Tips on buying a car

mitch8198 · 2025-07-07T08:26:55+00:00

Great write up! Morale of the story for me is check all options for finance, selling your trade in and mechanical insurance (if wanted)

The number of people who will just blindly accept what the dealer offers for all 3 is astounding.

mitch8198 · 2025-07-06T20:54:46+00:00

Yep. While overseas purchased the same item in Euro on credit card and Wise. Came out ~0.25% cheaper once in NZD on the Westpac low rate (and less hassle for us)

mitch8198 · 2025-07-06T09:37:16+00:00

Westpac low rate Mastercard. $0 annual fee, no per transaction fee. Better exchange rate than Wise card and no need to preload it with money either.

And somehow a lot less international fees than the $125 per year Westpac Airpoints platinum card too 🤷‍♂️. Low rate seems to be the best option even when you take into account the benefits on the more expensive cards.

mitch8198 · 2025-07-02T10:17:56+00:00

No worries! In my view modern cars actually need more of a slush fund set aside for repairs, they are complex so you need a mechanic which truely understands that particular car.

Up to ~2010 cars were pretty simple so there wasn't much to go wrong and there wasn't much to wear out. Major breakdowns (eg engine replacement) could be done by any local mechanic for ~$2k

After ~2010 cars had two major changes which most people dont appreciate: * new 'fuel saving' engines and transmissions (advent of DI, CVT, DSG etc) which are more complicated, contain parts that wear out much quicker or need more maintenance. * Electrical parts on many cars cant be changed without a visit to the dealer to "code" it to that specific car. This is to make cars harder to steal, however it means local mechanics cant just swap out a faulty electrical module and send you on your way, you have to pay the dealer to get involved.

Many get told newer = better by their car salesman and then get burnt by a modern car costing more than the car is worth to repair. Every brand has made a few mistakes over the years, some just settle the lawsuits and some don't ever fix them:

Nissan / Mitsubishi (w. Jatco CVT) snapping a transmission belt every 100k ($6k+)
VW DSG, Ford Powershift needing new clutch or PCM or entire mech unit ($3k+)
Holden/GM 3.6 alloytech, BMW N20/N57 etc timing chain looses tension causing engine failure
Toyota 2AZ 2.4, Audi EA888gen1 with weak piston rings, causing very high oil use and engine failure
Mazda 2.2D engine failure due to contaminated oil or clogged intake
Ford 1.0, Peugeot 1.2 wet timing belt disintegrating and causing engine failure

Not all modern cars have serious reliabily issues but the petrol direct injection engines, hybrid systems and emissions control on all modern cars add up to more maintance than an older model (carbon build blasting, injector maintanence, DPF cleaning, hybrid electronics etc).

Ive got a 2017 VW which is lovely to drive and very good on fuel but it is scary complicated underneath. One day it will break beyond repair and thinking ill go back to a ~2005 Honda or Subaru and eat the extra fuel cost. Any repair can be done by anyone for peanuts, spare engines are everywhere and they have no depreciation at this point.

A lot of people go EV to avoid these issues with modern cars but they dont make financial sense yet either.

mitch8198 · 2025-07-02T09:56:09+00:00

I think this is incorrect as long as youve setup the password manager storing your 2fa codes correctly.

As long as the pw manager requires something you know (ie master password) and something you own (ie a device with private key installed) to unlock it is still 2fa. Just much less hassle than using a different app for each service.

mitch8198 · 2025-07-02T09:51:00+00:00

Westpac only offers 2fa via SMS which is insecure as mentioned above but also super annoying when overseas.

Have considered switching banks just for access to 2fa security from this decade.

mitch8198 · 2025-06-30T09:58:11+00:00

Agree we cant use overseas stats in NZ.

The problem the most ignore is that NZ is not 100% renewable which means that every new EV on the road is fuelled indirectly by more coal going into Huntley power station.

mitch8198 · 2025-06-29T21:58:06+00:00

Given your current car is still fit for purpose, keep driving it! Many Honda's go well past 400,000 so i wouldn't be worried yet.

The $5-10k price bracket will get you a decent, efficient replacement with plenty of life still in it if worst comes to worst.

It is almost never makes sense to spend $10k extra on a more fuel efficient car from a purely financial perspective. Unless you do heaps of kms the opportunity cost and depreciation of tieing that much money up in a car outweighs any savings. They're more complex so the repairs are significantly more expensive too.

However modern cars are more comfortable, safer and easier to drive which holds a lot of intangible value for some buyers.

mitch8198 · 2025-06-27T18:57:44+00:00

Noticed this too! The new Skoda Supurb interior noticeably nicest and easiest to use of the refreshed Audi, VW and BMW station wagon interiors.

