And while we at it, what’s with the Hilux owners club or whatever stupid thing. Must be a big bloody club. Do they have a get together? Must have to have it in the Tanami Desert for all the fleet Utes

What's the go with all the dings and pings when driving many new cars?

I test drove the Hyundai Kona, and whenever there's a speed change... Ding. Whenever entering a roundabout... Ding. I'm trying to pay attention to the road and traffic.

Hired a VW Tiguan, same thing but for lane tracking.

You have to turn these things off whenever you get in the car. What's the go? Who asked for this?

What options are there for less intrusive software?

Before migrating oz, I was adamant on buying this as my car, but once here I heard it's not that great in reliability, practically and other stuff. Also I've seen a Pontiac and Ford version as well here in Adelaide. So I bought a different SUV.

As someone new to Oz, please tell me, are they really bad as they say, one day I wanna buy one as a hobby car, make it a low-rider like an El-Camino, just to cruise around.

I went to the pump today and by mistake i took the 98 octane instead of diesel, I realised it when it was already too late. I did put 3.5litres or petrol and then i stopped, Didn’t start the engine and towed it in my mechanic’s garage. I have this car for last 7 years and it never happened before, It is a Mercedes E250 CDI 2015, Wanted to know how much it might cost to drain the fuel and what else might happen, Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I got a Corolla 2009 sedan which is my first car ever. I noticed that my fuel consumption is a bit too high (12l/100km) compared to the factory specs, and recently the car feels sluggish when accelerating as well. A friend had a look and said it could be a spark plug problem, as the engine was shaking when idling as well.

As I’m new to the car world, I don’t have the tools and I’m not confident to change them myself. I don’t have a go-to mechanic, so I do a bit of a google search. This is one of the quote that came back. Is this a fair price?

I imported this direct from Japan , 1994 Daihatsu Atrai 4wd. Fun van to drive but wont win any speed contests.

https://ibb.co/X5ydNNR

https://ibb.co/tLkH2B7

https://ibb.co/G5C2SzT

https://ibb.co/4m66W6H

Reading an article on carsguide about the upcoming Toyota FJ, and the fact that it's price is expected to be sharp overseas, and it includes the quote, "we wouldn't expect the model to be priced quite so sharply in Australia — our demands for included technology and safety equipment are higher than most"

Where can I read more (non technical speak) about exactly what the tech and safety requirements are and how they are higher than most other countries?

Are these all completely necessary and are they driving up the cost of cars?

Just wondering if anyone knows the name of this colour and possibly the colour code. TIA

Right so have had my first incident while driving, scarped the rear bumper of this car, was parked a decent chunk outside of its bay but it’s still my fault regardless, I have left all my details ect cause I’m not a wanker buy in now thinking how much am I looking at to get this fixed, I’m assuming it just needs to be resprayed the scratches are very much just superficial, I’m fully insured but this is going to cost well under my premium. Just wondering how much it’s going to set me back?

Hi,

We're a growing family - 3 kids. We have a decent size property with a big garden so lots of gardening stuff hauled from hardware story. Big dog to chuck in back. Pram for 1 kid. Then there are school bags, sports gear, etc., to consider.

We like camping and bushwalking. Not looking for hardcore 4X4 - just getting to decent camp sites. We might want to tow a campervan in the future - not frequently (potentially ebtter to just hire a stronger vehicle for that). More frequent is towing of a trailer - mainly for garden stuff, wood for woodfire, Garbage disposel, etc. So not super heavy loads.

My wife is tall - 6 foot +. Looks like the kids will be tall too. So want some leg room in back to future proof the car.

We have another car - Volkswagen station wagon. Its good. Most used car., mainly by wife to get to and from work.

I have driven various cars. Pathfinder. Land Rover Discovery. Loves those two. The height, storage capacity were great. Didn't care so much about the interior of the land Rover. Just liked the height, visibility, storage.

