Gordon wrote on Jan 17^th, 2021 at 6:38pm:



I'd like a fast car or motorbike but these days
you wouldn't last a week before you lost your license
for at least 6 months.
With speed cameras on every road and intersection all
you can hope to do is drive from A to B with
the least hassles possible -
both in terms of car maintenance and the cops chasing you.

Hi Gordon,
name a more exciting car under $32 K     ?

Mazdas - probably better than Toyotas.
Perhaps more a 'city/drivers' car.

Great petrol engines, Aisin transmissions.

Both Porsche and MB have redonkulously high servicing costs, no surprises there, but MB give crap service and try to worm their way out of 'out of warranty issues' while Porsche, provided servicing has been done by the book step up and do the right thing.

Gordon wrote on Jan 17^th, 2021 at 7:41pm:



' .............. Mazda CX-30 or one of the Koreans.
            ........... '

That'ld be about my choices too

Found this tread intriguing. My much loved Mitsubishi Lancer hatch automatic will soon need replacing. Purchased, would you believe, because it has enough room in the back to accomodate my two large dogs and two who visit. It’s been 100% reliable for 7 years only needing minimal servicing and new tyers. I borrowed a friends VW Golf Wagon for an extended period when they were OS. Hated it. Horrible ride and suspension. The VW agent servicing costs were insane and had to be undertaken with VW as my local mechanic doesn't have the necessary computer gear ( a huge trap with modern cars ) I've test driven electric/petrol and pure electric models when on the mainland, found many of them great to drive. However I've learnt  lack of charging stations in Nth Tasmania make them impractical for long trips. I had access to a Mini Cooper long term but found the rear room for my canines and friends not up to scratch. A great car to drive but again being forced to have it serviced with a Mini dealer at insane prices and long distance from home is a real trap. So, that's got me interested in the Mazda CX-30 recommended here. So long as I won't be forced into expensive servicing at a Mazda dealer, there's enough room in the back for the dogs (with the rear seat down)I'll be booking a test drive. Like the look of the Mazda. Too many of today's vehicles  look to me as if computer design /graphics in the wrong hands are a curse.

mazda share space with toyota on a lot of development.
both are good.

car manufacturers tend to be in an upward spiral or a downward spiral.

when they start to go down, they cut corners, quality control falls off, they merge to try to inject capital.

i think chrysler , jeep, renault are one unit now
and nissan , fiat, peugeot ?
and mini and landrover are also merged in some god awful mess.

stay away from those lines.


honda and toyota and mazda are profitable and have stood the test of time.

benz and volvo make great commercial vehicles (trucks), because freight companies demand reliability.

but the private consumer is easily tricked with something which is engineered to be expensive to service and maintain (which is where a lot of the profit is).

for the 4 wd market.

an older hilux or landcruiser is ultra reliable but you will pay.

in the new models, the isuzu dmax engine is about as good as you could get as it is a truck engine in essence and you will get super high milage out of it.

the tritons is good value for money , often coming in 10 to 15 grand under the hilux or ranger. and there are plenty about and plenty of mechanics who wkow how to work on them,

if i was buying a car (and i only buy 4 wd's except for my missus lexus), i would go to a country town, away from the beach and the stop start traffic and look for a 3 to 4 yo vehicle with maybe 110,000 km on it.

once they tick over 100,000 kms they plummet in price.
if its a country vehicle, they will be mainly highway miles and it wont have rust.

you might get it for 1/3 of the new car price and it might still have 3/4 of its life in front of it.

then change that oil, filters, fuel filters, trannie and diff oil , coolant REGULarly.

in fact, with an older car, you need to do it more often, not less.

and you might have a car for 10 or 15 years that will end up costing you very little.

and put the savings into real estate