Aotearoa Weekly Kōrero 7/3/2025

Welcome to this week’s casual kōrero thread!

This post will be pinned in this community so you can always find it, and will stay for about a week until replaced by the next one.

It’s for talking about anything that might not justify a full post. For example:

Something interesting that happened to you
Something humourous that happened to you
Something frustrating that happened to you
A quick question
A request for recommendations
Pictures of your pet
A picture of a cloud that kind of looks like an elephant
Anything else, there are no rules (except the rule)

So how’s it going?

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Haha guess I'm fancy, almost every car I've bought has been under 100K km's, but the never were very expensive. Benefit of the cheap imported cars here.
Oh yes, we'll be buying from a dealer as I want to trade in our older Prius. I know I can potentially get more buying and selling privately, but I really cannot be bothered with private sales with cars, unless I already know the person.
The wife doesn't really mind not having a 7 seater, but the reason I'm considering it, is it makes it so much easier when family visits a couple times a year. No need to drive two cars every time we go out. Also if we visit family, we take a lot of stuff with us. With a second child now the Prius is getting too small for that. I actually had my mind set on finding a people mover with a proper fold flat third row so we can have a huge boot space for 90% of the time. But for some reason here, they're all either already pretty old or too new and expensive. I'm guessing that they're not as popular as they once were.
I have to give some thought to the renting thing, it might be a good idea.
- Haha guess I’m fancy, almost every car I’ve bought has been under 100K km’s, but the never were very expensive. Benefit of the cheap imported cars here.
  I think what I consider "cheap" has changed a lot over my life. I never spent more than a couple of grand on a car until we had kids.
  The wife doesn’t really mind not having a 7 seater, but the reason I’m considering it, is it makes it so much easier when family visits a couple times a year.
  A quick look online, you're talking about $200 to hire an 8 seater van/car thing like that for a day. Unless you're picking up from Auckland Airport then the exact same thing is double the price 🤷
  If you need it twice a year, that's $400 a year. Just having a big 7 seater will probably cost you that much extra fuel before you even talk about the price of the car.
  Of course you could also just put up with taking two cars, which also means twice the boot space. A 7 seater typically doesn't have much boot space when the 6th and 7th seats are up.
  
  I think our most expensive was around 12-13K until we got the Leaf a couple of years ago. We usually keep them for around 10 years so far. In fairness, I come from a country where before you can even buy a car you need to bid for a Certificate of Entitlement (COE) to own a particular class of car. The COE frequently costs more than the car you're buying. And it also has to be renewed every 10 years. But they have an amazing public transport system. So I guess cheap is relative.
  We actually don't use the second car all that often outside of longer trips or when family visit, which is why I'm not so concerned about it being less economical. The Leaf is what we usually use around town. However, the kids are getting bigger and I've noticed we have a lot less space when trying to pack the car full, or impossible if we want to include their friends in the car.
  A 7 seater typically doesn’t have much boot space when the 6th and 7th seats are up.
  I'm aware of this, but it would only really matter for maybe 10% of trips. It's lame, but my actual dream right now would be a late model Kia Carnival. Way too expensive and they really are huge cars to drive around.
  
  In fairness, I come from a country where before you can even buy a car you need to bid for a Certificate of Entitlement (COE) to own a particular class of car. The COE frequently costs more than the car you’re buying. And it also has to be renewed every 10 years. But they have an amazing public transport system. So I guess cheap is relative.
  Interesting! Cheap is definitely relative.
  I’m aware of this, but it would only really matter for maybe 10% of trips. It’s lame, but my actual dream right now would be a late model Kia Carnival. Way too expensive and they really are huge cars to drive around.
  You could save up for it! It's what we make the kids do when they want something, but it works for adults too!
  As someone who borrowed a Toyota Highlander for a few months, my dream is for a car that fits in carparks 😆
  
  my dream is for a car that fits in carparks
  Haha yeah I admit that's one of the downsides.
  You could save up for it
  We could do that, but It's also partly my brain doesn't like seeing so much money leave our account, just for a car!
  
