Hi everyone, I'm from Melbourne and literally shocked because of the car prices here. It is way too expensive to buy a car here comparing to Melbourne. I can easily walk out with a Corolla for $23,300 without any bargain at all. Here the salesperson asked for the same price for a used Corolla 2014…
So what did you pay for your car and where did you get it? Please help me find a reasonable drive what won't cost me a bank. Thanks everyone!!
Thanks for the link Shaw. This saves me time browsing and summarising prices on Trademe.
If you buy at the end of the month, or at the end of the financial year, you can often get a good percentage knocked off the price.
DO NOT buy a new car in NZ. This beautiful little country has the highest car depreciation in the WORLD!
See below article:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/motoring/news/89145417/New-Zealand-ha…
If you are not in Auckland, I would suggest buying a car from Auckland and shipping or driving it to where you are (as the car market is flooded there; mainly from imports but also NZ new vehicles).
I recently purchased a 2012 Honda Insight (top "E" spec which was NZ new) for $10k with 70,000kms on the clock from Auckland. In Wellington, for a similar car the asking price is around $15k for similar kms and spec!
Keep in mind, because the market is so flooded, its difficult to sell an older car at the price you would expect also. I recently sold my 2005 Nissan Cube for $3500 (had advertised for $3800) and only had one single enquiry/offer after over 4 weeks of advertising on trademe… So when hunting for a car on trademe, don't be embarrassed to low ball.
Yes, buying a NZ new Insight is recommended, because changing the electric battery on an inported Insight will cost ALOT more (from local Honda dealerships).
What are the Nissan Cubes like from your experience in terms of fuel economy, reliability etc? I heard it is best to stay away from CVT ones if possible?
I had a CVT Cube and had no problems with it - the CVT requires oil change every 50,000kms, which most don't have done, similar to the Honda Fit, and most mechanics don't realise this when they do a service (I had to do my own research on this and request it to be done with the service).
If you service the CVT every 50,000kms; they are very good and economy I got around 400-450kms per 30L and mine had travelled 165,000kms before I sold it. Extremely spacious interior was great for moving stuff around and the family. The only bad part of the car is the wind noise can be excessive at high speed on a windy day because of the boxy shape of the car.
how much to change cvt nissan oil please?
Wow that's pretty great fuel economy. I guess buying second hand CVT with several owners means it's hard to know if the CVTs have been serviced properly every 50,000km, unless records have been kept and being an import will have no records prior to coming into NZ. Was your Cube a blue one for $3800 I saw trademe in Welly?
@Hamster: yeah i forgot to take that ad down. Honda Fit has better fuel economy and decent space due to their rear seat config, but the cube feels bigger inside. CVTs really get a bad rap, but they're the reason for the fuel economy of modern cars.
That was my conclusion as well that Auckland does have the best "bargain". Been eyeing on a few used cars over there but hesitate to buy them over the phone as I live 4 hours away.
I bought my car without viewing it on Friday(but it was from a reputable large car house (Turners) in Auckland) flew up Sunday morning and drove it to Wellington arrived home that night.
, because the market is so flooded, its difficult to sell an older car at the price you would expect also. I recently sold my 2005 Nissan Cube
If its a toyota, civic, silvia or evo lancer, they will sell more quickly, as compared to a cube car. No offence :) But the former models are overpriced, yes.
Don't Aussie have tax breaks for Toyota over there as they are made or assemble there? but the have a crazy tax rate for imports?
No, they subsidise local manufactured cars such as the Toyota Camry, Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon. As their factories are shutting down, it was a waste of Government money trying to boost.
Imports are heavily regulated, so its the complete opposite of here.
Just looked at a Toyota Corolla wagon at a dealer in Hamilton 2 Saturdays ago. Was a 2016 model fresh off the end of another order. Had done 50 km. As in my test drive added a lot of the k's. They wanted $26000 for it. Rang me up Monday sounding like they'd drop the price.
What did you guys end up buying?
I bought a second hand 2015 Corrolla delivered from Auckland.
Cool. Can u share the specs and price.
Hey, welcome!
Not a new car buyer, but for that figure just note that $23,300 in Melb would be around $27,000 here once you factor in the exchange rate plus the higher GST, then there is the lower demand (Less population) and other factors. We all know how much Aussies complain and whinge about the "Aussie tax", but the equivalent "NZ tax" is much worse.
AA do a list of pricing here, which may give you an idea of what to expect. It may not be entirely accurate or up to date though.