Second car?

Hey fellas, after some real world, honest feedback on if I should look into a second car or not.

My patrol is a 2006 4.2 wagon. I paid 21k for it two years ago (a steal, I know), it’s insured for 35k and I think I’d get about 30k for it.

I bought it at 220000k and I’m at 270000 now, so that’s 50000 in two years.

I’m back in melb full time now and using it as my daily, initially when I was living in the NT I had a work car.

I love the car but it’s a pain driving it and parking down here and hate putting Ks on it.
I don’t plan on ever selling it, but I’m not sure if it’s worth spending money on a second car.

If I did buy a second car, it’d probably be a falcon for no more than $3k. But then there’s rego and insurance on top. It would mean that the patrol would only be doing maybe 5000ks a year though.
Fuel isn’t an issue as I have a fuel card.
Iv just bought my first house so money is on my mind but the job site I’m on at the moment is a 90k return trip each day and it does hurt putting ks on the old girl.

What are your thoughts? How much depreciation will I put on the patrol if I keep driving it? Not that il ever sell it but yeah still a crappy feeling.


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If it were me, and when I was in that situation (only difference being I didn't have a fuel card) I bought a $1000 Corolla. It was more to keep the kms off the Patrol than anything else. But the best part was I could take my time with repairs as I did not need it to get me to work every day, this saved me thousands in labour and paid for the Corolla and the costs that went with it.

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If you buy a Falcon, get the model before they downsized the fluid pump in the auto. Been told it was downgraded in the AU, but do a bit of research. Can't beat Corollas, especially the 2004 and similar. They used a timing chain instead of the dreaded timing belt. We bought mudnutette a 2004, did a complete service and have kept on top regular servicing.
It has proved to be bullet proof.

Thanks for the replies so far.
The reason i was thinking falcon was because iv always had them before the patrol. Au was the best model, dads has 450000 and still going. Easy enough to gets parts if it brakes down.
I like the idea of being able to take my time when doing jobs on the patrol too without having to rush it!


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The missus has a 2007 focus she bought for $2500 with 140,000kms ...it's a good little runabout vehicle, has a timing chain instead of a belt. Oil filter location is very easy to access. Visibility for left-hand shoulder checks prior to lane changes not great.

Got a magna for next to nothing and the money I save on fuel over the year well and truely covers the extra rego and insurance.. But I don't have a fuel card either. Works out to 600km a fn I'm not putting on the patrol too.

Like Winnie mentioned.. You can take your time and enjoy doing bits and pieces to the patrol if you've got another daily. Take on the bigger jobs and not get stuck when you need to wait for parts. Plus, if your daily breaks you have the patrol to drive while you're fixing that. Couldn't imagine not having it now.

Agree with all great blokes kind advice above DP mate, a 2006 TD42Ti is Golden IMHO!
In regards annual insurance potentially outweighing other well advised savings, do make sure my friend that you don’t barstardise it too much rendering it needing custom expensive ++++ mods genuine payable insurance etc....




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Thanks fellas!


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We gave the wife's car away when we headed off into the blue yonder back in June '18. It was a little mitsubishi mirage two door hatchback. Bought it with 80K on it & ran it without any major issue for 6 or 7 years mostly on roads which would normally wreck cheap Japanese cars. It's light weight may have had something to do with how well it handled dirt roads. Not fast, but handled really well due to it's Lancer front end. A friend of a friends car had just karked it so we gave it to her rather than stuff around trying to sell a car that we would have got a grand or less for, & she got a reliable means of transport. When we get home it'll make sense to have a cheap 2nd car to get around in again to 'save' adding mileage to the Patrol, but as yet we are not sure how long we'd have to be staying at home for to make the cost of 2 regos & insurance worthwhile.

I’m used to sitting up high. To me it is strange driving a sedan, feels as though my bum is dragging on the ground, and I am looking up at yaris drivers. Look at a mazda tribute. Ugly, weird column shift auto, lots of goodies, cheap and reliable!
And almost proper 4x4....