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Hi,

I'm looking at upgrading my car soon. Looking at up to a $10k price point. The vehicle won't be used as a daily commuter - mostly weekend driving and some longer trips (up to a couple of hours or so). As such I don't clock up a lot of ks each year. Looking mainly for reliability and a bit of get up and go on the open road.

Models I'm interested in thus far are the Mazda Axela, Toyota RunX 1.8L or Toyota Blade 2.4L.

The $10k seems to get you the Axela 2.0L model circa 2005, with up to 90km on the clock or the 1.5L circa 2007 with around 60k.

- Would the 1.5L Axela have enough pick-up on the motorway?
- With the Axelas what ks would you go up to?
- Any thoughts on trade-offs between year of car vs kms on the clock.
- Should the Toyota Blade even be on my list? For similar pricing to the Axela you get a later model vehicle with lower ks (approx 2007, 50ks).

Any input greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Hi there,
These cars your are looking at are good choices, except I would be wary of the Blade. It has a larger engine but also has a cvt transmission. I'm still not convinced that the transmission will be reliable, but on the other hand we are yet to have any compliants about them.
A 1500 cc engine will be cheap to run, but you may find it lacking power for hills and overtaking. Motorway speeds will be fine, but I would prefer a larger 1800-2000cc engine if it was me.
For Km's I would allow 10-15k km per year as guide for example a 10yr old car if used regularly should have 100-150k on the clock. If it has less, then you know it's not been used much and may be a better option. I would prefer low k's over year, a new car with high km's to me is not as valuable as a slightly older low k car.