I'm looking for a diesel runabout. My budget is about $7000. Looking at a "recent" year and fairly low KMs. Have considered the likes of the Caldina, Laurel, VW Golf, Ford Mondeo but am now out of ideas of what other manufacturers and options available. Before hitting the car yards, I though I would ask as to any ideas I have overlooked. Thanks George
Ps before you ask, not fussed if its a 4wd but am interested in recent years and low KMs (reliable).
curlcrown,
Jan 25, 11:11pm
You need to concider why you want a diesel. Is it for reasons of econimy! If so it my be a false econimy to purchace a diesel vehicle.
adrianae,
Jan 25, 11:16pm
I currently drive a diesel 4wd. Just doesnt have the reliability I would like. And yes, for economy reasons.
thunderbolt,
Jan 25, 11:18pm
Cc makes a good point. Check rego and diesel mileage costs as part of your calculations. Seems you need to be doing 30-40 thousand Km per year to make diesel a viable alternative to a similar petrol car.
adrianae,
Jan 25, 11:20pm
Very close to there Thunderbolt.
NZTools,
Jan 25, 11:42pm
If you only need a small car such as a golf, it will be cheaper owning a petrol vehicle.
mrfxit,
Jan 25, 11:49pm
ANYTHING classed & reged as a Goods truck/van or utility will $589.25 to licence per year (Non-petrol driven - Diesel - 0-3500kg GVM) Anything classed as a private passenger car/ station wagon vehicle will be $410.19 to licence per year. Private passengerpetrol vehicle is $280.35 per year
The likes of Eg: Toyota Surfs between 1984 & 1996 are reg as Station wagons & kicenced at $410.19 per year. not sure if the Prodo's are the same or not.
BUT. it's an example of what gets charged for what type reg Under the heading of.
You can use my calculator to help work it out if you like, just update the RUC and Fuel cost first if you want it to be super accurate. Go to www.dieselvspetrol.webs.com
I can tell you from experience though, in a small car for $7000 Diesel is not really going to save you any money. I am a bit concerned about your "not being worried about it being 4WD or not" because any 4WD diesel at that price going to cost you more, sometimes a LOT more than a petrol car.
You need to do the math properly for each car you are considering.
Incidentally we run a 1.3 litre Fiat Grande Punto Diesel which is about as economical as diesels get at any price, and the net savings to run it over a petrol equivalent are fairly negligible. I bought it because I got a great deal on it not because it was a diesel one.
Also. be aware that for 7K many of the vehicles you are looking at are not going to be the newer type of common rail engine. That means less efficiency and servicing is usually required 2 - 4 times as often.
What sort of running are you doing OP! Is it open road or around town!
A Petrol Fiat Punto will give you great economy for mixed driving and an FSI MK5 Golf/A3 (which you can just get for 7K if you are super careful) will give you plenty of grunt and open road comfort while still being ultra frugal, especially if its mostly open road running you are doing.
Last piece of advice, avoid all Japanese diesels in your price range, there is nothing Japanese for 7K that will be efficient and reliable. If you go Japanese get something small and petrol with a manual transmission.
.
gruntabro,
Jan 26, 12:51am
a small diesel is a good choice but only if yer prepaired to disconnect your speedo and avoid RUCsbecause thats the killa right there ! The best one of seen so far is a micro switch mounted next to the gear shift under the floor that activates onlywhen 5th gear is selected great for long trips and safe when getting a warrant or if you get checked at a check point ,another set up if seen is when the ciggy lighter is pushed in the oddometer turns off ! ha
thejazzpianoma,
Jan 26, 2:24am
adrianae, I have updated the dieselvspetrol.webs.com website, fuel, ruc and registration prices are now current.
arrithedog,
Jan 26, 3:19am
I run a 20 year old Bighorn and a 17 year old Nissan Largo. Both diesel, both well looked after, both 100% reliable, niether cost me anything much more than regular oil changes and consumables like tyres. Servicing is the key. You look after them, they'l look after you.
thejazzpianoma,
Jan 26, 3:53am
Sadly though, the OP needs reliable AND efficient.
msigg,
Jan 26, 4:12am
Yea arrithedog you are correct if you already own a diesel then no point selling just keep them serviced and they should last along time, even the older ones are great and efficient enough if you already own them, that is the key, being older they are simpler too, thats a big help.buying and selling are a mugs game.The crunch comes if you are buying one now, might as well stick to petrol as others have said.
austingtir,
Jan 26, 4:22am
To counter Jazz although these Nissans are pretty rare and not common rail they are efficient and reliable and can be had within your price range.They all feature the direct injection yd25ddt or yd22ddt engine and can be found in people mover presage and bassara and passenger wagon Ad Van (rare and very hard to find in NZ) and the n16 almera hatch (would probably have to import from UK).
