jermano
Ted Fahey (11)
Because of the "F" word
Car Advice
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Because of the "F" word
Shiggins
Steve Williams (59)
Go the Corolla mate. I have had one for 7 years and never had a problem with it. over the last year it has been doing an average of 300km a day and stiill doesnt miss a beat. I was looking to sell it 2 years ago and i could of sill got 10K for it aswell. Unbeleivable re-sale on these. They hold there value like no other. Mine is a 03 model and i can do alot of the servicing myself. Not sure about the new ones though.
I'm a bit late to the party here but I'm a Corolla driver.
I have a 2007 model that I bought new and it has been a great car. I bought the new model because my Mum wanted me to get a gazillion airbags and all the safety features and if I'd bought one that was a year or two old I would have had to buy the top end model. Buying the low end model and adding safety stuff was cheaper.
My car before that was a '92 Corolla which was also great.
They're reliable and cheap to service because there are a million of them on the road. I find them to be quite zippy and handle well. For a no frills car I think the performance is really good.
The newer models don't have the biggest boot ever but do have excellent leg room in the backseats (particularly for a small car). Comparing it with my '92 Corolla, they've slightly reduced bootspace and bonnet length to increase the passenger space.
I'm not sure if the latest models are persisting with it, but in the 2007 model they put the gearstick in quite a high position. It looks a little funny at first but I find it really compact and comfortable to use.
I have a 2007 model that I bought new and it has been a great car. I bought the new model because my Mum wanted me to get a gazillion airbags and all the safety features and if I'd bought one that was a year or two old I would have had to buy the top end model. Buying the low end model and adding safety stuff was cheaper.
My car before that was a '92 Corolla which was also great.
They're reliable and cheap to service because there are a million of them on the road. I find them to be quite zippy and handle well. For a no frills car I think the performance is really good.
The newer models don't have the biggest boot ever but do have excellent leg room in the backseats (particularly for a small car). Comparing it with my '92 Corolla, they've slightly reduced bootspace and bonnet length to increase the passenger space.
I'm not sure if the latest models are persisting with it, but in the 2007 model they put the gearstick in quite a high position. It looks a little funny at first but I find it really compact and comfortable to use.
RugbyFuture
Lord Logo
being late again, and being a recent driver I would suggest that although its important to factor in reliability and all that stuff, don't knock hyundai and kia and those brands that were once crapo, because they're decent, I drive a little mazda 2 though which now pisses me off, particularly on my long drives to penrith from north sydney. You'll want something a little more interesting in the future, go for a fine balance, corollas are good cars and drive everywhere, but they're boring as crap, as well as hyundai putting in so much to improve their quality.
Schadenfreude
John Solomon (38)
Yep the Hyundai and Mitsubishi have the best warranty on the market at the moment I believe.
I find my Corolla enjoyable to drive. Sure it's no sports car, but the upside is that I don't have any demerit points on my license.
Music is what makes driving less boring. If anyone needs any music advice, I'd be happy to provide it.
Something different.
For some strange reason Mitsubishis have been judged by the Australian motoring public and motoring journos as not cool/poor quality/sub-standard/and generally negative. Why? There's no valid reason why Mitsubishis have copped the negative vibes they have the last decade or so; they are well made, competently engineered and reliable motor cars. The result of this is Mitsubishis are up to 5 grand less expensive than comparable Toyotas, their direct competitors and equivalants.
I'm now on my third Mitsubishi station wagon (wagons are essential in my game as it allows me to park in Loading Zones in the city of Sydney). The first one I had for 10 years and did 310,000km, went like a clock and got $5,000 cash for it in 2008. The second one had an argument with a caravan with His Majesty at the wheel, bit of bad luck there. The third one has 220,000km up, and goes like a dream. But the most salient point here is they all cost me fuck all to buy due to this anti-Mitsubishi feeling in the Australian motor trade.
