Yet another one of those "What car?" threads

[aleksandr]

Originally Posted by HRoi

of the ones you mention, the most 'fun to drive' by far is the 5 series. although i'm not a fan of the styling on the E60 but if you can overlook that (or if you actually like it), i think it's the best choice. although if you have to have a small displacement engine, i'd rather pick up a 320i
I went to a used car lot today and the dealer was kind enough to let me test-drive a 2005 320i, and I was surprisingly impressed by the drive. Would a 520i / 523i has a similar drive? Because I wasn't all that impressed by the trim in the 320. May go and find a 5-series to test drive and see how I like that. To other posters: (1) Yes, Singapore is teeny tiny, but public transport isn't all that ubiquitous as people make it out to be, so a car is still pretty handy. I pay something like USD300 for parking a month in my building though. (2) For comparison, a new Golf GTI costs something like USD150k. See http://www.sgcarmart.com/new_cars/ne...?CarCode=10743 (exchange rate is something like USD1 = SGD1.25). Nuts, I know. (3) Importing can save you something like 20%, which is basically the markup the distributors make, but then you have issues with warranty and what-not. And we're right-hand-drive, which rather limits the places we can import cars from (basically the UK and random other commonwealth countries) (4) I honestly have not thought about Volvo at all - my impression is that they are built like tanks, and also drive like one. Is that still the case?

 

[GreenFrog]

how the hell is a GTI $150K USD?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[aj_del]

Singapore prices are worse than India. I always thought that with 108% tax on imported cars, India was worst. A E350 brand new is around 125000 USD

 

[QBNCGAR]

Sounds like it might be easier to move away from Singapore.

 

[HRoi]

Originally Posted by aleksandr

I went to a used car lot today and the dealer was kind enough to let me test-drive a 2005 320i, and I was surprisingly impressed by the drive. Would a 520i / 523i has a similar drive? Because I wasn't all that impressed by the trim in the 320. May go and find a 5-series to test drive and see how I like that.
sort of. IMO, with the 5-series BMW worked to get the same dynamics as the 3-series, in a heavier, larger body. it works for me, but i have no idea if the 520i will be woefully underpowered. the 523/525i's were already worked pretty hard by that heavy body...but might still meet your needs since i don't think Singapore driving conditions need you to do things like merge at high speed on a freeway like i have to do in the US

 

[Saturdays]

Some suggestions for excitement:

-A6, you like the A4, lets give it a punch huh? 50k mi or less for around 20-25k is doable with this just so you know
-VW CC, so the A6 is just too much, the CC is a great looking car, may not pack the punch you want though
-Subaru WRX - Fast, fun, Rally car - may not impress anyone unless al your friends are teenagers
-BMW 3 Series - Why so hung on 5 series, 3 is cheaper, and much more nimble, use saved money on finding the used car with options you need/want

There is a lot of discrepancy in these cars, i think A6 is beautiful option, All Wheel Drive in case you need and very quick, nice and respectable.

 

[impolyt_one]

^
the A4 and A6 2.0 sold in Singapore may not be a) the turbo 2.0 and b) may not be quattro, it's not as standard as it is in the USA. There are even FWD A8's sold in some countries, Singapore is probably one.

VW CC is not 4 years old, so it might be $100K still, like he's mentioning about the used Golf's for $87K

The price discrepancy between a 3 and 5 series doesn't matter much when a 4 year old 5 series costs $65K...

 

[Jarandas]



This is a tricky one -- we have the same tax rules in Norway, so a VW (Golf) GTI starts at ~$87,000, compared to less than $24,000 in the US, meaning that overpowered cars (really, who needs 210 bhp when driving in stop-start traffic?) which are fun to drive are out of the question. My best suggestion would be to buy a decent and okay car, and not worry about the excitement part. For that you can pick up a Mazda MX-5 or similar (lightweight, small enough engine to keep it cheap, big enough for the car and RWD) for weekends.(Assuming by excite you want the car to be somewhat sporty and fun to drive)

So, in this car review, the price is stated before taxes?

http://www.bilnorge.no/bildegalleri.php?b=bb_92902.jpeg&aid=36945

I guess it is, otherwise, it´s similar to what you would pay anywhere else in Europe.

