My girlfriend and I are looking to buy a car to replace our rather worn out '92 Starlet and I'm wondering if anyone has any thoughts they'd like to share.
Our budget is around $20k give or take and we're looking at 5 door hatch's. I don't want anything over around 100,000 k's if we're going to be buying something nicer quality.
We've been looking at the Mazda 3 MPS version around 2006. They seem to go for around 20k it seems.
As far as servicing costs and general parts availability we're leaning away from the Audi A3 or VW Golf GTi (<- this one's a bit expensive but you get the point) options but i've never owned a euro car so am only basing this on second hand knowledge. Anyone care to weigh in?
I'd prefer a manual gearbox but if we were to buy an import would an auto transmission be less likely to have been thrashed? We don't mind if we end up with an auto as they seem to be much better now then 15 years ago but yeah, manual is always nice.
We're based in Wellington for what it matters, probably not a lot.