if you do buy second hand make sure the timing belt has been changed.
if you have to remove the front passenger tyre to get to the water pump or cant locate the water pump when you pop the bonnet dont buy it !!!
I would stick with one of the 'main' brands. Toyota, Holden, Subaru, Ford (
, unless its an xr6 turbo[}:)]).
I used to have a Toyota Camry, a 99 one, and now my younger sister has it. It goes great, cheap to run, safe etc. For 10k you'd be able to get something 2000-2005ish.
BMW or something like that would be silly. For 10k it will be a POS, and when they break down, parts will be harder to find, and way more pricey (Plus probably higher insurance premiums).
A corrola/astra/impreza would be perfect. Most girls dont cart around surfboards etc, and dont need anything much bigger. If she is the surfy type, commodore station wagons are massive and pretty cheap for the executive model (lowest one, but still has front airbags in the more recent years). The boots in those are awesome!
My test drive is.. prominently hoon/ freeway driving long roads country tailgate grannies land cruisers no road trains up my arse... etc style..
So go down your local street clock it up at 120kph and see how many cats you can run before the taco gets to 3500rpm in fifth gear. If she is from the country the corolla wont dig the long open road and you behind stuck behind road trains.\
Depends on the driving etc.
I cant recommend the car as im not sure on the status or objectives in driving she will require out of a car.
One thing i can recommend if you spend that money you would be looking for turn key reliability.And ultimately you dont want to be towing her home or her ringing you up because her car has broken down. (somthing with a new car warranty left on it)
I agree with the points Elroy Jetson makes. My dad bought me my first car, an XT Falcon, but I had to repay him what I could from my after school job at the supermarket.
I didn't realise this at the time but he was putting all of this in a bank account and then gave it all to me for my 18th birthday.
I intend to do the same for my sons. I don't want them to think they can get everything for free.
Meh, why get her JUST a car. $10k you say, well you can pick one of these up on super special at present for $2k. Womens specific geometry and suspension set up.
Spend another $1.8k should get you/her a bomb proof lock, a decent Gortex cycling jacket (cool mornings/wet weather is no excuse anymore) , some SPD pedals and shoes, some padded baggy riding shorts, a helmet, some half decent lights, a decent pack/hydration system and a basic toolkit and manual so she can learn to maintain her ride.
That leaves you with $5.7k (0.5k for stampduty/transfer) to buy her a car, that she will rarely use as she will be lovin' fanging around on her bike through gridlock whilst getting fitter and more confident.
She may even start riding off road and develop even more self confidence.
What ever you do, don't let her put stuffed toys on the rear window sill of her car or a Frangepani sticker ANYWHERE on her vehicle as other drivers will assume she is mildly retarded and treat her as such.
Its all well and good to recommend someone to buy a bicycle but in Sydney at least cylists place their life in the hands of others when they ride their bike on the road. I think in general most Australian car drivers don't like sharing the road with cyclists. They see them as getting in the way and resent cyclists who don't obey road rules.
I would not recommend anyone to do that when the we have the amount of traffic that we do with narrow lanes and quite aggressive drivers.
Its a pity Syndey doesn't have decent cycle paths off the road. It would be great having cycle paths along side railway lines outside of the CBD.
In relation to cars the general choice would be for a larger Australian car or a smaller foreign car, probably a Japanese one. Both have their pros and cons. Possibly if safety is an overiding issue then the larger Australian car would be the go.
Until a few posts ago I was seriously thinking about the Hyundai Getz, but then the thought of seeing the wheel nuts on the truck beside her just got to me. The thought of the doc showing my daughter things she'd never imagined also gave me the shivers.
I think I'm just going to tell my daughter to take a whole lot of sleeping pills and just end it. This isn't going to work out for anybody. My wife and I are really bad parents and we should just do the same thing too.
That way my wild 14yo son can get a really big inheritance and can buy whatever he wants when he turns 18. I hope he get's the Sandman - did they come with V8's? Cause if they do I hope he does the ton in it down Gipsland hwy, becomes airborne, and rips right through Sailhacks house and dislodges his cotton wool clad kids from their cocoons that he's spinning for them.
and anyone thinking a bigger car will save them from an accident with a truck is in a state of false security. Nothing this side of a tourag/cayenne/q7/xc70 will save you and even they will probably roll over. A new Getz or Yaris would be safer than many cars of just 5 or 10 years ago. To discount a new small car over something 15 years old is just stupid.
