Thread: Cheap to run car

Originally Posted by veitnamcam

Depends on its oil capacity and how clean burning it is for servicing really.

The little 1600 frontwd subaru i bought the wife is bloody economical, its done 70000k while we have had it and im sure Iv only filled it up once

It is economical tho even for old teck and me raping its arse on any hill to maintain 110kmh its still cheaper to drive than the cruiser even before counting road miles tax.

I kinda like subarus, the AWD ones can be pretty capable off road.

I'd just be worried it'd either get stolen or blow up though, and wouldn't want to have to do a cambelt on one.

Originally Posted by Beetroot

I kinda like subarus, the AWD ones can be pretty capable off road.

I'd just be worried it'd either get stolen or blow up though, and wouldn't want to have to do a cambelt on one.

They're generally reliable unless abused - main culprits for blow-ups are boyracer types winding the boost up on turbos with no supporting mods, and/or putting 91 octane fuel in them. I've had my current GTB for about 5 years and the only thing I've had to replace outside of tyres and normal planned servicing was a MAP sensor at $40 (second-hand) to get back to full boost again.

Mine is a twin-turbo, the cambelt job (incl idlers/tensioners/new waterpump etc all genuine parts) was just on $1k all up from my local mech, IIRC about $650 of it was parts - not a cheap job but no worse than a lot of other cars (and less than most V6s etc), and only needs doing every 100,000km (maybe less often on newer ones).

Going by stories I've heard from ex-Subaru owners who have migrated to Audi/VW etc looking for more luxury, the maintenance costs on those are really in another league.

I think if you're looking for cheapest to run overall, you're probably best with a smallish naturally aspirated Toyota or Nissan from late 90s/early 00s. More complex new turbodiesels may be slightly more economical but likely to more than make up for it in maintenance costs IMO.