Welcome to this week’s casual kōrero thread!
This post will be pinned in this community so you can always find it, and will stay for about a week until replaced by the next one.
It’s for talking about anything that might not justify a full post. For example:
- Something interesting that happened to you
- Something humourous that happened to you
- Something frustrating that happened to you
- A quick question
- A request for recommendations
- Pictures of your pet
- A picture of a cloud that kind of looks like an elephant
- Anything else, there are no rules (except the rule)
So how’s it going?
Depends on the budget probably…
Over or near to 200k KMs would probably worry me a bit, but personally I wouldn’t think twice about one in the 100-150k KM range so long as it’s otherwise good.
I personally would prioritise getting newer safety features over worrying about the KMs, so long as the car is generally in good shape.
Maybe I need to revise my stance then, I’m so used to always looking for smaller cars with lower KM’s, but the asking prices for some of these high mileage SUVs is crazy to me, some are close to new car non 7 seater prices.
The other frustration is trying to figure out what models and engines are good and which are duds, so much conflicting information on basically every model I look up.
Yeah the cost of a 7 seater SUVs can be a killer.
I never owned a car with less than 100k KMs on the clock until recently. And really that was just about getting a safer car when we had kids. So I guess I see 100K-200K as a “normal” range. Under 100K is for fancy people 😋
Haha yes, all cars are going to have some failures and so it’s hard to use anecdotal evidence to decide if it’s a bad model or random chance. If you buy from a dealer you at least have some level of protection from the CGA, but you’ll also pay more for that.
Is it feasible to not buy a giant 7 seater SUV, and instead just hire one when needed? That’s going to depend on how close you are to a place that has them for hire and how often you expect to need it, but I think you’ll find it’s cheaper financially. Not just because big SUVs are super expensive, but also because they suck fuel like crazy. Unless it’s a hybrid then the fuel costs are much higher than a smaller car., and you’ll be paying that regardless of whether you are using seats 6 and 7.
Haha guess I’m fancy, almost every car I’ve bought has been under 100K km’s, but the never were very expensive. Benefit of the cheap imported cars here.
Oh yes, we’ll be buying from a dealer as I want to trade in our older Prius. I know I can potentially get more buying and selling privately, but I really cannot be bothered with private sales with cars, unless I already know the person.
The wife doesn’t really mind not having a 7 seater, but the reason I’m considering it, is it makes it so much easier when family visits a couple times a year. No need to drive two cars every time we go out. Also if we visit family, we take a lot of stuff with us. With a second child now the Prius is getting too small for that. I actually had my mind set on finding a people mover with a proper fold flat third row so we can have a huge boot space for 90% of the time. But for some reason here, they’re all either already pretty old or too new and expensive. I’m guessing that they’re not as popular as they once were.
I have to give some thought to the renting thing, it might be a good idea.
I think what I consider “cheap” has changed a lot over my life. I never spent more than a couple of grand on a car until we had kids.
A quick look online, you’re talking about $200 to hire an 8 seater van/car thing like that for a day. Unless you’re picking up from Auckland Airport then the exact same thing is double the price 🤷
If you need it twice a year, that’s $400 a year. Just having a big 7 seater will probably cost you that much extra fuel before you even talk about the price of the car.
Of course you could also just put up with taking two cars, which also means twice the boot space. A 7 seater typically doesn’t have much boot space when the 6th and 7th seats are up.
I think our most expensive was around 12-13K until we got the Leaf a couple of years ago. We usually keep them for around 10 years so far. In fairness, I come from a country where before you can even buy a car you need to bid for a Certificate of Entitlement (COE) to own a particular class of car. The COE frequently costs more than the car you’re buying. And it also has to be renewed every 10 years. But they have an amazing public transport system. So I guess cheap is relative.
We actually don’t use the second car all that often outside of longer trips or when family visit, which is why I’m not so concerned about it being less economical. The Leaf is what we usually use around town. However, the kids are getting bigger and I’ve noticed we have a lot less space when trying to pack the car full, or impossible if we want to include their friends in the car.
I’m aware of this, but it would only really matter for maybe 10% of trips. It’s lame, but my actual dream right now would be a late model Kia Carnival. Way too expensive and they really are huge cars to drive around.
Interesting! Cheap is definitely relative.
You could save up for it! It’s what we make the kids do when they want something, but it works for adults too!
As someone who borrowed a Toyota Highlander for a few months, my dream is for a car that fits in carparks 😆
Haha yeah I admit that’s one of the downsides.
We could do that, but It’s also partly my brain doesn’t like seeing so much money leave our account, just for a car!
Yeah I know what you mean! I remember the first time we spent $10k on a car, and that felt like a lot. It was a much nicer car than the 1995 corona we had before then (this was in maybe 2016 or 2017). We actually kept that Corona for a while after that too, we only had one car up to that point.
I would like to buy a nice EV (we have a leaf, but I mean a $60k or even $80k car), but like you I have trouble with spending that much on a car. That’s more than our deposit when we bought our first house (how times have changed).
My current plan is to wait for a few years and reassess. But our Ford Kuga has been expensive to maintain so getting rid of it earlier may pay off (probably not to the tune of $60k though 😅).