My advice: look for the latest Mitsubishi 380 with low km. They'll cost you bugger all to service and drive beautifully. $15,000 should get you one with about 50,000km on the clock and you'll have it for at least 10 years. Keep an eye out on Gumtree and Trading Post as that's where the weakest sellers advertise.
For some strange reason Mitsubishis have been judged by the Australian motoring public and motoring journos as not cool/poor quality/sub-standard/and generally negative. Why? There's no valid reason why Mitsubishis have copped the negative vibes they have the last decade or so; they are well made, competently engineered and reliable motor cars. The result of this is Mitsubishis are up to 5 grand less expensive than comparable Toyotas, their direct competitors and equivalants.
I'm now on my third Mitsubishi station wagon (wagons are essential in my game as it allows me to park in Loading Zones in the city of Sydney). The first one I had for 10 years and did 310,000km, went like a clock and got $5,000 cash for it in 2008. The second one had an argument with a caravan with His Majesty at the wheel, bit of bad luck there. The third one has 220,000km up, and goes like a dream. But the most salient point here is they all cost me fuck all to buy due to this anti-Mitsubishi feeling in the Australian motor trade.
My advice: look for the latest Mitsubishi 380 with low km. They'll cost you bugger all to service and drive beautifully. $15,000 should get you one with about 50,000km on the clock and you'll have it for at least 10 years. Keep an eye out on Gumtree and Trading Post as that's where the weakest sellers advertise.
Great value there lindo
http://www.carsales.com.au/car/bran...Car&silo=Stock&Range=Mileage:Min,60000&eapi=2
http://www.carsales.com.au/car/bran...Car&silo=Stock&Range=Mileage:Min,60000&eapi=2
Ash
Michael Lynagh (62)
Issue is once you drive a nice car for a while it's hard to take a step down. Love my Golf GTI, wonderful car to drive and loads of fun. Also best manual gearbox I've ever driven. I know, VW has a questionable name for reliability, and running costs. But, it's only had a few minor issues (a short killed a tail light a few times and PCV valve to the turbo - known fault - broke) in 5 years and is otherwise in perfect condition. And, I have a friend with a 5 year old Yaris and the once a year service for the GTI has, over the 5 years, been cheaper than the twice a year service for a Yaris (both manual, admittedly the DSG servicing is a killer for the auto GTI).
How's that relevant to the topic?
Wife is getting her license at an older age (late 20s), and I recently got her a car to destroy - $8k for a 2004 Golf Sport auto in decent nick (just had timing belt, etc done). I actually considered a Corolla and i30 as options. And I can give you an awesome reason to avoid them for your first car, and why I ended up just spending $8k on a car I initially wasn't interested in.
Because it's your first car. It's going to get destroyed. Expect it. Buy a shit box, replace it with something decent.
You can get a $14k three year old i30 with the aim of it lasting 10 years (yes, I considered this), or <$8k shitbox. You won't care if the shitbox gets all scraped and banged up, but you'll care if you scrape up that pristine i30 (which is admittedly a very nice car).
The best part is, for $8-10k you can get a pretty nice 8 or so year old car, just be careful on the mechanics. The Golf Sport we got was a bargain for its condition (and just 93k km!), but even so, I'm expecting some unpleasant running costs at some stage as things start to fail. (Knowing your car models is good - the Golfs had aircon issues for those models, which has already been fixed, for example.)
If you only want something small, you can get an Audi A3 or Alfa 147 from the early to mid 2000s which are damn nice cars inside but, especially in the Alfa's case, will be frigging expensive to run. Holden Astras are another option, probably the older Euro model. Personally I'd stay away from most small Fords and Holdens, knowing people who have had miserable experiences with them. Actually, I'd stay away from some of the bigger ones as well (I drove a 2 year old Ford Falcon XT for part of this year, and I swear it's close to the worst car I've ever driven).
