Thread: The Brains Trust -question on club rego

^^ eggzachery .
the cost of running your current car will pale into insignificance when a cheap ev is stil gonna be $20k .
A new one will run to almost $50k
thats a lotta fuel and rego and depreciation.

Spoken as man who owns an older car that hasn’t even come out of the garage since Feb

And owns a 6.0ltr v8 ute that I consider to be economically viable at just over 50,000km a year - although I will admit wfh has stopped it in the drive ,I hadn’t even started it since April 8 till last weekend !
Keep driving the comfy capable currently owned vehicle .
its environmentally responsible , and will make you happy when it takes you places .

I have several Land Rovers on Club Permits at about $80 for 45 days use but can be extended to 90 days. The Defender hits 25 years of age soon and will go on Club Permit.
As mentioned, insurance is also cheap.
Problem with multiple vehicles is oil changes, coolant changes etc start to add up ! But you only need 4 vehicles on Club Plates to cover every day of the year !

The current VIC system is great because you can use it any time except for 'financial reward'. As also mentioned don't forget to fill in the logbook ! Fine is about $700.

Pre '49 doesn't need a roadworthy, can be signed off by the Club Safety Officer. '49 onwards needs a roady.
Roady requirement is thanks to the AOMC taking it up with VicRoads. They wanted the roadworthy test the Vintage & Veteran boys wanted it to stay with the Club Safety Officer signing it off because the average roadworthy tester would struggle with early vehicles. Effectively they both won !


Colin

I'd go with a cheapie diesel econobox(on full reg).
If you do the math, at $100/pw that's about 80lt/pw, so assuming a V8 and their 25l/100 average fuel use around town:

Get a reasonably cheap Pug like 1.6 diesel(currently my fave cheap econobox) from about the mid to late 2000's. You should get around 7lt/100 around town, unless you charge even harder than my leadfooted dad!
Car is reasonably easy to fix and parts can be cheap, so cost of service/repairs won't be too hard per year. You can get them in VGC for less than $4-5K, and less with haggling.

Currently, you have about >$5K per year in fuel costs for the Disco.
1.6HDi pugs cost about (say) $4K. As they're so cheap, just get thirdparty insurance for it to keep costs low.
Assuming 80lt per week in the Disco, that'll equate to about 400-500klm/wk ..so lets call it 450k/wk.

Using the Pug 1.6HDi as the example, and leaving the Disco to the serious travel work.
450km/wk should get you about 1 tank per fortnight(ish), at about 60(ish) litres per tank.
So that would equate to about $80 per fortnight instead of $100/wk.
Rego for the econobox is about $800.

So add the extra $800 per year for rego.
Take out the fuel saving per year that you'd otherwise have spent for the Disco.
$5000/yr - ($80/fortnight=$2080) = saved $s at about ($120/fortnight=$3120/yr)
The rego and insurance cost is really insignificant when you're doing those kind of distances.

Haven't yet factored the overall savings in using an econobox as the daily, and leaving the Disco to fun driving .. stuff like tyres, repairs and parts costs.

What year is the Disco? if it's close to historic reg manufacture date, then as already said do this for a few years and then put the Disco on club reg.
You can get 180 day club reg too. I don't remember all the details of club reg, but the only major factor to consider for Vic club reg is that you can't drive it in WA.
All other states are OK, as said it's a permit to drive the vehicle, and all states have agreement with Vic, except WA.

On the topic of econoboxes, of the diesel variety, my fave is the Pug 307 for cost of purchase vs reliability vs repairability. Brother recently got his son a Golf Tdi, and it goes nice(gearbox is nice), but the 307's drive nicer(smoother, more refined).
Dads' is a manual, but having driven an auto, are much better.

I've been contemplating a similar situation for the past few years, but my issue is there is little to no advantage for me, other than having a second car. The Tdi is more than economical enough(I get an average of about 11-12l/100 around town) so the $s saved on fuel don't add up(yet).
The other advantage of just having a second/backup vehicle when things go pear shaped has been eliminated as well .. brother has partially abandoned his TD5, which is now "mine" too.
So the idea for me in having a daily driver has fallen way off the radar.
Back when I was working my fuel costs were about $100/fortnight, and it still made a little bit of sense to get a cheap econobox that used 1/2 the fuel of the Tdi, which is already quite economical.

Another alternative is LPG on the Disco. I dunno what the cost of conversions are nowadays nor if any converters remain in business! .. but I have a twin scuba undercar LPG setup for a D2, which I think will only just fit into a D1 if necessary. It's a ye olde worlde mixer type system which I wouldn't recommend. Seriously recommend a sequential injected system if this sounds like an option.
The tanks required for the more 'useful' undercar conversion, are ideal. Most LPG prices I see at in the low 60's cent price range and seem to have stabilised between 60 and about 80 now.
With petrol heading back into the 1.20-1.30 range, that's more like the saving that LPG was renown for.
I've been contemplating fitting this system, I have, plus a sequential system to my D2(v8) project car.... that's been on hold for the past 2+ years(finances won't allow it yet).

Yeah ... don't buy a PSA (poogoe/citroen) vehicle with a 1.6 turbo diesel. They are known for issues, the oil galleries inside the motor are too narrow and they have oil starvation issues to the turbo.. The 2.0 diesel doesn't have fuel economy that is as good. But its almost bullet proof and has a lot more power than the 1.6! my wifes poogoe has the 2.0 ... it seems to average less than 7.0lL/100 around town dragging around a heavy full sized sedan.

as dumb as it sounds, if your moving kids around, have a look at citroen picasso. they are only a little car ... but check this out:



on the french car forums in australia they weirdly seem to rarely ever have an issue. I know someone with one that's rolled over 250,000kms now ... and they still love it. Its just had a clutch replacement recenlty other than that it just goes. find a 2.0 turbo diesel *manual*

seeya,
Shane L.

A lot of cars have no issues overseas but are complete unreliable **** boxes here in Aus due to a variety of factors. I’d put Poogees in that bucket myself, along with most Euro **** boxes (Including all the current line up of Land Rovers by the way)