Could we? Should we? Would we?
Today’s post would be really easy if someone had emailed me this question. Complete no-brainer. Of course, because it’s actually my own situation, things are not as black and white as they might seem 😉
Some Background
We currently have three cars between three adults in my family.
- A fairly new Toyota Aqua (compact hybrid). My daughter drives this.
- An on its last legs Toyota Avensis (stealth nice-ish sedan). My wife and I share this.
- A rusty Mitsubishi Toppo (kei car). This doesn’t get driven much and we mainly use it for emergencies when we need three cars at once.
My other daughter and her husband used to drive the Aqua, which is why we have three cars now (they moved to Sweden last year).
We probably don’t need three cars, but we might need two. The crisis point is the fact that the Avensis is on its last legs (engine noise is weird, various bits are breaking). Shaken is next year and we’re not sure it will pass or be worth the money it takes to get it in shape to pass.
We originally got the Avensis through a friend of my wife’s who is the manager at a Toyota dealership. We asked him to find us a second-hand car and he suggested the Avensis. We’d never heard of it but it turned out to be a slightly nice sedan that looks a lot cheaper than it is. Perfect for self-employed people. As a bonus, it was actually made in Derbyshire near my UK home and imported into Japan. It cost us about 1.5m yen which we paid in cash about ten years ago. We’ve been very happy with it since.
The Decision
The Aqua is great so my daughter will keep using that. The Toppo is pretty close to failure too so we can probably take it out of the equation. The question then becomes: what do we do about the Avensis?
I think we have four options:
- Don’t replace the car. If it dies at some point or won’t pass shaken, we’ll get rid of it. My wife and I will cycle/walk/take the train more.
- Replace the car with a cheaper second-hand car (under 1m yen). Keep using it in the same way as we do now.
- Replace the car with a similar second-hand model (1.5-2m yen). This would probably be some kind of hybrid with similar quality to the Avensis.
- Replace the car with a nicer second-hand model (2-3m yen). This would probably be a hybrid of better quality.
If someone asked me the same question I would recommend they do 1) above. However, my wife and I were considering 3) or 4). Having written this, I am inclined towards 1) again.
Ideally I was hoping to dodge this question by having the car last until we start to see the first automatic very low cost taxis. I believe these will start to be available in the next five to ten years or so. Failing that, I was hoping to get an electric car. Unfortunately, our manshon does not have any charging ports and trying to charge outside all the time seems more trouble than it is worth.
So really the question is: do we need a car? And if so, how much do we want to spend on it?
My wife and I have only just started talking about this, so there is still time to contribute to this fascinating discussion 😉
What do you think? Any advice or stories that might help us?
1) sounds great if you’re both willing to do it!
If not, what sort of driving do you mostly do?
A couple of short local trips each week? Then go for option 2).
Regular commuting each day and driving a lot on weekends? Option 3).
The above plus some long holiday drives across prefectures? Option 4).
However, if you intend to own the car very long term (and as we know, in Japan that means longer than 5 mins!), then I’d think about two things very carefully: batteries and safety features.
How much does it cost to replace a worn out battery? The answer to this would scare most people, I suspect. But I guess most people here probably ditch their cars before finding out!
What safety features are necessary? In northern Japanese winters, the latest safety gear is a must, I believe.
If you are going to hold on to this car, but you really want 2nd hand to avoid to initial depreciation hit, I would recommend as new and as high grade a car as you’re willing to pay for.
I no longer commute by car, but I was doing 800km a month! We also drive between Yokohama and Kyoto at least 4 return trips a year. I want to keep a car for at least 15 years. With all that in mind, 2 years ago we bought a new Mazda CX-5 diesel with all the bells and whistles. No batteries that’ll need replacing some time, just good economy the old fashioned way (1000km per tank on the highway; 650km of local driving) at 95 yen per litre for diesel. All the safety kit I desired to protect my wife and child. All the space we’ll need until she finishes school.
It made sense to us at the time and I’m still not disappointed. Depreciation is not a real bother when you intend to drive it until it dies (and the bank of mother in law is interest free…).
That is a good way of looking at it. I’d say driving every day (short local trips) plus a couple of long drives a year. Have to think about it.
I don’t think I’ve ever paid more than 60 man for a car here so I’d go for option 2! But I do work from home with my wife and we only need the car on weekends. All have been second hand, and we have usually kept them for 5-10 years. None has ever broken down and although we don’t drive daily we have driven long distances on holidays quite often. If you are not driving much I would definitely go for option 2.
I guess the first step is to figure out if we need a car at all!
It’s hard to say, since you don’t mention size, type or any examples of what you might like.
Also, your budget seems high. A 1-3 yr old used car that’s selling for ¥2-3M is probably pretty plush/high grade (even something at the 1.5-2M level)
When get the urge to browse I always consider turning radius (最初回転半径)–important for easy maneuvering in tight spaces–which generally means a smaller car. This helps me do a the-grapes-are-sour assessment of larger, more ¥¥¥ vehicles.
YMMV
I have never thought about turning radius. London Black Cabs are meant to have very good ones, eh? Maybe I should get one of those…
I prefer sedans for driving comfort, but I guess it doesn’t really matter. I most enjoy driving the Toppo -it’s so light that it has fairly good acceleration and handling 🙂
Wow, how are you old enough to have a daughter that drives?!
