Hi,
I my wife and I currently carpool to a suburban Melbourne train station and leave the car there fore 10-12 hours every day. We are currently driving an older 'attractive' car that keeps getting broken into has some annoying mechanical problems so we are looking to replace it.
We only drive 7km each way on small streets, so we don't need a high quality car. We just want something that is cheap, unattractive for break-ins, uses minimal fuel, and will last for at least 3 years with no maintenance with only light driving. We have a nicer car that we use for longer drives, and this is only for driving at the station and some other short trips.
My plan is to buy a 10+ year old small Kia (or similar) with ~150,000km for $3,000, but my wife is skeptical. We can afford more, but I don't want to invest much into a car that sits out in the elements all day. Does anyone else have advice on this situation?
Good idea. I do the same with a 2000 ford laser… I've wanted to upgrade my car for ages but no use getting a nice one to sit in the sun the whole day at a station. It's got a few dings in it already so I don't really care if it gets dinged more when people open their doors in those narrow spaces. Mine's also been broken in (quarter panel window smashed) once while parked beside an oval - would be thief saw my phone holder and thought there might have been a GPS hiding in the glove compartment.
Just get something that's reliable and cheap to service. Fuel economy won't matter because you're doing such short trips. I lose track of how often I fill up - maybe every 2-3 weeks?
Not sure if you are in the same situation but I do make some trips very occasionally though - like if I need to visit a client that's out of the CBD. So try get something can at least tolerate driving in for half an hour or more on the odd occasion - e.g. working air con, cd player.
My consolation is that on weekends we use my wife's car which is much nicer.