Manual and it has done 205,000km, so is getting quite high. I have owned it for about 12 years, it has being a great little car, and will go to my son who is currently learning to drive once I get a new car. As I know very little about other makes of cars I would have very much appreciated some advice on what else is a good car.
2sheddies,
May 30, 10:20am
205k on a well maintained Corolla is barely run in. same with most modern vehicles nowadays.
thejazzpianoma,
May 30, 10:53am
Being a manual of that model with good known service history it should be a viable proposition for a while yet. Sounds like it might be ideal for your Son. The Manual one is also a lot better on fuel which is a help.
What to suggest would probably depend on exactly what your needs are. If reliability, low running costs etc and comfort on long trips are the key concerns I am still finding it pretty hard to go past the Fiat Grande Punto in the around 7K price range.
The Fiat is fully galvanised so no rust issues. It's engine design is actually simpler than Toyota's and requires less frequnt maintenance. It's better on fuel than the Corolla and carry's a 5 Star NCAP safety rating.
Pretty hard to beat in terms of value for money when you can pick u pa very low km, NZ new one for your 7K. I would be looking for an immaculate one with around 50K on the clock for that.
The point being at only a third of the mileage of the Corolla you were looking at you could do typical kiwi km's for years before you even reach the other ones starting milage.
The only downside with the Fiat is a purely psychological one, in NZ we have a very unique motor industry where our secondhand car market has revolved almost entirely around used Japanese imports and the stories told to sell them for decades. It's changed social attitudes as a result and skewed pricing. The advantage to all of this though is you can capitalise it and pick an "off the radar" type car up that is just as reliable and in a lot of ways better featured for very little money.
If you tell us more about what sort of km's you do in a week/year the type of running and what else you are looking for in a car I might be able to make some more suggestions too. But certainly in that sort of thing in that price range the Fiat is a tough customer to beat.
Happy motoring.
jmma,
May 30, 10:57am
Uumm, wonders why Toyota are the Number 1 in sales, oh that's right they are so good.
brapbrap8,
May 30, 11:15am
Oh yeah, if I wanted a car that was less powerful, less equiped, more boring to drive, less economical, costs more to service, and costs more to buy than most other brands then I would go Toyota any day.
jmma,
May 30, 11:30am
Well 16,500 people enjoyed buying their new Toyota last year, and they will still be going when your other brands have fallen over or emptied your wallet Most people want to just get from A to B without hassle, Toyota does this year after year after year after year. (o:
caldan,
May 30, 6:41pm
Thank you, you have definitely got me thinking about widening my search to other makes of car, a fiat is a car that i know virtually nothing about, so maybe I need to do a bit of research. The amount of kms I do per week would average at around 200 which is just around town driving to and from work etc, I will now also be adding to that return trips from Wanganui to Tauranga 3 - 4 times a year. I don't want anything smaller size or power wise than a corolla. The important things to me are safety, reliability, fuel efficiency, comfort (in that order).
intrade,
May 30, 8:09pm
and whats the budget? might be close to brand new cars like a new panda or a suzuki ijmny
intrade,
May 30, 8:16pm
to point out a fact a 98 toyota is like war winning tank for abuse taking and rugged electronics compaired to any 2005 onwards vehicle a 2010 toyota will fail just like any other car make. the bullet proofing has gone with tuff and tight emission laws the vehicles have to meet when sold.
thejazzpianoma,
May 30, 8:36pm
With doing a fair bit of round town running be aware that the fuel consumption will vary considerably between some models in your price range, especially if they are automatic. There is a real mix of technology going on in that price bracket and age group with some using very old tech and some using more modern solutions.
In general if it has a "traditional" auto, especially if only a 4 speed it will really chew the gas around town. If your old Corolla had been an auto you would have noticed this already, we have both an auto and a manual of your generation corolla and the difference was startling.
