kids' car has just been stolen so we may have to buy a new, cheap car quickly. Have never considered imports before, anything we should consider. Would get a mechanical check fist. Anything we need to aware of with imports!
duke250,
Jan 29, 4:55am
A mechanic told me that asian imports do alot of stop and go driving which can be really harmful to some engines and transmissions.
gammelvind,
Jan 29, 5:00am
All cars in NZ are imports! What you may be asking are NZ new used cars better than Japanese new used cars. The short answer today is no. A poorly maintained car from where ever is dodgy, where as a nicely looked after car is likely to be ok.
mugenb20b,
Jan 29, 5:25am
1. Get your mechanic to check the car out, but you can check the following items. 2. Look for sludge under the oil filler cap (walk away, if you see any). 3. Radiator must have clean looking antifreeze, not rusty water, etc. 4. Cambelt replacement history. 5. Condition of tyres. 6. Keep away from cars with CVT transmissions. 7. Keep away from turbo, or old diesel vehicles. 8. Keep away from queer/odd looking cars that parts may be difficult to obtain in the future. 9. Stay away from automatic Mitsubishis or any Mitsubishi with a GDi engine, as well as old Subarus.
designerliving,
Jan 29, 5:44am
as above although nothing wrong with turbos plus
keep away from euros keep away from hondas
carstauranga001,
Jan 29, 5:52am
1/ your mechanic has never been to Japan. 2/have you ever gone in or out of Wellington or Auckland in anything resembling rush-hour!
Reality is there are good and bad cars/owners in both countries.
trdbzr,
Jan 29, 6:01am
There are alot of lemons out there. You really need to narrow it down to specific models to give you better advice on what to buy and what not to buy. And no, a well maintained fresh import is going to be far more reliable than a badly maintained nz new car.
pyro_sniper2002,
Jan 29, 6:10am
My dad gave me this advise too based on working on Honda in the 80's. He can not believe how easy my 98 Integra is to work on. In 50k it's needed a clutch master cylinder and rear trailing arm bushes - hardly what I would call an unreliable car.
kazbanz,
Jan 29, 6:24am
"a mechanic" told me that all cars need rebuilt engines after 100000km and that auto transmission is unreliable.
A reality check for you.--The ONLY difference between a Jap car owner and a kiwi is the shape of their eyes. -for every idiot boy ricer type there is a fastidious owner.
incar.,
Jan 29, 10:08am
stick to Japanese imports not singapore! get a inspecion done by someone like me
xxxrapidfirexxx,
Jan 29, 10:12am
nothing wrong with hondas buddy
doug207,
Jan 29, 10:45am
All rubbish and heresy. Honda makes some of the higher quality Jap cars. Many European cars are as cheap, sometimes cheaper to service and many are very reliable. If they were so bad, no-one would buy them. Older turbo vehicles are more likely to have issues also and all of the older ones are not economical.
horsepower7,
Jan 29, 11:15am
haha imports are all good, thats what most car yards have, just get it checked over by a mechanic.
designerliving,
Jan 29, 7:20pm
As long as your prepared to put up with transmissions failing in both automatic and CVT SRS ECU,s and seatbelt buckles failing repeatedly all switch gear failures especially window switches door solenoids failing roofs cracking filling the boot with water (jazz) vtec spool valves leaking oil (must replace the whole spool valve) engines leaking oil from screw in core plugs behind flex plate spent a few years with honda they are rubbish
r15,
Jan 29, 7:23pm
some of the side effects i've noticed with imports that some people like to stay away from: airbags better stereos, more speakers, amps, sometimes subs electric windows front and rear tinted windows air conditioning leather interiors in some cases spoilers- gotta watch out for a factory spoiler factory body kits - plastic ones that dont just snap off. less abuse per km travelled / driven on less destructive roads less dents / scratches per km travelled monsoons / mini monsoons above windows sometimes sunroofs, sometimes several. electric heated seats sometimes heated wing mirrors sometimes to avoid fogged up mirrors factory alloy wheels
why some people dont like these things i dont personally know. a lot of people like to buy nz new though- maybe they like paying more for less!
mrs_medusa,
Jan 29, 9:46pm
Thank you very much everyone.The last Honda I had was a Honda Civic back in the 80s and it was rubbish so Honda was never high only my list.Thinking of Toyota or Suzuki.Will get a thorough check whatever I buy and hopefully that will prevent hidden surprises.Glad to know that people are happy with them.
vtecintegra,
Jan 29, 9:48pm
Honda has changed a great deal since the 1980s - you probably wouldn't have any fonder memories of an NZ 80s Suzuki or Toyota either
ceebee2,
Jan 29, 10:06pm
I would recommend the good old reliable Nissan sunny, pulsar as they are cheap to run, to repair and DON"T have cam belts to worry about. EASY! But always get a mechanical check down.
trdbzr,
Jan 30, 12:59am
80s and early-mid 90s Toyota's were bullet proof as Toyota was over engineering them
poppajn,
Jan 30, 1:53am
On my 8 th Honda spread over 27 years and never had any of the above, in fact very few problem,s.
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