A Canadian what car?
Discussion
Posted in the US forums a while ago but it's not very busy!
I'm over in Canada at the moment and the lack of a car is starting to do my head in! I was just wondering what you guys would suggest, someone who has experience of Canada would be useful!
I'm looking to spend around $10k, I don't really need to carry loads of anything but it needs to be a bit sensible as we have savage winters here. Convertible would be nice and AWD would also be a good option, something with a decent interior would be good too!
I'm not too sure about the US brands here (GMC, Buick, etc) but I am in the mindset that they're pretty much all s
t.
Petrol is cheap-ish here (About $1.30/90p a litre)
Cars that I liked in the UK were the Honda Accord, Mondeo ST220, Vauxhall Monaro, Focus ST, and similar. But sadly you can't get Focus ST's here as it'd probably be my top choice
Suggestions?
I'm over in Canada at the moment and the lack of a car is starting to do my head in! I was just wondering what you guys would suggest, someone who has experience of Canada would be useful!
I'm looking to spend around $10k, I don't really need to carry loads of anything but it needs to be a bit sensible as we have savage winters here. Convertible would be nice and AWD would also be a good option, something with a decent interior would be good too!
I'm not too sure about the US brands here (GMC, Buick, etc) but I am in the mindset that they're pretty much all s
t.Petrol is cheap-ish here (About $1.30/90p a litre)
Cars that I liked in the UK were the Honda Accord, Mondeo ST220, Vauxhall Monaro, Focus ST, and similar. But sadly you can't get Focus ST's here as it'd probably be my top choice
Suggestions?
Ah yes a scoobie. See if you can find an older Impreza or a Legacy, the convertible aspect will be hard to fill though. You could always buy two different cars, a toy (eg Miata) and a daily hack (eg Impreza)
http://coinmill.com/CAD_GBP.html
That might help. I don't think it is much different currently than US dollars.
http://coinmill.com/CAD_GBP.html
That might help. I don't think it is much different currently than US dollars.
LukeSi said:
Ah yes a scoobie. See if you can find an older Impreza or a Legacy, the convertible aspect will be hard to fill though. You could always buy two different cars, a toy (eg Miata) and a daily hack (eg Impreza)
It doesn't really *have* to be convertible I guess.Another option is the Saab 9-7X SUV, they do it with a V8
LukeSi said:
Ah yes a scoobie. See if you can find an older Impreza or a Legacy, the convertible aspect will be hard to fill though. You could always buy two different cars, a toy (eg Miata) and a daily hack (eg Impreza)
http://coinmill.com/CAD_GBP.html
That might help. I don't think it is much different currently than US dollars.
Hey,http://coinmill.com/CAD_GBP.html
That might help. I don't think it is much different currently than US dollars.
The problem I'm having, is that converting to GBP is a totally meaningless conversion. I might make a seperate thread about it actually, it'd be interesting to see some more answers.
I moved from the UK to Canada (Toronto) in 2001, compared to the UK 2nd hand car prices are very expensive here for anything decent. Higher end cars such as BMW hold their value very well due to the limited supply, company cars are very rare here so the luxury market is based on people doing personal leases or buying outright.
Insurance is also a killer, with a clean record (37 yr old, no claims, 10+ years history in Canada) it's still $2,000 just to insure a $10k car - crazy !! Blame the ambulance chasers.
In your price range (around $15k) you are looking at a 5+ year old car with a good 100,000km on the clock such as:
http://www.autotrader.ca/a/BMW/3%20Series/VAUGHAN/...
Compared to the UK:
http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/2793809.htm
Winters are tough on cars, esp in Quebec (-30C !), so they don't tend to wear their age as well either.
Remember you have to pay the equivalent of VAT (~15%) even on 2nd hand purchases so add that back into the price as well ... it's not pretty.
Roads are pretty dull, if you get caught doing more than 150 kmph in Ontario it's an instant short term ban and they confiscate your car for a month as well ... i don't know why people bother with GT-Rs
Canada is a great place to live, just not to drive !
Enjoy
Insurance is also a killer, with a clean record (37 yr old, no claims, 10+ years history in Canada) it's still $2,000 just to insure a $10k car - crazy !! Blame the ambulance chasers.
In your price range (around $15k) you are looking at a 5+ year old car with a good 100,000km on the clock such as:
http://www.autotrader.ca/a/BMW/3%20Series/VAUGHAN/...
Compared to the UK:
http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/2793809.htm
Winters are tough on cars, esp in Quebec (-30C !), so they don't tend to wear their age as well either.
Remember you have to pay the equivalent of VAT (~15%) even on 2nd hand purchases so add that back into the price as well ... it's not pretty.
Roads are pretty dull, if you get caught doing more than 150 kmph in Ontario it's an instant short term ban and they confiscate your car for a month as well ... i don't know why people bother with GT-Rs
Canada is a great place to live, just not to drive !
