Which New Car? Under $40k?

LLinksia on 06/10/2023 - 13:24
Last edited 10/10/2023 - 21:25 by 2 other users

Hi all

Been driving my 2000 Toyota Camry to the ground and it's time for a upgrade. I can't afford or wait for a Camry hybrid to be available (NSW).

Been tossing up between the below options - what would you recommend and why?

  • Kia Cerato
  • Hyundai i30
  • Toyota Corolla Hybrid
  • Suzuki Vitara

Other cars like Kia Kona, all of the new Mazda cars are too small for me to physically get in/out with a beer belly :(

Ideal wants

  • Reliable Japanese/Korean makes
  • Under $30k but will stretch up to $40k if necessary
  • Automatic transmission
  • Higher fuel efficiency (<6-7L/100km due to petrol prices)
  • Ideally +1.8L engine
  • Reasonably spacious

Am I dreaming with my 'wants' and price points? Avoiding second hand for now as people are still overpricing it compared to Redbook.

Update: Thanks for the new suggestions, will check them out.

Automotive Car Hyundai Motors Kia SUV Suzuki Toyota

Comments

  • Muzeeb on 06/10/2023 - 13:26
    +13

    what would you recommend

    I recommend you test drive the four you mentioned and choose your favourite.

    and why?

    Because sometimes you need to adult and make a decision for yourself.

    • boomramada on 06/10/2023 - 13:55

      There have been about 581k new cars being sold in Australia in the past six months, imagine they all come here to ask which car to buy :)

      • Boomstick on 07/10/2023 - 11:44
        +1

        Please world, help me adult, because I’m a big baby and can’t choose when there’s too much money at stake.

        Imagine the world if we all had to tell each other what’s best.

        • boomramada on 08/10/2023 - 10:48

          Imagine the world if we all had to tell each other what’s best.

          I thought that's called communism, just a one car for all, government decides what best for you 🙂

  • spackbace on 06/10/2023 - 13:26
    +1

    What have you looked at in person so far?

    We all have different ideas of what's comfortable etc, so while car reviews are very easy to find, reviewing them yourself is always the main thing to do

    Go to a used car warehouse type of place, tell the sales guy you're just looking, and go from brand to brand, car to car, seeing what you like and don't like

    • Linksia on 06/10/2023 - 13:35

      Sorry, should have mentioned - I have looked at all of the cars listed and nothing stands out (that I dislike) to my untrained eye.

      So instead of picking one randomly or chase value for money in a purchase… wanted to know what the savvy shoppers of the ozbargain community thinks.

      • Brian McGee on 06/10/2023 - 13:38
        +1

        Anything Kia if you're keeping it for a while (or even if you're not) due to the 7 year warranty.

        • Mibo on 06/10/2023 - 17:50
          +1

          If you're going by that metric, Mitsubishi is even better with their 10 years

          • Brian McGee on 07/10/2023 - 07:59
            +1

            @Mibo: Mitsubishi is not mentioned by OP on their short list though.

  • kerfuffle on 06/10/2023 - 13:31

    Can you afford to wait for the Corolla hybrid to be available if you can't wait for the Camry hybrid? Because that has a long waiting time too. I was quoted two years at the beginning of the year for the sedan.

    i30 hatch can't be ordered new either: https://www.carexpert.com.au/car-news/hyundai-i30-orders-on-…

    • Linksia on 06/10/2023 - 13:42

      I had a friend recently order a Corolla for an end of the year delivery - so I thought it was still realistic to obtain one.

      Did not see that article about i30s :(. Thanks for your link.

      • kerfuffle on 06/10/2023 - 14:01
        +1

        I was quoted six months when I ordered mine initially last year. It took nine months to get my car and it wasn't even what I ordered in the first place:

        • I changed from petrol to hybrid as the petrol car was never made and the trim I ordered now came in hybrid
        • I changed my colour as it got deleted (because the car was never made)
        • I picked up someone's cancelled order in a colour which was not up for consideration at the time I made the first order. I think I'd still be waiting if I didn't get that cancelled order.
    • spackbace on 06/10/2023 - 13:42
      +2

      I was quoted two years at the beginning of the year for the sedan.

      Has come back significantly here, only up to 6-7 months now

  • Drakesy on 06/10/2023 - 13:49
    +3

    Kia, Hyundai, Mazda can't really go wrong.

    MG Ev4 would be my pick though if going for a sub $40k hatch.

  • primal89 on 06/10/2023 - 14:00

    troc city life - tcross, i30 nline,toyota are probably the best small cars around 40k.

  • boomramada on 06/10/2023 - 14:01

    I'm waiting for, why not spend an extra $$ and get a Tesla comment.

  • Seaword on 06/10/2023 - 14:01

    I have driven the i30 and Corolla and found them uncomfortable when driving long distance. Great around the city. Had a Camry Hybrid for work and it was much better than the two I jusy mentioned.

  • Euphemistic on 06/10/2023 - 15:06

    How much driving do you do and what type of driving? Garage/off street parking?

    Perhaps stretching a bit for an EV, or hanging on to the Camry for another 12months would be worth It for fuel savings - Especially if you can charge at home and don’t drive more than 400km in one sitting a few times a year.

    • Linksia on 06/10/2023 - 15:45

      ~14k km annually, have a garage and on property parking(no garage), I do have 2-3 round trips of 1200-1400km.

      Thinking about the charging infrastructure, fully EV might be a challenge.

  • freefall101 on 06/10/2023 - 15:23

    Check at work if you can get a novated lease, thanks to being FBT free it might help you stretch the budget to a hybrid or EV.

