Thread: Small Runabout Car

Originally Posted by Happy Jack

And here in lies the crux of the problem, so many people say they want their kids to learn manual yet are not prepared to buy one hence why they are getting so hard to find.

Even if you wanted to buy one new, you basically can't at the moment. Demand doesn't really have anything to do with it unfortunately. We're basically the last generation to learn manual driving as standard. Even small vehicles like 4 wheelers and sxs ATV's are going auto. It's driven by the large purchasers like rental companies and fleet and lease outfits - they've effectively banned any manual purchases unless there isn't an auto option and it's a special purpose vehicle for a particular customer. Also a lot of companies are going away from manuals to lessen the burden of new hire training and sign off...

Manuals are limited to things like Suzuki tow-behinds for the white snail brigade now and that's only because the sales would basically die right off due to not being able to tow an auto behind a camper without the transmission input shaft rotating to lube the transmission's transaxle. Eventually they will end up with a little flatbed trailer and an automatic runabout sitting on it as well...

Originally Posted by No.3

Even if you wanted to buy one new, you basically can't at the moment. Demand doesn't really have anything to do with it unfortunately. We're basically the last generation to learn manual driving as standard. Even small vehicles like 4 wheelers and sxs ATV's are going auto. It's driven by the large purchasers like rental companies and fleet and lease outfits - they've effectively banned any manual purchases unless there isn't an auto option and it's a special purpose vehicle for a particular customer. Also a lot of companies are going away from manuals to lessen the burden of new hire training and sign off...

Manuals are limited to things like Suzuki tow-behinds for the white snail brigade now and that's only because the sales would basically die right off due to not being able to tow an auto behind a camper without the transmission input shaft rotating to lube the transmission's transaxle. Eventually they will end up with a little flatbed trailer and an automatic runabout sitting on it as well...

The new Suzuki Jimni 5 door is listed as Man or Auto.....and the manual is $5k cheaper....still out of my budget and not what the OP is after....

But one thing I noticed that is worth looking at is sometimes it is cheaper to get a larger runabout...I had the same situation quite a few years ago where I wanted a small cheap second car....I had a budget of around $3k there were a few about but then a brother in law said his workmate had a falcon for sale at $1100....(EA Fairmont) I wanted a cheap car to save $$$ on gas but when I ran the numbers for my usage, for the kms I was doing per year in the second car (about 4000 per annum) even at twice the consumption (8ks per litre versus 16k) it would be 500 litres versus 250 litres per year meaning it would be 4 years before both cars cost the same amount and the smaller car starts to save money.....

What I found though was after gtetting the Fairmont (and really enjoying the comfort...) is that I actually usd it less. Because I was concious that it was 8 ks per litre if I wanted a bottle of mil or bread or had a small errand, I would grab the push bike where previously I would grab the small car and if I did use the Fairmont, I paid more attention to the way I drove...I ended up reducing the times I 'needed' to use it and found I used about the same or only a little more gas than I budgetted for pushing the running costs to so close to the smaller car that it would be 8 or 9 years before I broke even.


Long story short..in the overall scheme of things, financially, the cost of the vehicle you get and what you want to use it for will have a larger impact than its fuel consumption.....And often the larger cars are discounted because of the high running costs.....I just got a Toyota Avalon (battered but tidy and reliable) for under $2000...

Originally Posted by timattalon

The new Suzuki Jimni 5 door is listed as Man or Auto.....and the manual is $5k cheaper....still out of my budget and not what the OP is after....

But one thing I noticed that is worth looking at is sometimes it is cheaper to get a larger runabout...I had the same situation quite a few years ago where I wanted a small cheap second car....I had a budget of around $3k there were a few about but then a brother in law said his workmate had a falcon for sale at $1100....(EA Fairmont) I wanted a cheap car to save $$$ on gas but when I ran the numbers for my usage, for the kms I was doing per year in the second car (about 4000 per annum) even at twice the consumption (8ks per litre versus 16k) it would be 500 litres versus 250 litres per year meaning it would be 4 years before both cars cost the same amount and the smaller car starts to save money.....

What I found though was after gtetting the Fairmont (and really enjoying the comfort...) is that I actually usd it less. Because I was concious that it was 8 ks per litre if I wanted a bottle of mil or bread or had a small errand, I would grab the push bike where previously I would grab the small car and if I did use the Fairmont, I paid more attention to the way I drove...I ended up reducing the times I 'needed' to use it and found I used about the same or only a little more gas than I budgetted for pushing the running costs to so close to the smaller car that it would be 8 or 9 years before I broke even.


Long story short..in the overall scheme of things, financially, the cost of the vehicle you get and what you want to use it for will have a larger impact than its fuel consumption.....And often the larger cars are discounted because of the high running costs.....I just got a Toyota Avalon (battered but tidy and reliable) for under $2000...

Yep! It's what I find with the Ranger - 8.1L/100Km all up average means it would either be a pipsqueak or a hybrid to make enough of a fuel saving to pay the initial purchase price and extra insurance rego and running costs back within years. And it's a fair more comfortable and safer for me ride to boot, with no issues with running out of room for gear or people.

Originally Posted by Happy Jack

And here in lies the crux of the problem, so many people say they want their kids to learn manual yet are not prepared to buy one hence why they are getting so hard to find.

Hang on a minute, Read it properly. I did buy a manual. A manual Honda CRV

Originally Posted by Got-ya

Hang on a minute, Read it properly. I did buy a manual. A manual Honda CRV

I did see that I was replying to the comment above mine.

Looks like we have picked up a little Suzuki Swift with 130,000km on it. Cheers everyone