Buying first car - after advice

[Intense1]

Alright, so I'm looking at getting a car in the next few months. While it won't be my first car, it'll be the first car I've purchased myseslf.

I've got my P plates in QLD (red P plates), so I'm restricted to 200hp (correct me if I'm wrong?).

I'm not a hoon, I consider myself a safe driver and I rarely exceed the speed limit.

I just want a "nice" car, something that looks good/clean but also is very comfortable to drive. It'll be used daily to drive to work and on weekend for trips to the beach and up into the mountains etc. Might also look at doing a track day for a bit of fun here and there.

I'm after some advice/opinions on the cars listed below, also open to suggestions on other cars. Budget will be $15k (maybe 20k). Anyone know about reliability of cars listed below? Service and insurance costs?

Also, anyone had experience getting a car sent from another state? Worth looking into? Other option is to fly to a city and drive it back, but would depend on if I could get a day off work

1997+ Porsche Boxster - probably my first choice in terms of looks and wank factor. I'm just concerned with service costs. Any word here?

Skyline V35 - Nice cruiser. Only thing is I think the base models put out 215hp which is slightly outside the 200hp bracket. Could I get away with this?

2005+ BMW 320i - Would be real comfortable. But again concerned with service costs?

Honda S200 - Hard to find for $15k, but would feel confident with reliability and service costs.

Audi TT - strong contender, but again with the service costs. These can be had pretty cheap too

These aren't all the options im looking at, just a few good ones. Obviously fitting a bike in the car would be good but not my first priority.

Finally, I'll be getting a car loan to pay for it. Any tips with this? I'm looking to go with my local bank (commonwealth) as it'll just be more simple to secure a loan with a bank I'm already with. But if there's a clear advantage with another lender I'll take it up. Who offers the best loans out there?

Thanks in advance for any input. Cheers

 

[dej]

I am a massive fan of porsche..
I would avoid a porsche at that cost unless you have done a LOT of research into the car you plan on getting (along with general research into the year/model)
My advice on getting a porsche is buy the newest one you can afford, and given your budget i'd forget it. the early watercooled porsche engines had a number of issues. i think these were resolved after 2000-2001?
I've owned a bmw 320i, i'd avoid those as well. The service/repair costs on and old (and new) bmw will drain your finances quickly.
On both of those, don't expect insurance to be affordable. It was $2000pa full insurance for my bmw, i got it when i was 20 and it was a 10 year old car.

Given the cars you listed and the age, expect them to have had a hard life, have high km's and would be due/overdue for major work.

 

[rone]

They're all shit. Where are you going to put a bike?

 

[MARKL]

Look I love cars but you are setting yourself up for a world of pain and this is coming from someone with a Renault Sport and SS Torana in the garage...

My brother's girlfriend used drive an older BMW 3 something shit box, she was complaining to me about it one day, kept breaking down costing them stupid money. I explained to her, that whilst she had enough money to buy it she didn't couldn't afford to own it. That is the problem with all the cars you have listed, cheap to buy, expensive to own (with the exception of the Nissan) and they will be shit for carrying mountain bikes....

 

[Intense1]

I am a massive fan of porsche..
I would avoid a porsche at that cost unless you have done a LOT of research into the car you plan on getting (along with general research into the year/model)
My advice on getting a porsche is buy the newest one you can afford, and given your budget i'd forget it. the early watercooled porsche engines had a number of issues. i think these were resolved after 2000-2001?
I've owned a bmw 320i, i'd avoid those as well. The service/repair costs on and old (and new) bmw will drain your finances quickly.
On both of those, don't expect insurance to be affordable. It was $2000pa full insurance for my bmw, i got it when i was 20 and it was a 10 year old car.

Given the cars you listed and the age, expect them to have had a hard life, have high km's and would be due/overdue for major work.

Yeah not gonna lie Porsche is easily my first choice at this stage. Definitely head and shoulders above the rest in terms of toss factor (an important factor to me).

