Thanks Homehandymum, I had no idea we were being so ripped off with petrol prices here in NZ. I guess it's shipping it halfway around the world and steep taxes that do it. Thanks Sid Hoffman, for the first 3 years of its life it was owned by an insurance salesman in a remote location and he did the first 65 miles. It has taken us 8 years to do the rest. I think driving through the summer with the windows down and replacing once we can pay cash seems most sensible. I will try and use the bike as much as possible and the car as little in the meantime. Thanks for all the advice. You guys are great! Sonya
I thought they used metric in NZ? What's with the miles? :)
By the way, chances are it'd be more due to higher fuel taxes. It's a bit cheaper on this side of the ditch (about $1.40-1.50AUD a litre here in Melbourne, so $1.55-1.70NZD). I was in NZ a few months back, so I kinda know how pricey most things are there :)
19MPG? What's that in litres per hundred? That sounds a fair bit worse than it should get (driving style? city traffic?).
So, about 96000km in eight years, or 12000km a year. The combined fuel consumption of the 2003 Mazda 6 is 9.5L/100km (auto) or 8.9L/100km (manual, figures from Redbook (Australian one has more info)). If we assume that you would get 10L/100km in normal driving (as the figures are usually optimistic), and if a Yaris gets 7L/100km in the same driving, you're saving 360L of fuel a year. At $2.10 a litre, that's looking at $756pa in fuel saved.
Now, if you assume that a car with busted aircon and over 200,000km is going to get toward the lower end of that price range (say $5500), and a replacement costs $9000, you've got a $3500 changeover cost.
All else being equal, it'd take almost five years to make up the difference. Of course, if the Mazda requires any more maintenance between now and then that the Yaris doesn't, it'd narrow the gap somewhat. Likewise would other some other, cheaper cars (eg: Mazda2/Demio, something like
this maybe?). The gap would be widened if you trade it in at a dealer who offers you SFA.
Have you had quotes to fix the aircon?