  Yeah I know what you mean! I remember the first time we spent $10k on a car, and that felt like a lot. It was a much nicer car than the 1995 corona we had before then (this was in maybe 2016 or 2017). We actually kept that Corona for a while after that too, we only had one car up to that point.
  I would like to buy a nice EV (we have a leaf, but I mean a $60k or even $80k car), but like you I have trouble with spending that much on a car. That's more than our deposit when we bought our first house (how times have changed).
  My current plan is to wait for a few years and reassess. But our Ford Kuga has been expensive to maintain so getting rid of it earlier may pay off (probably not to the tune of $60k though 😅).
  
  I don't think I could stomach that amount for a car too! Unless I win lotto or something.
  Honestly I think it's a pretty good time to keep an eye out as EV prices have dropped a lot and there are more popping up as used. I've been looking at car listings every couple of days for weeks. If you don't mind Chinese and Korean cars, there have been 2-3 year old Kia Niros, BYD and MG's showing up every so often around 28-35K. They usually get sold pretty quick too. Can also find the older 2018-19 Ioniqs for less than 20K. In fact there are a couple here in Hamilton for around 15-18K. Unless you need something much bigger, then you're going to have to wait I think! Hopefully in a year or two there will be even more models available.
  I contemplated changing the Leaf instead so we can not worry about fast charging when out and about, but we really need something bigger first.
  
  Our Leaf has about 130KM range, we almost never have to charge when out and about. I think I've done it two or three times in the I think 2 years we've had it.
  What I'm waiting for is for some 1000KM range car to become available. There are some in production but only fancy cars. Then when they become used cars I can pick up one that can still do 800 or 900 KM on a charge. For $20k I hope (I know I'm dreaming). With battery technology the way it is, I bet EVs lose value faster than other cars (as you can get more range as technology improves).
  $30k is still far more than I've ever spent on a car, not only will I have to save up I'll also have to get the courage to spend it 😆.
  
  Oh I meant more that I would be more comfortable using the Leaf for road trips if I could reliably fast charge without degrading the battery. Not so much worried about fast charging for around town use.
  I hope you're right, but I suspect it'll still be many years before those 1000KM range models trickle down to the used market and even then, like the 7 seaters I mentioned, they will still probably retain a higher price. I actually think demand for EV's is going to increase in the the next couple of years, especially if this government or the next enacts the plan for RUCs for all vehicles.
  
  @eagleeyedtiger @Dave , petrol vehicles RUC is already paid through the petrol.
  
  Thanks you're right, I think I meant it as RUC's becoming separate for all vehicles.
  The pessimist in me thinks we'd hardly see petrol prices change, or they'd drop and creep up again slowly.
  
  Ah sorry I misunderstood.
  My hopes and dreams about EV prices are just that. Hopes and dreams 😆. But I'd be happy paying $20k for a car with 500km range, if that's more achievable 🤞
  The RUC for all vehicles thing is interesting. I'm a big supporter of it in theory, but the system needs huge improvements. I bought some RUC at the point EVs got subject to RUC but when am I supposed to buy more? No one, not NZTA, not the police, no one knows if my RUC are used up or not. I don't know either, I can't find the confirmation email (assuming there was one) from when I bought them. Until I get my next WOF and they send me a bill because I haven't paid.
  The system needs huge improvements before it's suitable for all vehicles, and I don't know how that's achievable (most cars don't tell anyone how much they are being driven so no one can send you a reminder).
  
  I completely agree that the RUC and possibly even the Rego system is antiquated. Why do we still need little pieces of paper on our windscreen?
  But I'm a little confused by what you mean? The RUC label has the ending KM's on it. You just buy more before or when you hit that amount of mileage.
  
  @Dave @eagleeyedtiger when you go to Waka kotahi's website, you can see your RUC balance.

39 comments