Whats been your most cost efficient vehicle??.

I've had a few real reliable ones. 76 Toyota Corona, 70 Hemi Pacer, GQ Patrol 4.2D & my 54 Dodge to name a few.

My best car was a LH SLR, paid $3800.00 for it covered 80000 trouble free ks and sold it for $4200.00 six years later.
Only 4bys I have not lost heaps on depreciation was an lj80 suz which I paid $1800.00 for and sold for $3000.00 three years later(but spent heaps on it) and my fj40 which I lost $1500.00 on over three years, but the only repair was valve stem seals on the 2f. Mind you it was costing me a $100.00 a week for fuel in 1990 and when someone came along and wanted to buy it I was glad to sell it, but it was awsome off road.
My currant Jack has been super reliable and trouble free but the depreciation, O DEAR.
Cheers Pete

Hi Axle,
most cost efficient one would be our mighty little 1981 Ford Laser with the massive 1.3 motor. It took us (2 adults and two very young kids) from Perth to Sydney return twice and fully laden from Perth to Tassie in 1989. (Even bottomed out getting onto the Tasmanian ferry). All up did nearly 200,000 kms. Insurance, rego, tyres and occasional services plus fuel were the only costs. Never cost a cent otherwise but front end was gasping a bit when we traded it in finally. Remember we did one return Perth/Sydney trip loaded to the roof almost and still averaged out at a milliwhisker over 4l/100km. Can't whinge about that.

Rgds

Cost effective......My immaculate one owner decesed estate 1977 Corolla. Bought for $600 sold 8 months later for $2500

Least cost effective.....both Falcons I owned lost value quicker than you paid them off!!!!!

Most expensive to run......the 4bys BUT by far the most fun so worth it!!!!

Cheers Stefan

The best vehicle that has ever given me trouble free and very cheap motoring was my 91 model two door holden barina 1.3L. I bought it just before we bought our house as I used the money from my old vp commodore, boat,bike, and valiant wagon (had all at one time) to add to my deposit. I put a towbar on the barina and it was flogged to death bringing virtually everything we own plus all the gardening stuff,rocks,soils, plants etc into our house. Went to Noosa for our honeymoon in it. All I ever did to that was oil, filters,plugs. Sold it for $6000 2 years later bought it for $5000. I have had 48 vehicles altogether including 3 boats and 2 bikes. Could have paid my house off before I bought it if I had listened to my mum but my old man was a boat lover,bikes and was into rally cars so my mum didnt have much of a chance convincing me and I only paid $30 board a week. MMMMMMMMMM those were the days. Now like everybody else its mortgage, bills etc. Wife has put a stop on me buying another vehicle, unless we win lotto better start playing it I suppose lol. Regards Steve M

In 1992 we bought a 1986 VL turbo 5 speed manual Red station wagon with 110000 k's on the clock. Paid $14000.00 for her.
We still have it today, she has over 310000 k's on her now although the odometer stopped about three years ago. Speedo still works
Replaced 3 crankangle sensors.
2 Timing belts,
1 battery, Tail gate struts, Injectors, 1 windscreen, oil and every 5000k's. Air filters, fuel filters every 10000k's, every 50000k's gear box and LSD oil. Two sets of brake pads. Haven't replaced the clutch yet(knock, knock touch wood) then again it doesn't slip or chatter.
It stills goes like the wind, and if you don't let it have it's own way and be gentle on the go peddle it will still get about 12 k/l.
Best bit is, if you get a young hoon in their Storm ute or some sports car, it will leave'm for dead. To their horror. It will pull 175 out of third gear :))
Paints getting a little raty these days and it's copped scratches from the parking lots. A neighbour's had one with 890000k's on it and it still sounded and drove like new.
Don't think we'll ever sell her. She's been fantastic, rock solid. She part of the family.

I bought a Holden kingswood for $500 from a lady She said it was her sons and he was over seas all it needed was a battery,
I had that thing for a bout 4 years and run it into the ground.
Sold It for $500.