As I said in my last post, i've been in minor acci's in yaris & getz including 1 where driver ran a red light at about 70km/h. That is first hand experience not old hat conjecture, I wish I had kept pics of some of the fleet cars I used to look after- only ones we ever had injuries in were the small 4wd things and commodores. I've had cars completely destroyed, others with engines ripped out, another fell asleep at wheel at 100kmh and drove into pole. Being in a minor accident really feels "soft", much more preferable to any other accident i've been in with older cars.
Consider also that maybe some of that vulnerable feeling makes you drive a little more sensibly.
yes it,s a real conundrum, we live down the coast and our kid is comming up to this stage in life as well. High speeds in the country are a worry when kids are learning.
I know I smashed a bit in the city when new to driving. but at least those smashes were low speed.
I am like you Oliver, absolutly NFI what to do.
I think she will probally move to melbourne to find work anyway , so public transport untill she can afford a car, of some discription may be the way to go.? WFknows.
Also cars are a bit of a fashion statement, so the kid should have some say in the look of the thing when finally purchased imo.
Anyway, cheers and all the best.
How safe she feels will affect how she drives. The number of tiny women driving round in X5's like their ****ing invincible with a coffee/phone on the go illustrates this. Out of their cars they'd be meek and deferential - put them in a tank and quite frankly they deserve a punch.
If she's going to cause the accident then putting her in an X5 is just ****ing over someone else.... someone who has thought a little bit less selfishly...
If you put her in a getz and explain that if she crashes it then it's probable that she'll get hurt, and that it won't matter whose fault it was, you can't get leg movement back on insurance. Tell her that she should concentrate and watch out for all the ****wits out there....
And people wonder why Australia's population is suffering from higher levels of Type 2 Diabetes and other obesity related illnesses.
Buy her a cheaper car and a bicycle. Tell her you want whats best for her and that using a bicycle for commmuting to work/study/centrelink is good for her and good for the environment. Tell her she will be keeping in shape and she will be more likely to meet a Stockbroker/Lawyer/Accountant whilst cruising around on her bike than sitting in her car. The sooner she meets and elopes with one of the above, the sooner she will be out of the house.
No mobile phone issues on a bike either.
The added bonus of buying her the bicycle is that it sounds like you will probably be paying for her petrol and vehicle maintenance, so the more she rides her bike, the less you you have to outlay to keep her car running.
And for the love of god, no Southern Cross, UNIT, Princess and so on and so forth stickers to be placed on the car as other drivers will treat her as though she is a simpleton, regardless of the badge value of whatever she is steering around in.
EDIT: Why don't you set an example for your kids and buy a bike too. For $40k you could get a bike for yourself, the wife and still buy a decent car. 
That seems like a very wise observation Elroy Jetson. 
I've never really looked at the relationship between a parent and an adult child that way, and what you have said makes a lot of sense now I think about it. It is a pretty common situation in our society isn't it.
. Yeah, I do protect my kids a bit, although at their age, that's the norm. I'm not too worried about your son getting to my house either...even some of my own family get lost trying to find this town!
. Yeah, I do protect my kids a bit, although at their age, that's the norm. I'm not too worried about your son getting to my house either...even some of my own family get lost trying to find this town!
Toyota Rav.
Try a 2 door model. Sits higher than the getz and corrolas etc.
Better vision and easier seen by other drivers especially trucks and 4WDS.
My thoughts anyway.
W
Bit more expensive, but I've just bought one of these brand new (yesterday).
I spent a long, long time working out what we needed and what was the best value. You can pick these up for $17k inc. the safety pack if you haggle hard (do it at the end of the sales month, and over the phone).
Mazda2 Neo with Safety Pack
6 airbags (incl. side and curtain)
ABS
Electronic Stability Control
Looks awesome, stupidly easy to drive and park, great visibility, and big enough to get wave kit in if an extreme emergency takes the Kombi out of action.
On top of all that, the 1.5 has just enough guts to actually pull you out of trouble, as opposed to Hyundai Getz 1.4 which just turns fuel into noise and smoke if you put your foot down. It also feels a lot more robust that the Getz.
Plus... the depreciation on these things is virtually non-existent, esp if you buy the 2011 model which has just had a slight update and had the Stability Control added.
Spent a long time working out which car to buy - this I reckon is the best value car on Australia's roads today (big claim I know).
I would definitely avoid small 4x4s - in your price range they almost exclusively have no stability control, and in the hands of a youngster/anyone, these are the cars that need it most. Seen too many softroader crashes on slippery roads in the UK.
