RetireJapan

Since our car is often the second largest purchase we make (for lifetime renters it would be #1), I thought it would be interesting to see where people land on this. Let's ignore the decision to have kids, even though it could exceed a home purchase.

I myself am eager to get an EV, but there are few options and prices are in the 5 (Leaf) to 12 (Tesla) million range. The Ariya is coming to the market this year, around 5-8 million it seems.

Past car history:

20-year-old VW bug, $500 (sold for $200 three years later)
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7-year-old Toyota Lime hatchback, free from a student (value ¥200,000 I am guessing), sold for ¥50,000 5 years later
9-year-old Toyota Caldina station wagon, ¥200,000 from a student, died 3 years later
8-year-old Toyota Ipsum mid-size 7-seater, ¥800,000 from a Toyota dealer, sold for ¥50,000 5 years later

Forgot to add this one:
20-year-old Saab convertible, bought in Oz for $2,000, sold a year later for $1,200.

Brand new Toyota Aqua (2013), ¥2,000,000 from dealer, still going strong
9-year-old Mini Cooper S Convertible, ¥800,000 at auction, sold in 2019 for ¥250,000 via Yahoo

Paid ¥700,000 for my 1988 year-old Nissan Datsun Truck and looks like it isn't planning on dying anytime soon.
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Past car history in Japan:
1990 BMW Z3: ¥70,000 at a local dealer, financially-wise was the dumbest purchase I ever did. It sure was fun until I crashed it tho . Fortunately wised up.
2002 Toyota Vitz: ¥50,000 at Jmty, drove it for around 1 year until the shaken expired and scrapped it.

Past car history back "home":
2003 Seat Ibiza: 3,000€ at a local dealer, sold it 3 years later for 1,600€.
1990 Renault 19: 400€ from a friend. Only use it when I travel back to my country, so has been sitting for the last 2 years due to the current world's situation. Probably will get rid of it next time I travel there.

TJKansai wrote: ↑Fri Jun 11, 2021 1:20 am Since our car is often the second largest purchase we make (for lifetime renters it would be #1), I thought it would be interesting to see where people land on this. Let's ignore the decision to have kids, even though it could exceed a home purchase.

I myself am eager to get an EV, but there are few options and prices are in the 5 (Leaf) to 12 (Tesla) million range. The Ariya is coming to the market this year, around 5-8 million it seems.

I wanted an EV last time but no options we could agree on.
The tesla model 3 has had some price reductions and you might be able to get one on the road for around 5-5.5mil if you can handle the waiting time. I don't care for how it looks to be honest. Looks like Pixar designed it. The Honda e looks a fun city car but appaling range.

The BMW iX3 should be available in Japan next year. Long range, full EV 75Kwh, garnering some great reviews. It's the old ICE chassis and apparently is fun to drive. I'm guessing it will retail about 8mil. I'm not due to change cars yet but might ask for a trade-in valuation. As it's all electric I wonder if I'll be able to fire up the a/c from in the house before a summer drive..

I've spent between 7-8mil on each of my last two cars but I keep them for a long time to help justify the initial expense.

First car: Honda Civic. Gift from student.
Second car: Nissan Skyline. Bought as sayonara sale for 150,000. Washed away in tsunami. RIP.
Third car: Toyota Avensis. Made in Yorkshire, funnily enough, and imported into Japan. 1.5m pre-used (was a Toyota company car with minimal mileage, three years old).
Fourth car: Mitsubishi Toppo. Gift from daughter, who got it from her grandparents. 20 year-old rustbucket. Engine is in great shape.
Fifth car: brand new Aqua. Bought for daughter and husband (around 2m), got it back when they moved abroad.

This is for my wife and I over the last 21 years. We currently use #4 and #5.

Thinking of buying a new EV at some point for my wife. That will probably be our last car.

First car: 400,000 Nissan March. Wife used it mainly, wrecked the engine with overheating because I failed to keep up with oil changes (apparently)
Second car: 1,800,000 Vezel hybrid. Bought second-hand, driving this myself today, very happy with it. Great mileage for the size, special order full leather seats, seat heating, big enough to sleep in.
Third car: 90,000 Nissan March my wife bought from her previous boss. We got rid of this one later because we moved to the city again and didn't need a second car.
Fourth car: 500,000 Honda kei (cannot for the life of me remember the brand). Bought this because even though we live in the city, my wife got into nursing school, and the school is far away without good public transport access. Should have kept the Nissan!

I don't think I will ever buy a new car. For me they are, and always will be, a method of transportation, and the second-hand market in Japan is just too good to warrant buying new. I might splurge on a Lexus when the Vezel eventually isn't worth the upkeep anymore, but I don't expect that to be for another 10 years.

My first vehicle was a used '05 Ford Ranger pickup truck that I bought for $7k. It served me well but I had to get rid of it before I came to Japan. Now I just use the trains.

Speaking of EVs, lately I've been secretly fantasizing about buying a Sanyo Homes "ZEH + V2H" house when I retire, which stands for "Zero Emissions Home" with "Vehicle to Home" connectivity. It's strong steel framed construction with good insulation, a 4.5kW solar power system on the roof, and a module that connects to a Nissan Leaf for fast charging. The car's massive battery can also be used as a backup power supply to run the entire home at night and on cloudy days when solar is unavailable.

The idea of buying a cheap plot of land in the countryside and living off the grid really appeals to me! Since I probably would only use the car for weekly trips to the supermarket and the occasional road trip, I think using it primarily as a home backup power supply would be very doable.

I wonder if anyone knows of similar companies in Japan that build high quality ZEH+V2H homes like this? I was so impressed by Sanyo Homes that I added 100 shares of their (very cheap) stock to my NISA account. I'm betting that this technology will be a lot more affordable and widespread by the time I retire in 20 years.

Is this cost supposed to include or exclude taxes/shaken required at the time of purchase?
At the low end that can make a big difference whether it's above or below the 500,000yen mark.

We bought a used Honda Freed 4 years for about ¥1.5m for us and the 2 kids. We can use it for road trips and it even has a TV for the back side, it's everything we wanted.

Now that I know better about finances and our car usage, it might actually make more sense to have a small city car (possibly even K-type car) and rent an even bigger car (Serena size) for road trips. But as long as this car works well, I don't really see a reason to do it. Maybe in 3-4 years, when the older goes to college too.

First Car I bough was Toyota Passo 57K on the clock from Big Motor which was a bit of Dud, had to change the oil every 3 months as was leaking oil.
Bought a 6 year old Honda Fit Hybrid last year with 16K on the clock, and 5 year parts warranty for 1 Million Yen from Honda Dealer and pretty happy with it