Perhaps an option that fits between the various choices?
https://www.careco.jp
Heh, the same way I get to have a six year old granddaughter 🙂
Careco looks interesting but not in Tohoku (like NURO, dammit). I thought about Times (there is one a couple of km down the road) but unless it’s next to where we live it’s too inconvenient to replace a car I think.
Still thinking through options.
In regards where to buy a second hand, I would recommend Big Motor
I picked up a 10 year old Toyota Passo from them with 58K KM on the clock, 1.5 year ago for 350,000Yen, and its running fine. With Shaken and closing costs it was about 500,000 Yen in total
They replaced the battery, guaranteed it for 3 years, which includes oil changes during that time. Also while I was waiting for the car to be delivered from another part of Japan, they loaned me another car for two weeks for free…
They also give you free Drinks, candy and Pop-Corn while you wait for the oil change… 🙂
Good to hear you had a good experience!
we had two cars one i drove and my wife had the other. It was ok when we both needed to go someplace on our own but the double everything, shaken, insurance, maintenance etc., made us decide to get by with one auto. I switched to bicycle, and taking the bus for local trips or walking. I have worn out 3 bikes in the last ten years since we economized and notice a big difference in the wallet, along with the waistline 😊,
I am not a young guy either (over 60).
I think that’s exactly what I need to do.
I thought I’d be car shopping for a September shaken deadline, but a sudden water leak from an engine gasket has me looking in a hurry right now! Fortunately the car’s not about to explode so I have a little time yet.
We’re a family of 3, with two working parents who both need cars. Right now we have a 12-year-old Honda Spike and a Wagon R that’s on its last legs. I’m looking at used latest model, not too expensive sports car like S2000, Miata, FT86. I haven’t gotten estimates yet so I can’t say that’s the route I’m going to go and there’s a chance that I’ll just get another cheap kei. The Spike will probably retire at shaken time in 2 years, and wife will probably replace is with a used late model boxy kei wagon of some kind.
Just my 2 cents with 11 years living here. I have bought 3 motorcycles and 4 cars in that time. Well, one was a lease, that was a mistake. Don’t lease a car unless you have your heart set on a BMW 7 series or Mercedes S class or something, but I think most of us here are a little more financially minded than to blow the cash on cars like that.
Usually I would say buy used. That is until we just got our new kei car. We wanted something near new. We looked at used prices. 1.3 to 1.4 million yen. We looked at new prices. 1.5 million yen. We went with new. At near new we noticed we would be paying for things like 100,000 yen extra for Navi, a dealer option and we didn’t want for our getting to work car, we would be paying 70,000 yen extra for rims or exhaust or speakers, or a ton of options we didn’t want. So really the used cars we were looking at SHOULD be more like 1.0 million but they were passing on to us the overpriced dealer options we had no desire to pay for. So for 1.5 million we got the exact model, color, and options we wanted. The more expensive the base price, the bigger disparity you will probably see. An almost new 4 million yen car probably goes for about 3.5 million. Thats a huge difference. Also many nicer white plate plates come standard with things like navi so you don’t have to worry as much about a slightly used Aqua with a ton of dealer options you don’t want.
My second piece of advice is check Goo Net. It is a comprehensive database of used cars all over Japan. It will give you a much better idea of what car prices you should be looking at for used vehicles (bikes and cars). It will give you a bargaining chip as well if you really want to go through a local shop or dealer. Also if you walk in with a folder of cars and prices you are looking at they will realize it will be a little harder to pull the wool over your eyes. In my case, I found the exact vehicle I wanted at a price I thought was fair and I contacted the dealers and had them ship the vehicle to my prefecture. It was much cheaper than buying anything locally. About 30,000 to I suppose 100,000yen depending on distance. I have done this for 2 bikes and 2 cars. (It was pretty cool having my first convertible delivered to my front door, but some a-hole ran a red light and totaled it less than 10 days later so I lost all the cash I just paid for delivery and the brand new shaken inspection)
Option 1 / Option 1 / Option 1 !!!
I’ve considered buying a car multiple times and every time I examine the cost breakdown of owning one, I immediately drop the idea. My neighborhood is perfect for having a car to do errands and my main motivation for a car is to take weekend trips. However, the hassle involved in parking, even at large stores like AEON who have parking garages, the price of petrol, the super slow speed limits, traffic congestion, toll roads and the maintenance/inspection, etc. aforementioned, buying a car never seems like a good idea. I have resorted to lining up all of my errands on the same day and renting a car for 24hrs (convenient enough for my location). As well, for weekend trips, I think I calculated that I could rent a car 20 days a month for the true cost of owning a car (a nicer one anyway).
Bottom line, you will adjust to whatever your possibilities are and although the idea to forgo a car purchase entirely and ride your bike instead may seem inconvenient now, once you make the transition, you will be glad you didn’t buy a car (not an expensive one anyway).
Other than what I mentioned above, my wife and I mostly use our bicycles for everything, including COSTCO shopping 1.5 hrs round trip and it only seems like a mild inconvenience at times. I commute to/from work rain or shine and overall, I’m happier for it since I know I”m getting exercise. If I had a car, I would get lazy so I like that I’m forced to take the bike even on the days when I wish I had a car. Hope this helps some and good luck.
Regards, Paul
Wise words, Paul! I’ll try and keep them in mind as we think about this over the next year or so 🙂