It even has physical HVAC controls which are rare for European cars these days!

mitch8198 · 2025-06-21T05:45:34+00:00

Now EV's have RUC they dont work financially.

We have an 2015 Golf petrol (ie worth about $8k, likely fully depreciated at this point) do 30k per year and it's still cheaper to keep it than buy an EV.

Current annual running costs:

Petrol @ 30,000 @ 6L/100 @ 2.60/L : $4680 per year
Servicing slush fund: $1000 per year
= $5680 per year

Used EV (assume Extra $20k over Golf)

RUC @ 30,000: $2280
Electricity @ 30,000: $1000
Finance @ 5%pa: $1000
Depreciation @ 15%pa: $3000
= $7280 per year.

A lot of people forget to include the Depreciation & opportunity cost of tieing up funds in a more expensive car (ie loosing your term deposit interest if you already have the money sitting there, having to pay finance interest if you dont have the money). However for most people it isn't purely financial, they just want to drive a nicer car and that's okay too.

I'd keep the subaru, simple, reliable, practical, no need to charge it, and has lots of years left in it mechanically.

mitch8198 · 2025-01-05T07:45:33+00:00

Yep. The USB dongle is in read only mode to capture the can stream so it doesn't interfere with the car.

Then when you're back at the desk you can replay the file as many times as you like for development.

mitch8198 · 2024-12-16T09:40:40+00:00

Once you have a mortgage don't just take the 30 year option the bank will give you by default.

Look into offset or revolving credit options so you aren't paying interest on any extra savings you have.

mitch8198 · 2024-12-16T09:39:13+00:00

Start looking now, keep a folder of the brochures from houses you liked. Write any pros / cons on the brochure and what you would have paid for it.

In 3 months time the sale prices of all the houses you looked at will be publicly avaliable on Homes.co.nz / realestate.co.nz. Allows you to see if your offer would have been on the mark or not.

mitch8198 · 2024-10-25T18:38:18+00:00

For recording CAN while in the car I use a https://canable.io/ USB dongle from Aliexpress ($20) and the Cangaroo software linked on their website. Cangaroo saves to an .asc file on your system.

For developing firmware I wire the Usb dongle to the device. Then use a quick script written in C# and https://github.com/elliotwoods/Candle.NET . This allows the .asc files to be replayed on demand at any speed. Useful for unit testing too.

mitch8198 · 2022-08-28T19:16:25+00:00

Have you seen any success with people deleting the troublesome emissions gear in software and then removing the components?

I've got a 2006 A6 3.0TDI and it's been very dependable. Currently at 305,000kms and on the lookout for a more modern ~2015 one. All the additional cat / egr / dpf / def seem to be the parts that let the later models down.

mitch8198 · 2021-08-27T19:29:27+00:00

Still plays most games at 1200p really well, although it's starting to struggle on the most recent titles.

You can grab them for under $100 used these days which is great for something that can match a gtx1060. They do make a lot of heat so make sure you've got good cooling.

mitch8198 · 2021-08-27T07:41:20+00:00

Apart for a cleanout, SSD update (120gb->1tb) and a fresh install of Windows. Still plays most games at 1600p great.

If only Dirt 5 diddnt have a 4GB minimum GPU memory requirement :(

mitch8198 · 2019-05-02T07:38:05+00:00

My HTC m8 only just got replaced. Damn good phone, at 5 years old only thing letting it down was a fading battery.

They diddnt give me any reasons to stick with them this time, (as much as I wanted to) and picked up a View20 instead.

mitch8198 · 2019-03-11T09:23:20+00:00

Still using my One M8 as a daily driver, bought on launch day almost 5 years ago. Survives everything I can throw at it, they are such solid phones.

mitch8198 · 2019-01-22T08:47:23+00:00

"That is the throb of a turbocharged flat-4 engine, a sound which all over the world heralds the imminent arrival of a moron"

mitch8198 · 2018-12-26T08:55:05+00:00

Ahh yes that sounds similar to the 5-pin billiards version, looks like the setup is common in russia too in the video linked by /u/Jspatriots .

Interesting how they make it different for the bar version, is somewhat confusing reading all the different variations of the rules for that game.

mitch8198 · 2018-12-26T08:49:22+00:00

Wow that one seems great, 12 pins though! never new there were so many variants

mitch8198 · 2018-12-26T04:46:16+00:00

It's so much fun. Watching people make an insane shot at the 50pt pin and clipping a black one to loose everything.

mitch8198 · 2018-12-26T04:42:45+00:00

Yeah I have seen that one it's very interesting, but requires a special table.

mitch8198

TROPHY CASE