Looking for a car....

[zigparacingtadpole Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close zigparacingtadpole]

G'day all,

I am currently looking for a vehicle for my partner to use as part of her business.
We wanted a Smart fortwo but they are only available in a petrol engine, and talks with the dealers have indicated that they have no intention of bringing the diesel variant that is available overseas to Australia in the near future.
We are looking for a small hatch or sedan of a size similar in size to a Peugot 205 or Daihatsu Charade. Must be a diesel, be less than 10yrs old and have a price tag less than 25K. Either 2 or 4 seats (not fussed).
If anyone has any suggestions as to vehicles that may fit these specs, please let me know.
Please note I am not looking for offers of vehicles for sale, just suggestions.

[RASTEVE Donating Member Find all posts View Profile Close RASTEVE]

Re: Looking for a car....

The size of a Pug 205? The only thing that I can think of that fits the bill is a VW Golf TDi. Have a look around.... you never know.

[Captain Echidna Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Captain Echidna]

Re: Looking for a car....

To see whats availble, try carsales.com.au, select "private sale" (you can easily go to dealers from private, but not vice versa), put in your price and year range, hatchback, select all states to see the most and you get....

VW Golf, Pug, Citroen, and a number of fiat punto's in the dealer section.

[moonan Member Find all posts View Profile Close moonan]

Re: Looking for a car....

A new VW polo TDI would come very close to your spec (even on price? list is $22990+orc) Look out for a demo perhaps

[Robert Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Robert]

Re: Looking for a car....

I had a similar spec for my wife's car. I ended up looking for a Peugeot 306 or 406 diesel. I eventually found one for $10k, but it took a lot of waiting. Generally, people who buy diesels tend to hang onto them for a while, so it's not really a buyers' market. There were a few nice 307s to be had, but we had a smaller budget. You can find some lovely 307 diesels (they are the HDI, common rail variety) for under $25k fairly easily.

Just look out on the tradingpost online, or drive.com.au and do advanced searches with the keyword "diesel", or "hdi" if peugeot, or "tdi" if VW (sometimes people don't advertise it as "diesel", but they will print the model).

It is difficult when searching just diesels not to also get listings for all the commercial and 4WD vehicles as well. If you can narrow down to just a few specific makes and models, this will make it easier.

[Matt Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Matt]

Re: Looking for a car....

Having driven a Golf TDi and owning a Peugeot HDi (albeit 2 years old and lower in power than the current model) if you are limited by budget I would not hesistate going and trying the Polo TDi, you have nothing to loose and VW does make a very good car, unlike Peugeot (sometimes).

You will pay for a new car but if its anythinglike its bigger brother then it will be a fun vehicle to drive, biofuels are another matter but it looks like good fuel will work.

Matt

[Captain Echidna Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Captain Echidna]

Re: Looking for a car....

If going the VW route, perhaps leave some change from the $25,000 to do an elsbett conversion, and just pour the filter oil straight in?