Ask The Guide

Capped price servicing is a good way to keep a lid on running costs, or at least know in advance what those costs will be. In the case of Hyundai and Kia cars, they come with capped-price servicing as part of the deal, so provided the car has been servicing correctly by its original owner, you should be able to tap into the capped-price schedule. The catch will be if the car you buy has any gaps in its service history as this could easily render it ineligible for the capped-price package.

But really, Jason, what you need to consider is whether cheaper and less frequent servicing is actually going to save you much money. Then put those figures into the context of what it will cost you to change cars in terms of stamp-duty, registration change-over and perhaps even higher insurance costs, and see if it still makes sense as a strategy.

If dealer servicing is getting your wallet down, don’t forget that you can change to an independent workshop that might be cheaper than a Mazda dealership. Provided the workshop has the correct certification, it can still stamp your service book and keep your maintenance record (and, therefore, your warranty) intact.

Owners have noted a few problems for these, now, quite old Civics, but as with any other elderly car, you need to take each example on its merits. That said, things to watch out for include fried oxygen sensors in the exhaust system (which will illuminate the `check engine’ light). The power steering can give problems (you’ll still have steering but no assistance) engine mounts can die early and the central locking can pack up due to water entering the system.

But by far, the biggest concern with a 2006 Honda Civic is that it was one of hundreds of models caught up in the Takata air-bag fiasco that is still causing grief for car owners around the world. Make sure any car you’re considering has been attended to and had its faulty air-bags replaced.

As for value, that will vary enormously according to what condition the car is in and how many kilometres it’s covered. But we wouldn’t be spending any more than, say, $5000 or $6000 for a well-equipped example in neat condition.

I’m not really sure what you mean by `fuel saving gearbox’, Nijole: I’m sure Honda would claim all of its gearbox options are fuel saving. But I’ll take a stab in the dark and guess that you’re referring to the Constantly Variable Transmission (CVT) now fitted to different Honda models.

In the bad old days, CVTs were only used on small, less powerful engines, because they couldn’t really cope with high horsepower or, more correctly, high torque applications. But as the technology matured and things like metallurgy improved, the CVT has moved into the mainstream.

A few years ago, we knew CVTs had really arrived when Nissan fitted one to its quite powerful and heavy Murano SUV. So, really, you shouldn’t have any worries with a CVT in a car like a Honda Civic or HR-V.

As for the lifespan of a modern transmission, ideally you’d like it to last the life of the rest of the car. And to be honest, any car-maker that can’t build a transmission that lasts at least 200,000km (at a minimum) isn’t paying attention.hon

There are circumstances under which you would stay away from a modern turbo-diesel, but they have more to do with how you’ll use the vehicle than they do with the vehicle itself. The rule of thumb is that you should really only buy a diesel version of a particular car if you plan to use it for at least one decent trip at freeway speeds every three or four weeks at the very least. Along with that is the proviso that you’ll cover enough kilometres each year to balance the higher purchase price and servicing costs of a diesel against the lower fuel costs.

The highway-driving caveat is all about long-term reliability and emissions. Modern turbo-diesels are often fitted with what’s called a diesel-particulate filter (DPF). This filter, designed to trap some of the more harmful exhaust emissions) eventually fills up with the soot from the diesel’s exhaust and, when that happens, it’s designed to burn off that soot and regenerate itself, ready for another go round. But if you only drive short distances or only ever at suburban speeds, the filter can often not get hot enough to perform this burn-off and regeneration. When that happens, the filter warning light on your dashboard lights up and it’s off to the dealership for a – sometimes – costly manual regeneration. In extreme cases, the DPF may even need to be replaced and that’s not cheap either.

So, if you’re not planning regular trips at freeway speeds, conventional wisdom says a modern turbo-diesel is not for you.

completely redesigned the RAV4 for an Australian launch back in January 2019, so don’t expect wholesale changes until the mid-life facelift probably in another coupe of years. That’s as far as the basic engineering goes, of course, but in specification and option terms there could be some shuffling around as Toyota is continually homing in on the sweet spot when it comes to equipment versus price-point.