The Ad Van yd22 is non turbo i think and i would imagine its a real slug and is a basic vehicle so id probably avoid it.
Jazz is right on some points its not easy to find a good japanese made diesel as the govt in japan outright discourages their sale so its generally pointless of any japanese manufacturer to put much time and effort into designing them.
Avoid all the other nissan diesel's that everyone else is mentioning they are not worth the effort.
thejazzpianoma,
Jan 26, 7:50am
There is no need to "counter" me. Just do the math and see for yourself, they are simply not in the ball game for being cheaper to run than some of the petrol options in the price range, so a complete waste of time.
No amount of wishfull thinking and chest puffery will change the math unfortunately.
austingtir,
Jan 26, 8:31am
There is absolutly a need to counter you as you are biased beyond a joke!You obviously arent good at math.For 7k you aint getting any euro thats anything special.And also these are 2.5 and 2.2 litre diesels most of the stuff you flout on about is smaller capacity so of course it will be more economical.
kazbanz,
Jan 26, 8:37am
George I'd suggest that you might want to look at fuel efficient smaller cars like the Mazda Demio (02-05) because when you look at running one of them it will be cheaper overall than the diesels you are concidering.
thejazzpianoma,
Jan 26, 8:48am
You are more than welcome to demonstrate the math anytime you like, the OP is clearly happy with something VW Golf sized so size is hardly an issue.
Feel free to post your (verifiable) economy stats for the Nissan and I will start posting some petrol options that are the same or cheaper to run.
Also. what Nissan's are you even suggesting that meet the OP's requirements of as new and low km as possible!
thejazzpianoma,
Jan 26, 8:51am
A Demio may be small, but for all its size, comfort and equipment compromises its hardly efficient, especially if automatic.
austingtir,
Jan 26, 10:03am
Considering OP drives a 4wd now the bassara and pressage are pretty good options imo they will match or beat anything available for a vehicle of that size and seating and i gaurantee the economy would be infinitly better than any 4wd diesel.
austingtir,
Jan 26, 10:24am
My current 2wd d22 navara does 6.5-8.8l per 100km's in an 1950kg body. these bassara and pressage are a fwd layout and lighter i suspect so should achieve similar results stock!My navara is not stock and achieves slightly better mileage that stock.With an exhaust and turbo upgrade you can expect mid 6's out of town and at absolute worst ragging it around town high 8's.
Their you go jazz i dont have to do the math as those are real world figures not the majority of rubbish you trawl out of your ass!
arrithedog,
Jan 27, 1:50am
Yes to both.
thejazzpianoma,
Jan 27, 2:28am
A typical tank in our Grande Punto that we bought for approx 7K yeilds 4.7l/100km. It will drop back to 3.4l/100km once warm on the open road.
It requires servicing only every 30'000km at which time it requires only about 3.3 litres of oil and some well priced filters.
Even at that level of efficiency its still barely more economical to run than its petrol sibling.
The OP is considering a Golf so clearly anything bigger is not required. So at that point your argument for the Nissan Diesel is completely done and dusted with operating costs a whopping 50% more than our Fiat by the time you factor in the extra servicing.
The OP has made it abundantly clear they are after economy and reliability, they have also made it abundantly clear what size car they are happy to drive to get it.
Just to further point out the unviability of the Nissan Diesel, IF you could even find a diesel like that in a late model people mover a Petrol vehicle would only have to average better than 7.4l/100km to do better than the average of the figures you gave. I can get under 7 over a tank out of the likes of the 2004 Touran with 120km on the clock that sold down the road from me for under 7K the other day. So even in your fictitious little world where they some how now need a people mover the math does not work.
austingtir,
Jan 27, 2:42am
Hmm so my navara weighs 1950kg and a punto weighs 1050kg with a tiny diesel engine and you think thats a good comparison!
Also OP was mentioning laurel, GOLF and caldina.Far bigger cars than a punto.A punto is a tiny ratty little car!
Nuff said about the touran, one look on trademe and you can see a few clapped out ones for sale.Terrible suggestion for a car in that price range!Unless you can pick one up for like 2 grand or something.
And again on the punto OP would be crazy to buy one of those when a hyundai getz is a superior vehicle.
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