Enjoy
Can you get a dodge charger in your budget, there is a V8 variant and also an AWD option. You dont see many convertibles driving around in the winter - my jeep had snow inside it for the whole winter and the heater was on permanently. That said my daughters teacher runs a thunderbird with a hard top
If you live and work in the city you can probably live without a car. I did whilst living in winnipeg. Most of the car rental places do long weekend rates which are pretty reasonable. you could buy a good number of long weekend rentals on a dodge charger just for the cost of your insurance I would imagine
If you live and work in the city you can probably live without a car. I did whilst living in winnipeg. Most of the car rental places do long weekend rates which are pretty reasonable. you could buy a good number of long weekend rentals on a dodge charger just for the cost of your insurance I would imagine
I don't think this is the right forum either as most of the UK readers are going to have no concept of what a Canadian winter entails and while us winters are rough as well we have a little better infrastructure of clearing the roads relatively quickly. To give UK readers a worse case idea this last February there was a day when 23" fell. I don't think that one can really wrap there head around that number unless they see something like it. I surmise this from the Miata recommendation.
Well you have two options the way I see it buy a competent all wheel drive car such as an EVO, Subaru, or Audi Allroad and swap tires in winter or what I would do personally buy two cars maybe something with $WD and higher than average ground clearance for winter and generally driving and then something with more character for the summer. The benefit of the second way is you are more likely to have the right tool for the right climate and you can buy something a little more eccentric such as an XJS droptop and not worry about it's inevitable unreliability as you have a second car
Well you have two options the way I see it buy a competent all wheel drive car such as an EVO, Subaru, or Audi Allroad and swap tires in winter or what I would do personally buy two cars maybe something with $WD and higher than average ground clearance for winter and generally driving and then something with more character for the summer. The benefit of the second way is you are more likely to have the right tool for the right climate and you can buy something a little more eccentric such as an XJS droptop and not worry about it's inevitable unreliability as you have a second car
PaulFontaine said:
I don't think this is the right forum either as most of the UK readers are going to have no concept of what a Canadian winter entails and while us winters are rough as well we have a little better infrastructure of clearing the roads relatively quickly. To give UK readers a worse case idea this last February there was a day when 23" fell. I don't think that one can really wrap there head around that number unless they see something like it. I surmise this from the Miata recommendation.
Well you have two options the way I see it buy a competent all wheel drive car such as an EVO, Subaru, or Audi Allroad and swap tires in winter or what I would do personally buy two cars maybe something with $WD and higher than average ground clearance for winter and generally driving and then something with more character for the summer. The benefit of the second way is you are more likely to have the right tool for the right climate and you can buy something a little more eccentric such as an XJS droptop and not worry about it's inevitable unreliability as you have a second car
An MX5/Miata laughs in the face of snow.Well you have two options the way I see it buy a competent all wheel drive car such as an EVO, Subaru, or Audi Allroad and swap tires in winter or what I would do personally buy two cars maybe something with $WD and higher than average ground clearance for winter and generally driving and then something with more character for the summer. The benefit of the second way is you are more likely to have the right tool for the right climate and you can buy something a little more eccentric such as an XJS droptop and not worry about it's inevitable unreliability as you have a second car
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZU-mt06Eqg
LukeSi said:
PaulFontaine said:
I don't think this is the right forum either as most of the UK readers are going to have no concept of what a Canadian winter entails and while us winters are rough as well we have a little better infrastructure of clearing the roads relatively quickly. To give UK readers a worse case idea this last February there was a day when 23" fell. I don't think that one can really wrap there head around that number unless they see something like it. I surmise this from the Miata recommendation.
Well you have two options the way I see it buy a competent all wheel drive car such as an EVO, Subaru, or Audi Allroad and swap tires in winter or what I would do personally buy two cars maybe something with $WD and higher than average ground clearance for winter and generally driving and then something with more character for the summer. The benefit of the second way is you are more likely to have the right tool for the right climate and you can buy something a little more eccentric such as an XJS droptop and not worry about it's inevitable unreliability as you have a second car
An MX5/Miata laughs in the face of snow.Well you have two options the way I see it buy a competent all wheel drive car such as an EVO, Subaru, or Audi Allroad and swap tires in winter or what I would do personally buy two cars maybe something with $WD and higher than average ground clearance for winter and generally driving and then something with more character for the summer. The benefit of the second way is you are more likely to have the right tool for the right climate and you can buy something a little more eccentric such as an XJS droptop and not worry about it's inevitable unreliability as you have a second car
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZU-mt06Eqg
Yep, Mazdaspeed 6 with a set of proper winter tyres sounds like a good bet to me, the only problem being they get a bit leggy for your budget:
http://www.autotrader.ca/a/Mazda/Mazdaspeed6/OTTAW...
http://www.autotrader.ca/a/Mazda/Mazdaspeed6/OTTAW...
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