I'm kinda prepared to be spending a small fortune in service costs, I'll definitely look to invest in some tools and knowledge on how to work on it myself.

I'm considering upping the budget to 20k, might help me get something a little cleaner. Some of the Boxsters I've been eying off have well under 100k on the clock. I think the trick will be to buy of someone truly passionate about their car who hasn't missed a beat in terms of servicing (again hard to find).

Thanks for tip on the beemer, how much were you spending on maintenance per year? That insurance quote sounds about right, had factored that in and will be easily affordable. Obviously going to pay a premium because I'm young and on my P's :noidea:

 

[Intense1]

They're all shit. Where are you going to put a bike?

Haha was waiting for someone to say that. Really not a priority of mine as I reside walking distance from a trail centre so I just ride to my local trails

 

[jjperko]

I'd say to get an average car whilst you're on your P's, then continue to save for something nice after that.

I feel stupid trying to impart advice being only a few years older, but I really wanted to go down the same path and am happy I didn't. I now have a "weekend car" and its a massive money pit.

My first car ended up being parked outside at college/uni, getting scratched etc. I'm glad I just had a shitty magna that got me from A to B.

 

[Intense1]

Look I love cars but you are setting yourself up for a world of pain and this is coming from someone with a Renault Sport and SS Torana in the garage...

My brother's girlfriend used drive an older BMW 3 something shit box, she was complaining to me about it one day, kept breaking down costing them stupid money. I explained to her, that whilst she had enough money to buy it she didn't couldn't afford to own it. That is the problem with all the cars you have listed, cheap to buy, expensive to own (with the exception of the Nissan) and they will be shit for carrying mountain bikes....

Thanks for the advice,

I'm new to the world of cars. Could you tell me roughly what I'd be looking at in maintenance per month? Obviously its hard to say but could you propose a ball park figure? I really have NFI.

I thought the s2000 would be cheap in the maintenance department aswell as the v35, but neither tingle my dingle the way a boxter does. But like you said, potentially setting myself up for a nightmare / trap

 

[Jesterarts]

Alright, so I'm looking at getting a car in the next few months. While it won't be my first car, it'll be the first car I've purchased myseslf.

I've got my P plates in QLD (red P plates), so I'm restricted to 200hp (correct me if I'm wrong?).

I'm not a hoon, I consider myself a safe driver and I rarely exceed the speed limit.

I just want a "nice" car, something that looks good/clean but also is very comfortable to drive. It'll be used daily to drive to work and on weekend for trips to the beach and up into the mountains etc. Might also look at doing a track day for a bit of fun here and there.

I'm after some advice/opinions on the cars listed below, also open to suggestions on other cars. Budget will be $15k. Anyone know about reliability of cars listed below? Service and insurance costs?

Also, anyone had experience getting a car sent from another state? Worth looking into? Other option is to fly to a city and drive it back, but would depend on if I could get a day off work

1997+ Porsche Boxster - probably my first choice in terms of looks and wank factor. I'm just concerned with service costs. Any word here?

Skyline V35 - Nice cruiser. Only thing is I think the base models put out 215hp which is slightly outside the 200hp bracket. Could I get away with this?

2005+ BMW 320i - Would be real comfortable. But again concerned with service costs?

Honda S200 - Hard to find for $15k, but would feel confident with reliability and service costs.

Audi TT - strong contender, but again with the service costs. These can be had pretty cheap too

These aren't all the options im looking at, just a few good ones. Obviously fitting a bike in the car would be good but not my first priority.

Finally, I'll be getting a car loan to pay for it. Any tips with this? I'm looking to go with my local bank (commonwealth) as it'll just be more simple to secure a loan with a bank I'm already with. But if there's a clear advantage with another lender I'll take it up. Who offers the best loans out there?

Thanks in advance for any input. Cheers

All of the cars you have listed are terrible first cars.

They will all be in a high insurance category to start with, add being a P plater and the insurance company with LOVE YOU LONG TIME with their premium dildo.

Servicing and up keep on all those is going to be expensive as they are all 'performance' imports.