As for the Corolla, sort of a bunch of meh. Bulletproof comes at the price of uninspiring dynamics and middle of the road interior (they've slipped in both of these areas compared to the competition in the last few generations). For the wife this was fine, but the bloody things hold their value like no tomorrow, making an older Corolla similar price to a 3 - 4 year old i30 with the i30 being nicer to drive, nicer interior, and having loads more features (like power windows!), including safety features making it a safer car to boot. If I didn't opt for the shitbox approach, I would've gotten an i30.
When I was test driving stuff, I came to the opinion that 9 year old Corollas for $10k+ (Ascents or whatever the base model is that comes with next to no features) with average dynamics is only good if you want to drive the thing into the ground for the next 10+ years with no regard for driving experience, as, say, opposed to the crap it will take from a new driver. Ditto for buying a new one.
PS Secret to getting a good bargain for a good car is finding those very keen to sell quickly for a good reason - e.g. relocating for work, or just got given a work car and have nowhere to park their old one.
TL;DR A lot of biased drivel.
How's that relevant to the topic?
Wife is getting her license at an older age (late 20s), and I recently got her a car to destroy - $8k for a 2004 Golf Sport auto in decent nick (just had timing belt, etc done). I actually considered a Corolla and i30 as options. And I can give you an awesome reason to avoid them for your first car, and why I ended up just spending $8k on a car I initially wasn't interested in.
Because it's your first car. It's going to get destroyed. Expect it. Buy a shit box, replace it with something decent.
You can get a $14k three year old i30 with the aim of it lasting 10 years (yes, I considered this), or <$8k shitbox. You won't care if the shitbox gets all scraped and banged up, but you'll care if you scrape up that pristine i30 (which is admittedly a very nice car).
The best part is, for $8-10k you can get a pretty nice 8 or so year old car, just be careful on the mechanics. The Golf Sport we got was a bargain for its condition (and just 93k km!), but even so, I'm expecting some unpleasant running costs at some stage as things start to fail. (Knowing your car models is good - the Golfs had aircon issues for those models, which has already been fixed, for example.)
If you only want something small, you can get an Audi A3 or Alfa 147 from the early to mid 2000s which are damn nice cars inside but, especially in the Alfa's case, will be frigging expensive to run. Holden Astras are another option, probably the older Euro model. Personally I'd stay away from most small Fords and Holdens, knowing people who have had miserable experiences with them. Actually, I'd stay away from some of the bigger ones as well (I drove a 2 year old Ford Falcon XT for part of this year, and I swear it's close to the worst car I've ever driven).
As for the Corolla, sort of a bunch of meh. Bulletproof comes at the price of uninspiring dynamics and middle of the road interior (they've slipped in both of these areas compared to the competition in the last few generations). For the wife this was fine, but the bloody things hold their value like no tomorrow, making an older Corolla similar price to a 3 - 4 year old i30 with the i30 being nicer to drive, nicer interior, and having loads more features (like power windows!), including safety features making it a safer car to boot. If I didn't opt for the shitbox approach, I would've gotten an i30.
When I was test driving stuff, I came to the opinion that 9 year old Corollas for $10k+ (Ascents or whatever the base model is that comes with next to no features) with average dynamics is only good if you want to drive the thing into the ground for the next 10+ years with no regard for driving experience, as, say, opposed to the crap it will take from a new driver. Ditto for buying a new one.
PS Secret to getting a good bargain for a good car is finding those very keen to sell quickly for a good reason - e.g. relocating for work, or just got given a work car and have nowhere to park their old one.
TL;DR A lot of biased drivel.
True, Ash, hence my advice to keep an eye on Gumtree and Trading Post. But reading between the lines in ads posted on Drive/Carsguide/CarSales/Carpoint, etc it's possible to glean this info from the private seller entries. After a buyer's decided which car to go with a bit of patience and a lot of research will invariably find a bargain, there's always a weak seller out there somewhere.
ShtinaTina
Alex Ross (28)
I will never buy a Holden again.
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