Some friendly advice on buying a car .

Desmond from Dinsdale

I just thought I'd share some insights from my years of working on auto electrical issues with various vehicles for those interested in knowing what to choose. This is mainly aimed at people who would like the advice, not those who already know what they want and why they want it. Short version: Buy Toyota or Honda [not the Toyota D4 engines, they can be troublesome and expensive].
Longer version, insights I have picked up over the years. These are not absolutes, just an average overview of multiple vehicles.
1.) There will always be exceptions, an unreliable Toyota or a reliable VW for example. Look at the attached chart - if you do a Google search "vehicle reliability chart" you will get a wide variety of results but generally Toyota and Honda will be near the top and VW near the bottom "on average"
2.) We have more issues with Holden than with Ford. The European versions of either are the most troublesome.
3.) European vehicles are lowest on the opinions of mechanics and auto electricians. A long serving Audi specialist refers to them as "the 4 rings of death". They may be 'reliable' [everything is until it breaks down] but when they fail they do it in a big/expensive way "on average".
We have a corner in our yard for parking vehicles either 'not worth repairing' or 'parts no longer available' - we had 6 European cars there once - no Japanese vehicles.
4.) Most mechanics reply "Nothing that starts with 'M'" when I ask what they would recommend. As mentioned though, results will vary.
5.) A decent small car will give you 15km per litre of fuel. You may pay a few thousand less for an old 4X4 or V8 but it will use twice as much fuel - 7km/litre. It's the same as agreeing to pay double the price for fuel when you buy one. On that note the older Honda Odysseys only get about 7-8 km/litre - a 2006 Honda Stream gets 14km/litre.
6.) Modern vehicles can be VERY fussy about regular oil changes - skimping on oil changes doesn't save you money. The Nissan "Q" engines [QR/VQ] are prone to worn cam timing chains, some as early as 130 000km with bad oil, the QR20 Primera costs about $3000 to do a timing chain, we have done many of them. But I have seen one at 240 000km with very little wear because it was serviced properly.
7.) There are good and bad models amongst all manufacturers, it's not just one "brand" that is good, it varies among the different models.
8.) Buy something that is at least 5-10 years old - that way you can Google their common problems.
9.) Buy something with the least fancy electrics - automatic sliding doors are expensive to repair.
10.) You can still get parts for a 1996 Nissan Pulsar with no fancy computers but a 2001 Mercedes is obsolete - try getting an ABS pump for one. Cars used to have an engine with a computer, now they are computers with an engine - they become obsolete much faster than they used to - I scanned a BMW the other day, it had 54 computers in it. When we needed to change "one of the 5" airbag modules the brand new module would not work with the vehicle - the rest of the car first needed 10 years worth of updates to be able to work with the system - do we need that? No, but it seems were getting stuck with this "modern technology".
11.) Many new cars/utes will need a special trailer module to simply fit a trailer plug - the body control module will shut down the tail lights if it detects an extra load [trailer lights] - with newer vehicles be prepared for things not to be as simple as they used to be.
12.) Google the car you want to buy to make sure it is what it says it is. A Toyota Cavalier is actually a re-badged Chevrolet rust-bucket[why would they do that to their reputation?]. A Holden Epica is a re-badged Daewoo Tosca.
13.) Just because a car wins lots of races doesn't prove it's a good car - it just proves they have to spend millions of dollars to win a race - they don't spend millions on the car they sell you.
14.) You got it real cheap on the auction? No we can't "get it going for a few hundred dollars" - it wouldn't be on the auction if that was possible - there's a reason someone is dumping it off real cheap.
15.) Unfortunately there is so much "modern technology" and "improvements" in newer vehicles it isn't easy to judge their reliability based on how the older models went. Hence the reason I suggest buying something at least 5 years old so you can do research. Manufacturers also change hands - a Mini is now made by BMW. What was once reliable may no longer be a safe purchase.
16.) [Update based on comments] Our choices will vary based on needs and personal preference of course. If you're really into cars then whatever you love to drive and work on will affect your choice, if you're practical and simply want something to get you where you're going you will make logical decisions, if you have a special requirement like "must seat 5 kids" you will have to compromise on affordability and economy, if you need to tow a boat .... etc. etc.
As mentioned in the beginning, these are just insights based on personal experience and advice from mechanics - YMMV [your mileage may vary :) ]