The nissan would be the most reliable of the bunch.

However, you also said you are getting a loan to buy the car, which means ANYTHING goes wrong with the car and you will be investing MORE money into something that you will already PAY MORE for than it is worth (bank interest) and by the time you sell it you will get significantly less.

My advice, if you want a 'cool' car then only fork out what you have in cash. If you want to talk out a loan, go for something that will have the lowest running costs and the most reliable you can fine.

You know you will never keep a first car for long, so also go for something generic and that your selling audience will be big. For example, I could sell my X-trail to a family, an older couple with a caravan, someone who need to tow a boat or someone like myself who needs to chuck a bike in the back without issue.

A Porsche boxter, you can only sell to wanker. You said yourself it has 'wank factor'.

My car history looks like this:

FJ40 Landcruiser
VN Commodore
VX S Pack
E30 BMW
HSV Clubsport R8
Nissan X-Trail.

All paid for in cash, the VX, E30 and R8 all heavily modified by the time I finished with them and nobody wanted to buy them.

The X-trail is probably the car I enjoy the most day to day.

Final note, circling back to the Porsche boxster.

A wise mane once said, and I am paraphrasing a bit:

'When you see somebody driving a Porsche Boxster what their really telling you is that their life didn't work out quite as well as they'd planned'.

 

[richie_gt]

All those cars are terrible choices for a first car IMO!

Insurance will be high for all, previous owners of the sports cars have probably thrashed them, maintenance costs will be high and the Skyline is a grey import so you'd have no idea about the history!

If you had $15k for a first car I reckon your best option would be a Subaru Liberty!

 

[richie_gt]

Final note, circling back to the Porsche boxster.

A wise mane once said, and I am paraphrasing a bit:

'When you see somebody driving a Porsche Boxster what their really telling you is that their life didn't work out quite as well as they'd planned'.

I used to work with a guy who had a Boxster, most common line to him was "couldn't afford a 911 hey?"...it used to drive him nuts! Haha!

 

[rone]

If you had $15k for a first car I reckon your best option would be a Subaru Liberty!

Buy a $5K car and use the rest towards a deposit for a house.

 

[ducky1988]

Every car on that list is a TERRIBLE CHOICE.

The porsche- Your right fore arm is bigger that the left.
The BMW- So...... You like fixing your car more than you like driving it?
The honda- VTEC YO!!! got to catch them all....
Skyline 35 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKkvYzgF-1c
Audi TT- The rich mx5 (can i get a free haircut with that?)

Seriously though I think the best P plate car is a KE70 corolla. Rear wheel drive fun that you can learn to fix on your own and the funnest car you will ever own.
That or a liberty because well.... they're fun

 

[guitar1234]

Google Porsche and IMS beaing in the same sentence and just watch what happens. In saying that the few I've worked on have been fairly easy to service, but anything more involved than changing oil and filters can get very expensive and can be a pain to do. Possibly the worst first car you could own tbh. As for the Nissan, I'd be leaning more towards that, Japanese stuff reliability wise is usually the way to go.

Buy a $5K car and use the rest towards a deposit for a house.

This is the best suggestion yet. Buy a shitbox (albeit a reliable one, think Toyota Corolla, Hyundai Getz etc.), save for a house deposit. Cars devalue, houses (usually) don't.

 

[mitchy_]

Buy a $5K car and use the rest towards a deposit for a house.

amen. my $1500 ford laser as my first car was still my favourite.

 

[Duane]

Most of not all of the cars you list within your budget will be worn out shitboxes.

Buy something that will be trouble free.

There are brand new cars on the market in your price range that have 7 year warranties, stability control, multiple airbags and will be just as comfortable, have all the modern gadgets and be better on your wallet and insurance bill, you just have to let go of you dick to make a practical purchase. Even a low km few years old small cheap car would be ok. They don't have "wank" value.
Unless you know a little about cars I wouldn't necessarily go with a cheap shitbox as paying mechanics to fix and replace parts can be expensive. Buy the most reliable car you can afford. Your first car should be reliable transport, not a lifestyle symbol.