  • pegaxs on 06/10/2023 - 15:47
    +6

    MG4 Excite 51. Ticks all those boxes and with government incentives, will come in under $40k.

    • chickenchipsgravy on 06/10/2023 - 18:37
      +2

      This is the smart buy, excellent suggestion

  • JIMB0 on 06/10/2023 - 16:01
    +1

    Been driving my 2000 Toyota Camry to the ground and it's time for a upgrade

    Treat yourself to something powerful and rear wheel drive.

  • plmko on 06/10/2023 - 17:51

    For $40k I would get a base model Honda ZR-V

  • bobokingdom on 06/10/2023 - 20:50
    -1

    Corolla Petrol model, it will be way more fuel efficient than your Camry. It is not much smaller than your 2000 Camry (as they all get bigger over time). It is about 32K drive away.

  • YRT on 06/10/2023 - 21:17
    -2

    Jolion HEV.

    Similar to OP, I'm not comfortable with EV until they reach freeway range > 600km. PHEV could be worthy of consideration, though the road use tax kills it.

    • pegaxs on 06/10/2023 - 22:22
      +2

      “uNTiL tHeY rEaCh fReEwAy rAnGe”

      It literally adds 1 hour onto a trip from Sydney to Melbourne… and freeway range, like you do that every single day of the week.

      People making up fake and unreasonable requirements for EV’s that they don’t expect of their current vehicle…

      “Oh, I’ll get and EV when I can charge it in 3 mins and get 1,000km+ range from a charge…” and then they drive their petrol car on a 28km round trip to work every day and it sits at work for 8 hours and at home for 10 hours every day. Yep, no time to charge and lucky you have 1000km worth of range for that maybe once every 2 year trip interstate…

      • YRT on 07/10/2023 - 06:42
        +1

        I'm just a regular bushwalker who does 300km day trip every 1 - 2 months, maybe more these days; Cathedral ranges, Bunyip SP, Wilsons Prom, Grampians fit this criteria. Range anxiety is real, and not unreasonable for many of us that enjoy days outside. My car doesn't tend to get used during the week, except 3km return shopping trips.

        Would I want to spend 1 hour charging my car at the end of day, when it's getting dark and I'm only about to get home?

        Also, a fuel efficient car (i.e. VW DSGs, Toyota Hybrids) can be almost as cheap to run as an EV, once you account for EV road use tax. For me, the equation changes with next gen V2H/V2G enabled EVs as I have rooftop solar, if I could get off the grid and not paying grid charges ;)

        • Euphemistic on 07/10/2023 - 13:40
          +1

          There’s other ways to manage your charging other than to run it flat and then fully charge. But, agree your usage case is probably not suited to EV yet.

          Spoke to a Tesla driver whose preference was a 10-15min coffee/wee stop at a charger when the car is ‘mid charge’ when on a longer trip. Batteries will charge at a faster rate during mid charge so it’s more time efficient. Then upon arrival she had sufficient charge to not bother charging straight away, or is able to fully charge overnight using a standard wall socket.

          • Muzeeb on 07/10/2023 - 22:28

            @Euphemistic:

            able to fully charge overnight using a standard wall socket.

            Would a 240v 10A socket fully charge a depleted Tesla overnight?

            • Euphemistic on 08/10/2023 - 07:17
              +1

              @Muzeeb: If you’ve got 10 hours, you’ll get 24kwh overnight out of a 10a GPO. No it won’t fully charge a depleted EV, but if you’ve had a 10min stop somewhere near your destination and charged to say 80% you’ll get your full charge by morning.

              So no, not a full charge per se.

            • NigelPearson on 08/10/2023 - 14:25

              @Muzeeb: No. Long range Tesla 3 about 40 hours:
              https://evbox.com/en/electric-cars/tesla/tesla-model-3

              The smallest Tesla has about 57kWh battery, so at 2.4kW it would theoretically take 24 hours
              That assumes everything is 100% efficient, but there are coolant pumps to keep the battery happy, and some power is wasted by the electronics.

      • NigelPearson on 07/10/2023 - 20:54

        adds 1 hour IF you can find a free charger

      • seannami on 10/10/2023 - 11:19

        Has anyone done a welfare check on the leadfoot? Ever since the MG4 started getting traction there's been far fewer chinacarbad posts.

        Popcorn shares will plummet!

        (not that I miss them, just struck me as odd that BYD and ZSEV copped it, but the 4 isn't :p)

        But yes, the range anxiety on people amazes me. I've had range anxiety once in the 3 months I've had mine and that was because I was trying to run the battery down low to balance charge and I had to work at a different place than I'd calculated for (made 0 difference in the end).

        (sorry about the odd posting pattern I attached this to the wrong reply earlier)

  • altomic on 06/10/2023 - 23:54
    +1

    2010 camry

  • [Deactivated] on 07/10/2023 - 08:14
    +1

    MG4.

  • valuer on 07/10/2023 - 19:55

    If you are looking for a bit of extra space there is also the Kia Seltos. The base model is around $30k.

  • firejack on 07/10/2023 - 21:48

    You should consider a Mazda 3. Since the 2024 model just released you can get the 2023 models around the low 30s

  • LarryD on 09/10/2023 - 09:30

    Haval Jolion hybrid, sticker price starting from $41k. Or maybe a top of the range Jolion Ultra? Or even the larger H6 variant. I know it's not a Japanese/Korean built vehicle but you'll be pleasantly surprised what these vehicles can offer on such a budget.

  • seannami on 10/10/2023 - 11:23

    Adding voice to the MG4, especially if you have access to novated leasing.

    Test drive it, seriously, it won't disappoint (or a ZSEV if you want something taller, but the price is a bit more)

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