Best value affordable new cars
Recently, we wrote about which cars are the cheapest in New Zealand, taking the Clean Car Discount into account. There were interesting discoveries, like the Mitsubishi Mirage at $17,963.62 after the discount, making it the cheapest car outright below the $30,000 threshold we deemed ‘‘affordable’’ for brand-new cars.
But there’s more to it than the sticker price and any Clean Car Discount. Not every manufacturer includes on-road costs (ORCs) with pricing, and most have different levels of warranties. Then there’s the Clean Car Standard, due to kick in at the start of 2023. So, with that in mind, we’ve taken another look at those affordable cars and see which represents the best value. In this case, we’re considering value as included ORCs (or cheap ORCs if they’re excluded), what those ORCs might involve, and packages, warranties or servicing promises offered. All vehicle price figures includes any Clean Car Discount as of November 2022.
Generally, ORCs add between $800 and $1200 to a price. As standard, they comprise one year of registration, three years’ WoF and a full tank of gas. They’re often applied at dealer level, but sometimes given as a blanket rule from the importer or included in a vehicle’s price. Of the brands that offer vehicles under $30,000, Toyota and MG include on-roads as part of their pricing.
Toyota
Toyota’s quoted figure includes the Drive Happy new-vehicle package offering up to five years of capped price servicing cover, five years’ warranty or 150,000km provided Toyota’s servicing schedule is met, five years’ roadside assistance and five years’ WoF coverage (amounting to two WoF inspections on the third and fourth year from the first registration date). It also bundles in ORCs, which means all pre-delivery costs, 12 months’ registration, a full tank of fuel, floor mats, and 1000km of Road User Charges for diesels. So the $26,160 Yaris GX’s value is quite high, albeit with the caveat of meeting Toyota’s schedules to get all Drive Happy package bonuses.
MG
The MG3 hatchback starts at $20,990 but, as it uses an old
school four-speed automatic transmission, the engine spits out enough CO2 to put it into the 147 to 192g/km ‘zero band’, so it doesn’t incur a fee nor is it eligible for a rebate. But it includes ORCs, so no post-purchase costs, and a seven-year, unlimited-distance warranty, the highest here.
Honda
Honda’s fixed-price promise means that, barring price adjustments, every new Honda around the country sells for the same price. But it doesn’t include on-road costs, which for the $26,850 Jazz Life is $950 and comprises registration, a WoF, floor mats, a full tank of petrol, a five-year warranty and roadside assistance for the same duration.
Mitsubishi
Mitsubishi states its ORCs in its advertisements, with the $17,963
Mirage and the $28,507 ASX asking $550 and $650 respectively, with the difference coming down to the size of the fuel tank. They are some of the lowest in the industry but don’t include floor mats. However, you also get a ten-year/160,000km warranty on the powertrain, five of which (up to 130,000km) also covers the whole car.
Suzuki & Mazda
Suzuki and Mazda both let their dealers set ORCs, which can range between $800 and $1200 depending on the dealer. Suzuki also told Stuff its ORCs include a pre-delivery inspection, a groom, registration, WoF and tank of fuel.
Suzuki offers a five-year warranty package (or 100,00km, whichever comes first – three for the entire car plus another two for the powertrain) along with five years of roadside assistance. The base GL with a manual
transmission, the cheapest Swift on offer right now, starts at $19,397. You could also check out the Ignis GLX; the manual version starts at $19,499. Mazda’s cheapest offering remains the Mazda2 in SP15 trim, with a $27,990 sticker price and a $1562 rebate available for $26,482 total. It gets a five-year/unlimited kilometre warranty, five years of roadside assistance and three years of servicing as standard.
Conclusion
So, which offers the most value? It’s difficult to look past Toyota’s Drive Happy system, although the Yaris starts at higher prices than the competition here. MG’s aggressive all-inclusive pricing and seven-year warranty with the MG3 is noteworthy, the Mitsubishi Mirage is still huge value at roughly $18.5k including those cheap on-roads and that ten-year powertrain warranty.