The other thing to watch out for – and Toyota is very good at this – is the limited-edition variant of the RAV4. These variants usually offer a load of standard equipment at a bargain price and are a car company’s way of clearing the shelves. Look out, too, in coming weeks, for good deals on RAV4’s (and any other make and model) with a 2019 build-date as these are often heavily discounted in the first few weeks of a new year. Again, it’s a shelf-clearing exercise, but it can mean very good deals.

Honda’s solution to navigation was to equip its lower-spec Civics of this period with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto which allowed you to use the navigation apps on your smartphone to interface with the car’s info screen. If you wanted stand-alone, factory satellite navigation, you needed to spend up a bit bigger and buy the VTi-LX version of the Civic which had a Garmin system that also featured live traffic updates.

With a price premium of about $15,000 brand-new, the Sport model would seem to have the RS245 beaten for value, wouldn’t it? But it’s not that simple and even though the two are both Skoda Octavias, they are really very different vehicles in every other respect.

While the Sport model is a sensible, practical (despite the Sport badge) sedan or wagon, the RS245 is a much more driver-focussed, sporty machine. The latter is much more firmly suspended and has performance braking hardware and big alloy wheels as well as a clever mechanical front differential to maximise its grip. The differences under the bonnet are just as obvious and with 110kW in the Sport playing 180kW in the RS245, you can guess which is the faster car to drive.

So it really comes down to how much you value a car’s sporty nature. If you do, that $15,000 price jump might not seem so bad. If you don’t the RS245 becomes a very expensive take on the Octavia formula.

Opening the bonnet is a two-step process, Chris. First you need to locate the bonnet release catch which, on a 2008 Navara is located on the lower edge of the dashboard, just to the right of the steering column. It should be just under the button that controls the VDC (stability-control) program. It should be a little plastic catch that you pull towards you. When you do, you should feel the catch `give’ and see the bonnet spring up a few millimetres.

Step two is to go around to the front of the car, and run your hand along in the space between the bonnet and the grille until you find the secondary catch which has to be pushed to one side to allow the bonnet to be lifted open. Be careful, though: Don’t let the bonnet fall on to your fingers and don’t shove your hand too far under the bonnet as there are hot components like the radiator in there as well. This second, safety catch is there in case the interior release gets bumped while the car is being driven. At which point the bonnet could fly open with interesting consequences.

From memory, that model Navara also used a manual bonnet stay rather than gas struts to hold it open. So you’ll need to hold the bonnet open and manually put the stay in place to prevent the bonnet from falling on your head.

Swapping cars over the park-brake seems a bit extreme, Marlene. And while I sympathise with you – I also dislike the new electronic park-brakes with a passion – I could never justify trading-in over it. Sit down and work out how much you’ll lose in stamp-duty, the change-over price and other financial charges and you might just decide you can live with the dreaded electronic brake.

The other troubling news is that within a few years, there won’t be any new cars with conventional park-brakes; the world is going electronic and there’s not much consumers can do about it. The better news is that the best ones now engage and disengage automatically, so you don’t have to think about them. Nor do you have to operate them yourself (which is the big bone of contention here).

There are two things that are crucial for inexperienced drivers. And those start with reliability and end with safety. Reliability is more or less a given these days when it comes to relatively new cars, so my advice would be to buy the car that offers the biggest safety package within your budget.

Look for side- air-bags and curtain air-bags, as well as things like autonomous braking, blind-spot monitoring and lane-keep assistance. Things like anti-lock brakes and stability control have been standard on most cars for years now, but the above, newer technologies are still filtering down from high-end cars into the more democratised part of the market.

But make sure you know exactly what you’re buying as sometimes these safety technologies are bundled up as part of an extra-cost option when the cars are bought new. Not all new-car buyers see the value in this, so it’s possible to have two very similar looking cars with very different safety credentials. Know your target.