Also had vw beetle bought it for $450 and sold it to the wreckers for $150 done about 100.00 k in it.

Bought a Land rover MKII from the auctions can't remember the $ value but had it for a few years and all I remember was sold it for exactly the same amount I bought it for.

Also bought a fj45 from auctions had it for a few years made about a grand out it.

My Current 4x4 is a 1985 Toyota 60 series bought it 5 years ago for 18k with 95k on it with turbo. Yes thats 1500 more than new.
Its now got 300k on it done the cape 20 times and many other trips.

There are a few more vans and things but the above are the most memerable.

All the best
Eric

A Mazda 626 (about 1982) , 4cyl and 5 speed manual box, with an LPG conversion. Bought it in 1984. Sold it in 1998. Almost nothing mechanical ever went wrong with it . On gas, cost zip to run. Sold it to a friend who had it for 6 years and reckoned it was the best car he ever owned. Then it was pinched and written off when they crashed it. Think both I and the bloke who had bought it from me both cried.

A Ford falcon XG ute, would be the worst as it became a joke at work as to what I had to fix that week ! and they were not far wrong !The best I would say was my second car a HK Holden wagon with three on the tree racing shift and no syncro to first !
I now own a GU Patrol for 8 months and it has not started on a good foot !

cheers
Giffo

G'day Axle


Sunday Trivia, eh


None of my 106 vehicles over 45 years was cost effiecient.

Some I might have made a modest profit on but overall they ALL cost MONEY ! I'd hate to work out just how much!!....LOL


Cheers

Congraulations Axle,
finally a thread all us old farts can get our teeth(gums) into. Well done , forum has been a bit slow lately
Cheers Pete

Im a youngen compared to most of you guys so I can only say that there has only been 1.....no...make that 2....

First car was a 1987 bitsashi7y colt, dad bought it for me for $1000 with 34, 000km on it....one owner...but the kms were a little sus....so we now think......

It cost $22 to almost fill the thing and it would run on an oily rag...literally..I knew that if the light came on I had a good 4 days of driving before running out! (remember Im in yrs 12 so my income is a measly $100 a week...most from teaching piano and most spent on skating....its 1999 by the way)
I owned it for 15 months and sold it back to mum and dad for $1000 which they then gave it to my sister for her first car....It never had a service while I owned it...but why hange the oil I thought...everytime I filled it up with fuel I got the guys to fill it with a lt of oil while they were at it!

My 2nd cost effective car would be the 1992 soozie that I bought for $2500 with 303,000km on it in 2002.....bashed the tripe out of it all over the tracks at yalwal, took it shooting, to bns's, nearly rolled it off a few cliffs.....$40 would get me a good week of driving....I pretty much lived 30km outta town so everywhere was a challange with the red light on for fuel.....even though there was fuel at the farm, I could never remember which tanks had ulp or diesel so never touched them, and never thought of asking, again.

I blew a tyres, cost me $250 to replace.....I sold it for $2500 with 310,000km 5 months later with dings and scratches and a borken windsheild on the drivers side.....

The old girl is being used on the farm 5km up from where I lived but havent seen it for 8 months....its now unregistered (no dar! that was obviously gunna happen!)

They were both well loved cars, well flogged and cleaned rarely! The colt is still around, still with the banged in door from my 18th birthday when a govt dude reversed into me and its only had P plate owners ever since! I even saw it get some "air time" over a speed hump out at culburra one day! (P platers!)

The worse car....the navara we just got rid of....after buying the blastart thing, setting it up etc and then having to trade her in....reckon we lost $12k in 9 months! bugger!

G'day Axle

I would have to say the Magna that we currently have would have to be one of the most cost efficient vehicles we have had, have had it for 4 yrs now and apart from the usual tyres rego fuel and services which i do myself , we haven't had to spend a cent on it, got it as part of a deal when i sold one of my other cars , and it owes me exactly $0.00....Since i started driving in 1977 i have had over 65 cars, ranging from SLR 5000 Toranas to 69 Chev Comaros , buggered if i can remember how many Monaro's (wish i still had the bloody things now ) Numerous 4wd's , i would have to say my most favourite was the 69 Chev Comaro...

