Postby lonesailor » Wed May 29, 2019 12:38 pm
My daily is a 1996 Hilux with 360,000 km of which 240,000 are mine. I has cost me less than $1000 in repairs including a new clutch, which really wasn't needed as the rear oil seal was leaking. My toy car is a 1996 NA8 with 260,000 km of which 49,000 are mine. It has also cost me a bit over $1300 in repairs/preventative maintenance due to a blown head gasket caused by a blown heater hose, which I really should have replaced when I bought the car. The ute's a bit tired but completely reliable, the 5 is in excellent condition , as it was when I bought it. Had I bought a new car all those years ago it would have had to be special to satisfy the practicality of the ute and the fun of the Mazda so would have cost a lot. I would have been encouraged to replace it every 100,000km or so, so I would now be on my third new car, I would have had to finance them, my insurance cost would have been much higher, even if I would have saved on registration. My fuel costs would have been less but my maintenance costs would have increased tenfold at least as I would have been forced to have a dealer service/repair them. I would have been reliant on friends or taxis every time they would have needed service and their depreciation losses would have been more than what I paid for both of my cars in the first place. Personally when/if either of them ever need replacing they will be replaced, like for like, with Japanese models no later than 2007
) sold her one owner low km NC and struggled to get 12k for it I think. Although from what I read here the ride of the NC is not so much for the driver? (it apparently gets worse with the newer models?). I must say I wished I had a 6 speed after driving my 6 speed VW van. At 100kmh in an 1800 it feels like it's going too hard. But when I read about working on the gear box, I am happy I have the 5 speed NB8A.
