 40 minutes. I have never had any problem with any DPF and if I did I would just take it off, I dont think there is any requirement here to meet european emission standards.

 

[w0nnie]

after nearly getting t-boned on the weekend by a pathhfinder that decided stopping at a roundabout was not for him, i would go for stability control, ABS and computer brake distribution in whatever car you choose.

i dont know how but we managed to just avoid said pathfinder in the wet, at a roundabout that is being converted to traffic lights, the car didnt spin or lose control in any way. i am certain we could not have avoided a major accident in our previous car that had no stability control.

for the record, it was a peugot 308 XDI wagon, definetly worth a look.

There is a reason this car is cheaper to insure, new, than our old car that was only insured for 8K, insurance companies dont get the numbers wrong, new cars simply have less major accidents.

 

[motivated 5555]

A frind has 3 carseats and loves one of tge KIA cars as u can lift down the 3 row of seats for a larger boot or lift it up for a third row of seats for more people or to separate kids that fight in close proximity . I've loved the mitsubitshi or Toyota vans also tarago type . Very roomy for transporting anything for family or ips . U can have shopping , sahool stuff sports stuff kids and friends all at same time and never run out of space .

 

[tess85]

Be VERY careful buying second hand European cars - they cost a LOT to fix when things go wrong. As in heaps.

I'd be buying a less exciting but new car with good warranty. Most cars are terrifically safe compared with cars of only 10 years ago. If you wear seatbelts and drive sensibly (and soberly) you're probably doing all of what you practically can for safety anyway.

Thanks, I'll pass this onto hubby and see if I can steer him away (groan, bad pun) from the used VW Passat option. Though I do hate paying full prices for new car... just think of the depreciation in the first year...!

We do drive sensibly - never had an accident or ticket in 8 years of driving - but it's the other maniacs I'm worried about. The number of people who I've seen speeding around me - running red lights - merging lanes dangerously - the list goes on. My sis, who is also a careful, defensive driver, had her car wiped out on a freeway by a truck driver going at 100km/h. Thanks to airbags she was able to walk away fine although the car was written off (apparently 4 times... ie. even a quarter of the damage would've been enough to write the car off!)

Someone asked me on the other car thread why I had to have airbags and extra safety features now, when my old clunker had none. The answer is simple.... baby!

Anyway, I digress (blame baby brain), but thanks all for the input to the thread, it's given hubby and I heaps to think about!

 

[tess85]

after nearly getting t-boned on the weekend by a pathhfinder that decided stopping at a roundabout was not for him, i would go for stability control, ABS and computer brake distribution in whatever car you choose.

What a close call, I'm glad you're ok. Yes, hubby is absolutely certain that our new car has to have ABS, etc. Thank goodness for new technologies these days...

Why are car seats so big anyway? What changed that required all parents with more than 2 kids to buy an SUV or a Tarago?

No idea, but I love driving smaller cars eg. a Corolla, but hubby thinks it won't be suitable for our needs when we have 2 kidlets! Even in a Camry, the baby's capsule takes up sooo much space, and we haven't even started looking at the convertible carseats yet, which must be even bulkier!