Q&A Monday: i30 Fastback N + salary sacrifice trap | Auto Expert John Cadogan

Save thousands off any new car (Australia-only): https://autoexpert.com.au/contact "Hi What car would you go for out off tuscon high rider 2017 4000 ks or range rover evoque 2013 with 45000ks both around $40,000 thanks." - Anthony Tucson every time. Land Rover is a disaster. The product is a disaster, and the brand is a disaster. It’s everything we love about Volkswagen, minus the outright criminal conspiracy. The green oval does poor reliability and shit service like an extreme sport. They’re yet to understand the value of looking after their customers. "My wife has just come home and found that the radio on our 2011 Mazda 3 neo is not turning off even when the ignition is completely off. I would like to hit Mazda up for this. Do you think this should be covered under the consumer law act? I am asking as I really do not want to go into my local dealer and looking like an arse. Do you think I am being unreasonable in wanting this fixed given the age of the car?" - Leigh It’s an eight-year-old car with a comparatively minor autoelectrical defect - I don’t really think this is what consumer law is for, and Mazda could easily win, if push comes to shove, simply on the premise that a fault such as this is kinda normal in a car this old. You could take it to the dealer and ask nicely. They might fix it free. But you’ll probably pay over the odds for the repair if they decline to repair it free. "I noticed that in your Lemon list Toyota was not mentioned (knowing already that they are a great vehicle). What suprised my even more is that they didn’t make you "best car list" !! What I did notice in the best car list was a repetitive approach to Kia, Hyundai and Mazda. Can you explain to me why Toyota has missed out." - Murray, Toyota is the king of mediocrity - generally offering the most boring but reliable cars on the road, definitely not great value (take Landcruiser), terrible specifications (look at towing with a Hilux Rugged X) and no Apple CarPlay or Android Auto basically across the range. So: the Big T is commercially successful but bleeds market share every year here in the Convict Paradise, so it is not on the lemon list and not on the best cars list. "Is the Hyundai i30 N Fastback really as good as the hype?" - Andy Yeah. Seriously. One of my absolute favourite driver’s cars. It’s the three Fs: fast, fun, ‘fordable. And dead sexy - let’s not forget that. Very Mercedes-Benz CLA Coupe at the rear - only, not gay like the CLA. And the automated rev matching - just brilliant. Brilliantly executed. Literally, superhuman. I’m gunna hate giving it back. The next step up is, like, BMW M140i - 50 per cent more cash, faster, but not sure it’s going to be objectively more fun, so there’s that. This is the hot hatch you buy to please yourself. And the warranty includes track days. Question about the Landcruiser 200 GXL relating to the kerb weight or ATM. Does the KW specified by Toyota include the 139 litres of diesel, with a weight of about 130kgs? Or is the fuel capacity included in the 650kg payload? - Paul You’d have to ask Toyota for a definitive response, but it seems very likely this is so. Tare weight equals empty weight of the vehicle with 10 litres of fuel on board. Kerb weight is pretty universally tare weight plus a full tank of fuel. Just checking the numbers: GXL tare is 2630kg. Kerb weight is 2740kg. The fuel tank holds 138 litres of diesel. So we need the weight of 138 litres minus the 10 litres already included in the tare weight, and diesel weighs about 830 grams per litre. So that’s about 107kg. So tare weight 2630 plus 107 is 2737, and Toyota’s spec for the kerb weight is 2740. No need to launch the first strike over three kilos. It all adds up, close enough. "Mercedes X-Class 350d: We have already brought the car, had 1,600ks on clock. Am i still able to salary sacrifice, my wife does her car." - David Novated leasing - such a minefield. You cannot own the car you’re salary sacrificing. The leasing company needs to own it so that you can lease it from them. (That’s why it’s called a novated lease.) Nor can you have any equity in the car. That’s how this works. So, no, you can’t really do that. I guess, hypothetically, you could sell it to a leasing company and salary sacrifice it back, but you’d take such a bath on the depreciation at this point that it’s probably not worth doing, and also, one of the big advantages of novated leasing on new cars is getting it GST-free, and you’ve already paid GST on that car. Something to remember for next time, I think.