 

[Intense1]

All of the cars you have listed are terrible first cars.

They will all be in a high insurance category to start with, add being a P plater and the insurance company with LOVE YOU LONG TIME with their premium dildo.

Servicing and up keep on all those is going to be expensive as they are all 'performance' imports.

The nissan would be the most reliable of the bunch.

However, you also said you are getting a loan to buy the car, which means ANYTHING goes wrong with the car and you will be investing MORE money into something that you will already PAY MORE for than it is worth (bank interest) and by the time you sell it you will get significantly less.

My advice, if you want a 'cool' car then only fork out what you have in cash. If you want to talk out a loan, go for something that will have the lowest running costs and the most reliable you can fine.

You know you will never keep a first car for long, so also go for something generic and that your selling audience will be big. For example, I could sell my X-trail to a family, an older couple with a caravan, someone who need to tow a boat or someone like myself who needs to chuck a bike in the back without issue.

A Porsche boxter, you can only sell to wanker. You said yourself it has 'wank factor'.

My car history looks like this:

FJ40 Landcruiser
VN Commodore
VX S Pack
E30 BMW
HSV Clubsport R8
Nissan X-Trail.

All paid for in cash, the VX, E30 and R8 all heavily modified by the time I finished with them and nobody wanted to buy them.

The X-trail is probably the car I enjoy the most day to day.

Final note, circling back to the Porsche boxster.

A wise mane once said, and I am paraphrasing a bit:

'When you see somebody driving a Porsche Boxster what their really telling you is that their life didn't work out quite as well as they'd planned'.

Thanks for the advice, that's the kind of sensible reply I was expecting on the forum.

Without a doubt I'll be forking out a good sum in insurance, add to that a small fortune in maintenance, but I'm mentally prepared for a few headaches and being broke occasionally due to car repairs. This will be my biggest purchase to date behind a new bike (still in the works), so I want to make it count.

I'd have to dis agree with it being a short term purchase, I want to get a car that I really feel excited about and would plan on keeping it for years to come. I can't say for certain, circumstances change and I might end up getting rid of it and being out of pocket... but I'll only be purchasing my first car once, and I want something extra special that's gonna keep me excited for years to come.

Not gonna lie, my life certainly didn't work out like I planned. Never thought I'd be 21 and working 58 hour weeks. I guess this car for me is a symbol for being a monotonous drone, part of the system I always thought I could avoid. I want a car to soothe ego and make me feel slightly better about work crushing my soul and taking up a huge majority of my life and thoughts.

Having said that, I completely agree that saving up and paying in cash for something cheaper and more reliable would easily be the most sensible option, but the temptation is strong on this decision.

 

[rowdyflat]

I waited til everyone had their say so I wasnt the one to give you the bad news.I agree with all of them.
Too much wank factor, impractical + money drains.
I own a second hand Subaru Forester + Hilux ute though could afford whatever.
Super reliable .cheap+ boring.
Unreliable cars are just such a pain.

 

[stirk]

He said he want's toss factor in a car which tells us he's a wanker.

Let him buy a wanker car with no room for a bike for $20K

I wonder why cars like that have toss factor.....



Cause chicks know your a wanker so you will be tossing because you'll have no girlfriend :heh:

 

[Knuckles]

As everyone else seems to have said, your list is a group of cars that are hobby cars you will spend more time and money on keeping them alive, they're not daily drivers. Besides the upkeep, the original outlay (which lest face it, is double the actual value of them as vehicles), your insurance as a poo plater will be prohibitively expensive, and if you write them off, expect about a $5k max payout if you're lucky. They're boys toys.

Get yerself a mazda/toyota/Ford hatch or small sedan. Cheap to buy, run and insure. But most of all, you won't feel like torching them when they've shit themselves for the 32nd time in a month.

The Boxter was a worthless pile of puss when it rolled off the assembly line.

And remember, the second you take your car onto a race track, most car insurance no longer covers you.......