What is a reliable cheap $5K car to drive around Australia?

[prodigyrf]

Too funny!

Yeah I reckon BeeGee got it back to front with-

"Hi guys,

We have a young female German au pair (18) who has been staying with us for the past 6 months and has become part of our family. She is planning to leave us in about 4 weeks to travel around Australia with another female German au pair around the age. They are looking to travel for up to 6 months around Australia and will probably clock up around 20,000 to 30,000 km's."

[Bird]

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/322431500417/

[toglhot]

Well firstly Toyota aren't going out of business, they are simply not going to build Camrys here anymore, small wonder.   Plenty of Hiaces out there hundreds of thousand of kilometers on them and still going strong.   Holden and Falcon were and are rubbish as compared to Asian imports.   Parts are cheap simply because you need many parts to keep the things on the road.

[prodigyrf]

Hey toglhot when did you last buy a car that could fetch 20-30% more than you paid for it driving out of the showroom?
http://gmauthority.com/blog/2017/01/holden-raises-prices-on-vf-commodore-series-ii-to-combat-fears-of-v8-shortage/
More's the point when did you last own a Commode? Not saying Hiaces aren't good vans but Toyota sure know how to spin the random number generator for prices on their commercial spare parts.

[kylarama]

I'm having trouble thinking of anything worse to drive long kms in than a 20 year old hi-ace van.

38 year old Nissan E20 camper with drums all round and 4 on the tree... My partner toured in one 20 years ago for 4 years. She has fond memories of that van, but none of those fond memories actually involve driving or repairing it...

On a long distance drive. Give me an "out of business" apparently unreliable Fowlcan or Commondore over a flogged out 20 year old courier van everyday of the week.




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[NewieCamper]

I remeber the guys at work that finally justified 'upgrading' a twin cab ute becuase they 'needed' a 4wd for the extra ground clearance so they could park off the road areas. At the time my role couldn't justify one, so I had to make do with a falcon wagon. Glad I stuck with the wagon, because by all accounts about 2 weeks after they got their 4wd ute they wanted the comfort of the falcon back for driving up and down the highway and we're happy to walk a little further on the job sites. Admittedly twin cab Utes have come a long way in 10years, but you can't deny that something designed to carry up to a tonne is a rough ride until you load it up.

[toglhot]

In my travels I've come across many tourists driving all sorts of vehicles, the ones that struck me as ridiculous were the Holden and Falcon wagons.   Every night the occupants spent ages unloading all their crap from the car to find something and/or make room to sleep,   Mornings were even worse, loading all that crap back in.   Plenty of happy Kombi and Hi Ace owners though.   I saw more Holden/Falcon breakdowns than Kombi/Hiace vans though.

[prodigyrf]

I saw more Holden/Falcon breakdowns than Kombi/Hiace vans though.

Which just means with more Holdens/Falcons around there's consequently more dumbo owners around in them that don't know or don't care what goes on under the bonnet until something goes bump in the night. Just the law of averages.

Here toglhot- http://www.msn.com/en-au/motoring/ownership/2016-holden-commodore-sv6-black-edition-review/vi-AAnCRkj
Educate yourself and stop living in the past. There's nothing around like them for the money, particularly in wagon form, once they're gone.

[Bird]

Plenty of happy Kombi and Hi Ace owners though.   I saw more Holden/Falcon breakdowns than Kombi/Hiace vans though.

My olds owned a kombicamper with the pop top roof ... it was great when it went but it suffered 1000 times more than the rusty XC the olds owned.... think it had 2 motors in the years they had it, the XC wouldnt die...

[Merts]

I still can't get my head around the idea that some people think driving a 20 year old hi-ace (or similar) around the country would be in any way enjoyable.
Noisy, gutless, and uncomfortable. It boggles my mind.

[Bird]

I still can't get my head around the idea that some people think driving a 20 year old hi-ace (or similar) around the country would be in any way enjoyable.
Noisy, gutless, and uncomfortable. It boggles my mind.

Shit loads do it... doesn't mean its good, but if  you want space, you want a van like those... and its holidays not a race

anyway their visa's would have expired by now.

[BeeGee]

Hi guys,

Thought I'd report back on the outcome of this thread.

I kept it simple in the end for them and talked them into a 2003 VY Commodore Wagon with a reasonable 139,000km's on the clock.

They have serviced the wagon and fitted 4 new tyres so good to go hopefully.

I also built a bed frame in the back out of aluminium square tube and structural ply which folds upon itself to still utilise the rear seats for additional passengers (read fuel petrol sharers).

They are not the Germans in the back by the way 

[terravista]

That set up looks pretty good, but why didn't you just give them the Porsche keys?
Coulda done the trip much faster than a Commodore and probably save enough on food and fuel to cover motels stays.

[BeeGee]

That set up looks pretty good, but why didn't you just give the the Porsche keys?
Coulda done the trip much faster than a Commodore and probably save enough on food and fuel to cover motels stays.

ha ha yeah good call. The 928 S4 just out of shot next to the 911 would be the go actually. Grand touring at it's best. Just throw a roof top tent on the top and away you go 

[tryagain]

ha ha yeah good call. The 928 S4 just out of shot next to the 911 would be the go actually. Grand touring at it's best. Just throw a roof top tent on the top and away you go 

This one ?

[BeeGee]

This one ?

similar

[scblack]

similar

Very noice. I'm soooo jealous.

[scblack]

Porsches cop some flak for being a selfish type of car. But they are not.

They are actually the best family car. Here's why:
Porsches are faster than other family cars, which means you can leave later to get to work on time, and you get home earlier on the return trip. Thus you spend more time with the family, making it the best family car.

Sounds good to me!