Cheers.....Borgy

G'day Axle,

Most cost efficient? I've had quite a few cars now and winner has to be the 84 VH commodore (253 and M21). Bought for $2800 as a run about with 140k on it.

Had it for nearly 5 years, drove it all over WA. Pretty much only cost rego and insurance, spent nothing else on it (never bothered to service it) except a starter motor and swapped wheels for second hand set of pursuits when original hot-wires/tyres were too tired to keep using. Never had a problem with it. Sold it for $2200 with nearly 320k on it.

Still see it around the northern suburbs. Pretty good for a beat up old dunnydore.

Cheers,

Ross.

the trick is to buy the cheapest car your ego can afford ;)

My grandfather had an old XY (the V8 fairmont thing.....) from brand new...I think they came out for $6k or something...anyway....it got written off twice by my dad but he was a panel beater (apprentice) and fixed it up himself...other than that he only put tyres on it...service it when needed - which was very rarely.......

anyway...after it being 30 odd yrs old it only had about 110,000 MILES on it.....sold it for $6500 just a couple of yrs ago

Well mine was a Mazda B1500 ute I bought of a work mate who was going over seas for $50.00 and I used barrel bolts to keep the doors shut had some in floor air conditioning. The paint job was brush (not air brush lol) all I did with this vehicle was fuel and service the motor, tyres over 3 years put two doors on (wreckers). The motor and running gear was spot on.

If I stalled at a set of lights the girlfriend had to get out and put a G clamp on the battery terminal so I could start her up again LOL (she never got the funny side to that exspecially in the rain).

Hand brake was thanks to boral bricks one for girlfriend and one for me.

I can remember going across hornibrook bridge one day with my mate pouring rain (belting down)and the wipers just shot off over the side of the bridge we had to put our heads out to see where we were going as we could not stop.

Sold it 3 years later for $1500.00. two years later father in law bought it for $2000.00 and it had a new motor and all new paint job.

As for cost to run no idea fuel was hmmmmmmmm CHEAP.

Had heaps of fun in this vehicle.

Brian

Don't know what my Monaro is worth (just what someone will pay!) but I'm pretty sure it will be more than what I paid 15 years ago! They get advertised for silly amounts, even non std ones like mine.

I had a Camira as a stop-gap measure for awhile. Did 60-65K and don't think I changed the oil once... I was always thinking I was going to get rid of it 'soon' Just added fuel and water (to the wipers) when required. It used to get great fuel economy too. Bought it for $6500 and traded it for about $4000 on a new Pulsar Vector SSS. The Pulsar managed 240K over 15yrs, with it's only real mechanical woe being Nissan had to rebuild the motor (at 20K) after they fitted an incorrect oil filter at a service. It dumped the oil on the road and promptly seized the top end. It did have 2 clutches replaced, mainly because I used to tow an enclosed 2 kart trailer which was quite heavy. Can't remember what they cost but do recall they were surprisingly cheap. Both were 'good value' motoring. If we hang on to our VS HSV Clubsport long enough (bought new in '97), I might be able to say that too... Unfortunately (for us) every model after the VT has had big power upgrades which has devalued the older model big time.

Nige.

Mine was an EH ('64) manual sedan, bought from the next-door neighbour for $75. Spent nothing on it other than petrol. No oil changes, filters, tyres, batteries, plugs - nothing.

Got about 500km per dollar I spent on it, ie travelled about 40,000km in 2 years, 100% reliable, never failed to start.

I then sold it for $350.

Without a doubt my wife's Ford Anglia. She bought it before we were married for next to nothing and we drove it everywhere and sold it for more than she paid for it.

It did many weekend camping trips up to Noosa...before they ripped up the caravan park at the end of Hasting Street.....

Geez...that brings back some memories ;)

1971 Series IIA Land Rover with a 173 Holden red motor.

Hardly spent a cent on it, bought it for $1700 and sold it 5 years later for $2800.