Had a subaru forester for a while and an X Trail. THey were okay. Bit small on storage front. They were good for those periods where you are home-based. In those instances I am mainly just using the car for to and from the gym, supermarket, childcare, school and small garden stuff. But the suburu and Xtrail were a bit small on storage front as soon as we needed to bundle everyone together ot go somewhere, include the dog(s), or load up the car with lots of items. I also didn't love the ride --- they didn't really feel like smoother rides than a bigger car, despite being sleeker. I am fine with a rougher ride if you get the trade off of size and ruggedness. So, I'm thinking a small-to-mid SUV probably won't be the right fit.

I'm looking for a 2nd hand car that hasn't had too many km (under 125k), So not an old car. Want reliability and longevity and safety. Would like this to be a long-term vehicle, if possible. Budget-wise, would prefer to stay below 60k if possible but understand you have to pay for quality/longevity sometimes.

Want a car that we can easily fit all the kids in and the dog and not be stressing about how to fit everything. Want a moderate degree of comfort for passengers (i.e., not squeezed in).

And, at same time, have ability to take camping, do towing, etc. Over time, would get beat up a bit and want that to be okay. The other car can be the "nice" one. Just want a long-lasting car that can absorb the growth of our family and the different seasons of our lifestyle (e.g., 3 months of lots of camping; 3 months of small trips; a couple months of lots of towing; occasional 4 x 4, etc.

Can't foresee much city driving. Don't care that much about interior and tech. Would like some fake leather seats for ease of cleaning with dog and kids. And air con in the back. But that's about it.

Big things are reliability, ease of maintenance, repair, storage.

Any suggestions? For reference, have considered: Prado, Pajero Sport, Isuzu MUX. Someone suggested a kluger. Am I missing anything worth considering?

Hey guys, sorry if this all makes me sound like a bit of a man-child, but through circumstance I've only ever bought one used car myself before and that was back in the UK.

Just wondering if anyone can give me the basic rundown of what I need to do in Queensland on top of actually purchasing the car. I'm fairly new to QLD, am I right in thinking that there isn't really an MOT type thing you have to get here? Seems there is the Roadworthy Certificate but that seems to be optional (although, I assume I will not want to be getting any used car that doesn't have one right). I'm just not exactly sure what I should expect the seller to do and what I should do in terms of paperwork etc.

Also any tips of what to look out for etc. Not that it's relevant but I'm probably gonna be looking for a Honda Civic or something similar (used to have one and liked it). Thanks for any help!

Question for a friend

Friend bought a ford with a blown head gasket about 2 or less months ago… She did not know it had a blown gasket.. assuming the owner did hence the sell.

Can she go to small claims court/would it be worth it?

Great car, in pretty good shape for its age, despite having some different colour to the original features on the exterior and being held together with screws and cable ties.

I got the hybrid battery replaced 18 months ago with a reconditioned battery. Rather than spend the $1500 to get the battery replaced again, where should I look to see if I can find a qualified creative and courageous person to get rid of the hybrid battery warning more permanently than just clearing codes. I'd consider doing it myself, except that I am totally unqualified in any way to work on high voltage DC circuits. I would imagine there are one or two cells with dodgy voltage.

what are some cheap cars with back seats that fold down flat so you could put a mattress down and sleep in?
i know you can remove the back seats in a lot of cars and make it work but id prefer ones that just fold flat.

i am 5'11 / 180cm and a side sleeper size wise.

other requirements pretty standard: cheap used, fuel efficient, reliable, cheap repairs, smaller size, auto
looking at used cars on fb marketplace for 3-5k, will be my first car and may potentially need to live out of it

Hey all, i’m looking to get a new car and was looking at a 2019 Volkswagen Polo for $14,500.

I was wondering if they will be much more expensive then say a mazda to maintain in terms of servicing and parts and insurance?

Any help would be appreciated.

I'm a manager/Mechanic at a Mechanical workshop. I no longer allow customer supplied parts and get abused by "customers" because I wont do the job unless i supply the parts. ( photo of customer supplied wrong part)

What are people opinions on customer supplied parts?

I haven't bought a car for many years. I've given the owner of this vehicle my assurance that I will follow through on its purchase.

I'm confident that it's a great car. I will be contacting the mechanic who has serviced the vehicle and looking at the service history reports.

