Ask an expert

I am at a loss as to what type of car to buy my daughter. We live in Whangamata so she will have to contend with driving over ranges to get to any of the main centres. We have a limited budget of $4k max. My concerns are safety, age, kms, budget, maintenance. So far Ive been looking at cars that are no older than 2000 and mazdas mainly but the cambelt issue has made me look at chain driven cars especially because of lack of proven service history in this demograph of cars. Any help would be greatly appreciated,its very hard to locate cars to test drive when the drive to them is at least 2hrs away.

Hi there,
With all the imports around, for 4k there is a lot of choice, however the maintenance and repairs you may not escape as the cars in the range will all have had most of their useful life already.
A Japanese vehicle with a cambelt is usually due around 100k and then at 200k along with a waterpump.
A Ford Focus around year 2000 is a pretty good choice for safety, fuel economy ect.
A Mazda Demio, Toyota Corolla, Honda Civic are good Japanese vehicles that should still be reliable.