 

[Shraka]

Australia is pretty terrible for price too. Nissan GT-Rs are about five times cheaper in the UK with the current exchange rate. A friend of mine is selling his mid-low km mid 2000s Audi RS6 in the UK for about the same as I bought my 10 year old (at the time) Honda Integra in Aus. In Australia an RS6 of that quality is worth 3-4 times what he's asking.

Anyway, here's my advice - keep in mind that this is based on someone who's mainly interested in smaller 80s-90s JDM cars, and I live in AU and the car markets might be vastly different.
Avoid 2000s Mercedes unless you really love the drive. They've only recently started over engineering again - something they never should have stopped doing really. I dunno what it's like in Singapore, but in Australia European cars are pretty much a waste of money - you get a LOT more for your money out of Japan - though it does depend on your tastes. The Accord Euro is an excellent car with a nice 2.4ltr engine in australia (quick too - though with clutches that like to burn up when driven hard). The Accord may come in a 2.0, 2.2 or 2.4 over there. I'd avoid anything from France unless you don't mind replacing interior trim semi-regularly. I must admit a soft spot for Alfa Romeo 159s - incredibly classy though the historical reliability of Alfa's is not inspiring. Lexus makes a range of luxurious, reliable, but incredibly boring cars.

Best way to choose a car is to drive all of the ones on your short list. I'd suggest at least two different cars of each type - two second hand cars of the same model can be extremely different based on how hard their life has been. Make the choice of which car model to get afterwards, and do it at home NOT at the dealers. Then you just have to try various different cars and find one that has the features / has be treated the way you want.

The BMW 520i is carrying more weight, so you'll probably feel that when driving it compared to the 320i. I did, however, just do a power comparison and it comes out very similar to the 320i in power + torque to weight so it might not be bad in that regard:

BMW 520i (manual): 125kw, 210nm @ 1535kg = 81kw & 137nm / tonne
BMW 320i: 110kw, 200nm @ 1445kg = 76kw & 138nm / tonne

However, I find my car has very low torque, and requires lots of revs to move about with any urgency at all, this is how my car comes out in comparison:

DC2 VTiR (Manual): 125kw, 170nm @ 1150kg = 108kw & 148nm / tonne

But obviously if you found it was okay, then perhaps we just have different ideas about what an acceptable level of power is. If you decided to go 520i, get the 2007 model as that has significantly better economy.

If you're thinking of importing - IMPORT FROM JAPAN! They practically throw away brilliant cars every day. Don't bother importing from Australia - our car market sucks. NZ has a good car market, but that's because they have very light import restrictions and they get all their stuff from Japan, so go to the source.

By the way, not all manufacturers stick massive engines in their sports capable / luxury cars. You do, generally, have to go smaller than a 5 series though.
Oh, and whatever you get, get it in Manual.

 

[joonian]

Have you considered an Alfa?

There are some 159s and a couple of V6 Alfa GTs on sale at SGCarmart in the low 100s or under. Stylish, seats four, decent to drive. You'll pay about sgd2.8k in road tax for the 3.2 litre v6 though, but it's well worth it IMO!

 

[Galix]



So, in this car review, the price is stated before taxes?

http://www.bilnorge.no/bildegalleri.php?b=bb_92902.jpeg&aid=36945

I guess it is, otherwise, it´s similar to what you would pay anywhere else in Europe.

Kan ikkje se prisen

I guess as henrikc said, what you pay a lot of money for is not the car itself but taxes. I thought to buy an Alfa Guilietta in Spain and just bring it up here to save money. Then I checked all the laws and stuff, calculated the amount to be payed in taxes and stuff and at the end I got that if I want to do that, I will have to pay almost the same amount in taxes as for the car itself (which BTW also includes Spanish taxes).

 

[henrikc]

What about a Skoda Superb? The sedan has been out for a few years and should fit your age criteria, and with regards to the price it's not a terribly expensive car. Looks rather good and comes with sensible engines, so I would take a look at that.

Not sure how easy it is to find a Skoda in Singapore though, but surely there has to be some models out there for sale.