The Fiat Punto actually has a brilliant solution, it uses the manual 5 speed transmission, very same one as in the manual version of the car. However it has a "bolt on" robotic unit and computer which operates the clutch and gear selector. The result is a car with all the economy and power advantages of a manual, but it's the same as an automatic car to drive. It's also a super reliable solution, and if you do have a problem the "automatic" part just unbolts and can be serviced easily on the bench. No expensive removal of the transmission required. We have a Fiat Panda with that setup that has been a delivery vehicle and will shortly tick over the 1 million gear change mark, completely problem free. (My Fiat diagnostic gear tells me how many gear changes a unit has done etc)
Incidentally, Jucy the car rental company has just bought about 160 new Punto's. A lot of the reason the used ones are such good value is the new ones are super reasonably priced so keeps price pressure down on older ones. That and the funny attitude in this country as discussed before.
Parts for Fiat are easily available in this country and exceptionally well priced too. Pretty much anything you could need is available new or secondhand by overnight courier from several independent importer/wreckers as well as the dealer network. Regular service parts like timing belts, filters, brake pads etc are available from the usual places like Repco, BNT etc.
When you do you research, feel free to price up jobs like the timing belt. The Punto 1.4 belt is one of the cheapest/quickest/easiest to do on any car. I just did one on one of ours the other day for $130 in parts, that included coolant, waterpump, belt and tensioners. Job only took an hour.
Happy shopping.
3tomany,
May 30, 9:01pm
people don't buy Toyotas, rental companies and the government buy them because they are the cheapest cars to buy full stop. Copy and paste of a typical sales month for Toyota, the rest were probably sold to government.
Toyota Corolla was New Zealand??
kazbanz,
May 30, 10:14pm
WHY? the car checks out well other than the oil leak, Its a 4 year old car for $7000.00 I'd say "I still want it subject to identification/ rectification of the oil leak"
brapbrap8,
May 30, 10:15pm
Wow, if you took out the rentals, that would make the Ranger NZs best selling vehicle.
jmma,
May 31, 1:22am
Someone is clutching at straws now. Ranger not good enough for rentals?
ceebee2,
May 31, 1:23am
For up to $7.5K you can buy
2008 Suzuki SX4 Ghia with 126K 2008 Tiida with 98K 2009 Suzuki Splash with 84K 2010 Micra with 41K 2009 Mazda 3's with average of 100K to choose from 2008 + Suzuki swifts with average of 100K to choose from + some Euro models of similar year and mileage to "balance" the suggestions.
But to mention a few
jmma,
May 31, 1:35am
But OP is looking at a Toyota Corolla 2011 for 7k, that's a great deal (o:
gmphil,
May 31, 1:57am
just say fix suspected oil leak in il buy !
ceebee2,
May 31, 2:00am
Completely stuffed that up with year. point well taken.
ceebee2,
May 31, 2:06am
Starting again with 2011 replacements for under 7.5K
2011 Mitsi Colt with 60K 2011 Mazda Demio with 43K 2011 Nissan Wingroad with 105K 2011 Chery with 34K
For example
henderson_guy,
May 31, 5:50am
160thou is hardly what I would describe as hard ks. And at an average of 40thou a year, chances are it was all hot running too, which is better than 80thou of short trips or idling in traffic. Also, the main reason that some of these euros have (claimed) lower fuel consumption is simple. The return trip is usually made behind a tow truck!
tamarillo,
May 31, 6:09am
Hi op. Can of worms opens here every day, some folk seem to need to justify there own cars by wanting everyone else to have one! This very slight oil leak might be a tiny seep from a relatively harmless gasket and never amount to even a drip on floor. Don't let that put you off, just wait until you can find out more. Whilst miles is high, it's a good bet it's been a lot of open road driving which is far better for a car than half the miles in Auckland all day. And most lease cars are really well serviced as it is a condition of the lease and companies don't tend to do it at home. Since a corolla currently suits you it's fair to say I newer one will even more. I'd ask for time to find out more.
caldan,
May 31, 6:10am
I have been looking at other makes of cars on trade me, the Nissan Note or Suzuki Swift look like cars that I could be interested in. Has any one had any experience with either of these cars?
xs1100,
Aug 23, 9:23am
its a good thing he answered before you then isn't it market value and negotiated price could be 2 different things. maybe he had come across a real deal
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