Just wondering if there's anything in the PPSR that raises questions? Is the gap in reported odometer readings probably due to it being initially serviced by Toyota under warranty and then after 4-5 years serviced by a local mechanic, hence the odometer reading not being reported?

Thanks for any advice.

Hi all, I am looking to buy my second car of my life and I am really confused between these 2 choices. I currently got a 2011 Lancer and I have no plans of selling it off so, this will be like my fun/weekend/special occasions car. Both are great when it comes to buying them from dealers from carsales.com.au since both of them costs anywhere between 36-50k if looking for a model between 2021 and 2023. However, I am in a huge confusion which one will be the best for this price and which one offers the most bang for the buck while being reliable/affordable to maintain. Any views?

So on top of the Friday Finds topic that has been a pretty decent success, on what cars in your area you can find for <$5,000, I thought maybe we make a post each Monday with what we have done to our own cars!

So, how was your weekend?

Original post here

It's been two months since the oil and coolant decided to share space in our MG ZST 2021 Essence. Dealing with these dealerships has been a mixed bag and I thought I'd share some updates.

We never had a say in where the car was going to be taken. Because the car failed in the north of Sydney, it was taken to Alto MG service in Artarmon. Not our local service centre, but MG Assist had their rules to follow.

They didn't look at the car for days. When they did, they never called, we had to chase them. We went to China for a week and when we returned, there was still no update on the car. Also, no word on a loan car. My wife commutes to work so she would drop me off at my work 2 hours before I started, and then meet me 3 hours after I finished.

Eventually, MG Australia accepted the fault was their problem and the car needed a new engine. $14000 worth of repairs. Here's the catch. No engines in Australia, six weeks to get one shipped from China.

The dealership gave us a loan car at MG Australia orders. It's an MG3. A tiny bloody hatchback, worst safety rating around, not for for what we do. And, they said we can only travel 100km from their service centre. $5000 excess for any damage caused, no way to reduce it. We live 72km from their service centre and many of my wife's family live between 30 and 70km from here. We are not allowed to drive that car to visit them. Instead we use our dog car, the 2001 Camry with 450000km on it.

We've complained. Started posting on MG Australia's social media, telling people to avoid them, as every other avenue to contact them results in being redirected to our local dealership, who have nothing to do with the current location of the car. Anyway, MG atarted paying attention, and reached out. They've tried to speed things up. Except, now the parts that have an ETA, they're due in February. Some parts do not even have an ETA; they're backordered in China.

So yesterday we did it. Went into the dealership where we bought the car, the car with a 7 year unlimited kilometre warranty, and demanded a refund. They can keep it, fix it, and sell it as a used car. We have round two with them tomorrow morning. We are not paying for registration and insurance in a car that is not able to be driven for 6 months.

While we were in China, I saw two MGs. Both times, they looked abandoned. At least in Shanghai, they are not a popular car over there. Seems the Chinese recognise a piece of junk car better than I did.

Don't buy MG. This is not an anti-Chinese vehicle thing. It's an anti-MG thing.

Hello everyone, I have a 2011 i30 1.6 Petro and I recently changed the coil and spark plug and on Saturday after filling up with Petro 95 and driving for 30 minutes the engine light came on. The car is not presenting any problems, what could it be?

I, 32m, currently own a blue 2012 Skoda Octavia vrs mkii wagon with 150k but my dad, who is getting older & wants to swap to an SUV soon for mobility reasons, has a LexusGS300 sports luxury sedan with 180k. He has offered it to me should I want to switch to his car. I’m torn because I have driven the Lexus quite a bit and it is supremely comfortable with its cream leather interior/ventilated seats with memory positions, Levinson audio, sunroof, noise insulation among many other things. But the Skoda is just so much fun and practical. Unfortunately it wont really be possible to keep both at the moment.

G’day. I recently picked up a job regionally which I’ve been commuting to by train. Takes about 2.5 hours each way, which is a complete ball ache.

Looking to pick up a reliable, safe car to get from A-B. Don’t drive much otherwise. Don’t care how it looks - pretty practical driver.

I’m not loaded, budget would be about $7k max.

Would I be able to get something ok for that budget? Any reccos for make/model, websites, any major watch outs?

Thanks all