Options for city car ~$1000 in Australia

[Rennie]

Hi, I'm looking for a nice small but reliable and cheap car to get around town (and do some experiments on).

So far I am looking at Daihatsu (Charades, Mira etc) and Mazda Metro, preferably EFI if possible in the 1.0L range

Are there any others I should consider that will be relatively easy to find? Should I consider diesels (Although I don't know what to look for ;p)

[yoyoyoda]

You might be able to score a toyota echo for $1000 or maybe a bit more.

Also suzuki swift.
Hyundai Excel.
toyota corolla

If you want to stick to the super small car theme, Ford Ka.

Oh and when you want to put a subwoofer into it, look into the Kicker CompVT 6.5" range of subwoofers. (If you would want to do this that is.)

They put those on motorbikes.

[Liighthead]

toyta starlet or nissan micra, shouldnt be far off $1k

micra gets about 6.5l/100k on paper, i normally get 5.5 - 6 just normal driving could get less if tryed haha
startlet should be about the same their pretty close to each other

echos are still 2500 - 3500 over here

[oldtamiyaphile]

You can get a low km (<100,000km) Daewoo Matiz for $1000 from a dealer. 3cyl EFI, 900cc I think.

[yoyoyoda]

[Liighthead]

Daewoo lanos are pretty cheap to, 1.5l 4 cycl
Seam to be cheaper then the matiz, just use 1 or 2 liters more per 100
Both look like nice little cars though

[Rennie]

Picked up a 1998 starlet life for 1 k , will be arriving tomorrow. Nice and cheap considering most are double the price or triple/quad if I wanted an echo Now I have to get used to the no tach cluster and the heavy steering even though it's only 800 kg or so At least it will still be economical while I learn how best to drive it.

[Liighthead]

Nice
I brought a 2" tacho from eBay for like $20 inc postage for my Micra also got a vacuum gauge while I was at it lol $16 ish

[yoyoyoda]

Originally Posted by Rennie

Picked up a 1998 starlet life for 1 k , will be arriving tomorrow. Nice and cheap considering most are double the price or triple/quad if I wanted an echo Now I have to get used to the no tach cluster and the heavy steering even though it's only 800 kg or so At least it will still be economical while I learn how best to drive it.

For the heavy steering try and adjust the caster angle back to zero until you feel comfortable with the steering. Don't go negative caster. always keep a tiny bit of positive caster, it improves the feeling of on-road stability and feeling like the car is going in a straight line when putting down power.

Most FF cars dont have caster adjustments, my toyota doesnt but I can get a rubber replacement which gives it caster adjustment.

[Rennie]

Just an update I managed to get 6.1L/100km and 5.56L/100km on my first 2 tanks, I'm guessing this is about average for "normal economical driving", it's certainly ok for me. Had to retard the timing a little (pinging), pumped up the tyres a bit to 32psi, this made steering a bit more manageable ;p Also get to do tyre squeals around corners and have excellent wheelspin on smooth wet roads/hills due to the front drive and pumped up "harder compound" tyres the previous guy put on it.

New oils, in the process of putting on rear brake shoes since I hear noises, first one turns out there is tons left on the shoes but replaced them anyway.

May get around to do some aeromods some time, at the moment finding it more useful as a transport device with the rear seats out. Won't be removing sound deadening since it is noisy enough for me as it is.