All
Just looking for some suggestions.
We are looking to retire the CV8 from daily use next March. It is getting pretty high in kM (just ticked over 108,000kM) and it is at its end of useful life with regards to tax benefits. I have novated leased it through my employer originally and now my own company for the last 6 years and now there is little tax benefit left. Residual/balloon is about $5k so i'll probably just park it in the shed.
The car is basically my mrs car. So what I get has to suit her but I have to be able to drive it to, so needs to have some power, so anything under 175-200kW is out. I want a car I can pull out to overtake in that doesn't feel like it has a handbrake on. So no 4cyl, no diesel or other such junk. And has to be an auto or clutchless manual and rear wheel or AW drive.
Initially she wanted a BMW, Audi, Merc or whatever and I was looking at some of the nice 2nd hand V8 and also X3 and X5 examples but have been really turned off them by the servicing costs.
I have the opportunity to get a cheap new Ralliart Lancer but both my mrs and I don't like all the gay-looking spoliers, scoops etc all over them. Don't really want a HSV for the same reason (same reason we bought a CV8 instead of a GTO, they were the same price).
Now she likes a Lexus RX350 V6, however i'm not really keen on paying twice what the car is worth for a brand name, shame Toyota don't make the Kluger in the fastback shape - the 7 seater is one ugly piece of car. And Lexus have the same over-priced servicing and parts as BMW.
Commodore and Calais are too damn big.
We did look at a turbo Territory but unfortunately they have a Ford badge and I simply can't get past that, pity Mazda didn't badge Engineer them. I doubt my mrs would even consider a Ford either.
Mazda CX7 look good and are good value but are a 4cyl turbo, go well but have major warranty issues. The replacement CX5 only have p!ssweak engines.
Not interested in a Captiva as I don't want a Daewoo.
The only one that may fit the bill that we can think of is a Lexus RX350 that is 2.5 to 3 years old as they seem to lose half their value inside 2 years making them reasonable value and I can get it serviced at a Toyota dealer as the running gear is the same as a Kluger. Lexus come with 4 year new car warranty and like Nissan you can pay to extend the full new car warranty by an extended period as long as you do it prior to the 4 year period expiring. Others don't seem to do this, they just have insurance policy warranties which don't cover everything, so having this would avoid a lot of costly replacement bits if things go wrong. Would just have to find a decent one that is 2-3 years old, $40k and less than 25,000kM! The thing in our favour is Lexus has just released a Prestige that has most of the sports-luxury features but is $10 cheaper so this will force the 2nd hand market down. It still bothers me owning a trumped up Toyota, I'd rather just have a Toyota. Never been fan of lipstick on a pig! All that woodgrain rubbish inside of them is ugly.
So i'm at a bit of a loss and looking for suggestions! No-one seems to build a decent rear wheel or all wheel drive car with 200kW+ or so that isn't ridiculously priced for parts and servicing.
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