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Buying Guides: The $10k dilemma

11 August, 2017

 


 

Following on from our team nominating what they’d be buying with $5,000 in their pockets, we generously doubled the hypothetical budget and sent the team on a mission. What would they be buying for $10,000?


Lachlan Jones — NZ Classic Car
Volkswagen Golf GTI (MK5): We had a MK5 GTI as a family car for a fair while that did everything we asked of it and more. The DSG gearbox was a revelation at the time (in fact, very little is different from the unit VW use in the MK7 GTI and R) and with 200hp out of the box, it was quick enough, too (an extra $1,000 for a remap will see the GTI up to 250-odd-hp quite easily). With a stiffer chassis and significantly reduced understeer from the lacklustre MK4, the MK5 GTI was a game changer for not just VW but what we’ve come to expect of the modern hot hatch.


Jaden Martin — NZ Performance Car
Honda Civic Type R (EK9): Coming in at ⅙ of the price that the latest incarnation commands, the EK9 still sits as the ultimate cheap hot hatch in my eyes. It still has that full road feel that more modern cars seem to lose in the name of comfort and its 1.6-litre screaming heart packs enough of a punch to chuck a smile on your face. They are probably the most attractive of the Civic Type R family, too.


Ashley Webb — NZ Classic Car
A Jaguar XJS. They’re on their way to becoming quite collectable and there is no denying they look fantastic.


Todd Wylie — NZV8
A WH Holden Statesman is a whole lot of car for the money, so much car that it’d be hard to beat in terms of luxury, presence and performance in my mind. I’ve owned a Statesman before, and still can’t understand why they’re cheaper than a standard wheelbase Calais or similar. If you’re in the market for a V8-powered family hauler, make sure to take a look, as you won’t be disappointed.


Connal Grace — NZV8
I could opt for a manual 308-powered VK Commodore, or an XE Falcon panelvan, but I’m going to go with the Nissan Stagea RS Four — manual, of course. The factory RB25DET turbo six will make over 300hp with minor modification, and with a gratuitous boot area, this is the perfect life-proof vehicle.

 

The butterfly effect

18 June, 2026

The man on the mountain bike pedalled over, taking it all in. Gazing in wonderment at this small Japanese coupe with butterfly doors, he said, “Wow, I have never seen one of these before. What is it?” When I told him it was a Toyota, he nearly fell off his bike.
The Toyota Sera is unique amongst ’90s Japanese coupes. The Sera, which is Italian for ‘evening’, can trace its roots back to Toyota’s AXV-II concept car. Launched as part of a trio of Toyota concept cars at the 1987 Tokyo Motor Show, it shared its underpinnings with the P70 Toyota Starlet. The similarities ended there, thanks to the AXV-II’s low-slung and rounded coupe styling with butterfly doors. These doors were held upright by gas struts when fully open. Glass covered the upper section of the doors and the rear hatchback.
These features, much to everyone’s surprise, were carried over to the production Sera in 1990. Toyota marketed the Sera, which means ‘will be’ in Spanish and ‘princess’ in Hebrew, as a funky alternative to the much-loved MR2.

Racing Mazdas

12 June, 2026

Both Rod Millen and Ron Kendall were rotary racing kings, emanating from the North Shore of Auckland, where I grew up. And the ultimate rotary techno guru was Bill Shiells, who developed the engine into a rocket ship while working out of Gulf Mazda in Takapuna from 1969, and later in his own business, Rotorsport. He began to extract some phenomenal horsepower from the enigmatic rotary engine. Bill was one of the first to race the Mazda RX-2 Coupe in 1971 and achieved immediate success, causing others to sit up and take notice, particularly the North Shore’s racing elite. They included Robbie Francevic, Rod Millen, Ron Kendall, John Woolf, John Le Feuvre, and Rex Findlay.