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The $5,000 dilemma

18 July, 2017

If you’re anything like us here in the office, you’ll spend a good chunk of your time imagining what car you’d buy in any given scenario. The Powerball winners garage makes for a good afternoon of daydreaming. So does thinking about finding a daily that could be used on track days without blowing the insurance premiums out of the water.

But let’s start with a question for the ages, an old favourite: what would you buy with $5,000 cash? We put the $5k dilemma to a few of the team and here’s what they had to say:

Jaden Martin — Staff writer at NZ Performance Car

Subaru Legacy RS wagon (BF): There’s not a lot in the realm of 5k that still has an ounce of fun left in it without being thrashed beyond its usefulness. To be fair an RS wagon is probably no exception to this, but hey, they seem to soldier on like champs and still look cool as hell with a slight height adjustment and a properly suited set of wheels — plus who could resist giving it a squirt out on gravel back roads in the middle of nowhere?

Lachlan Jones — Staff writer at NZ Classic Car

Volvo 850R Wagon: Anyone remember the only wagon to ever compete in the BTCC in the 1990s? This is it. And now they’re as cheap as chips but still a blast. I love the box like dimensions that somehow enhance the styling. Quick, comfortable, practical and cool. 

Ashley Webb — Editor of NZ Classic Car

MG Midget: Why? Cause it’s the only bloody thing I can think of that costs $5k and a lot of fun at an affordable price.

Todd Wylie — Editor of NZV8

Ford Pinto wagon: Simply because I saw one for sale recently and thought it was just so ugly that it was awesome. The seller only wanted around $5k from memory, which was stupidly cool for what could be a great little daily driver.

Connal Grace — Assistant editor of NZV8

BMW 318i (E30): For the modest price of $5k, the world of second-rate used cars is your oyster, and after much deliberation, I’m choosing a BMW 318i (E30) with a manual transmission. I’ve always wanted to own an E30 BMW. They look good, drive well, and I really need to write something here before I change my mind. 

 

Honourable mentions:

Peugeot 309 GTI — The 205s less popular non-identical twin. The reality is that he’s just as good and a touch more practical. Sure to start spiking in value like the 205 soon enough.

Suzuki Samurai — Bugger all power and a propensity to cock a wheel at a sniff of wind or a 40 degree corner at over 25km/h but these things weigh less than a Labrador and go just about anywhere. Weekends of fun to be had.

Jeep Grand Cherokee — A good number of them are used by passionate 4×4 fans and adventurers who keep the maintenance up to date and fix issues as they arise. The bulletproof 4L engine appears to be a survivor as you keep looking after her. Proportions are just right and even the interior has aged well.

Toyota GT Starlet — A brilliant starting point for any budding car enthusiast. Small, economical, reliable and quick enough to put a smile on your dial.

ROTARY CHIC

6 September, 2024

Kerry Bowman readily describes himself as a dyed-in-the-wool Citroën fan and a keen Citroën Car Club member. His Auckland home holds some of the chic French cars and many parts. He has also owned a number of examples of the marque as daily drivers, but he now drives a Birotor GS. They are rare, even in France, and this is a car which was not supposed to see the light of day outside France’s borders, yet somehow this one escaped the buyback to be one of the few survivors out in the world.
It’s a special car Kerry first saw while overseas in the ’70s, indulging an interest sparked early on by his father’s keenness for Citroëns back home in Tauranga. He was keen to see one ‘in the flesh’.
“I got interested in this Birotor when I bought a GS in Paris in 1972. I got in contact with Citroën Cars in Slough, and they got me an invitation to the Earls Court Motor Show where they had the first Birotor prototype on display. I said to a guy on the stand, ‘I’d like one of these,’ and he said I wouldn’t be allowed to get one. Citroën were building them for their own market to test them, and they were only left-hand drive.”

Tradie’s Choice

30 August, 2024

Clint Wheeler purchased this 1962 Holden FJ Panelvan as an unfinished project, or as he says “a complete basket case”. Collected as nothing more than a bare shell, the rotisserie-mounted and primed shell travelled the length of the country from the Rangiora garage where it had sat dormant for six years to Clint’s Ruakaka workshop. “Mike, the previous owner, was awesome. He stacked the van and parts nicely. I was pretty excited to get the van up north. We cut the locks and got her out to enjoy the northland sun,” says Clint. “The panelvan also came with boxes of assorted parts, some good, some not so good, but they all helped.”