Australian spending around 20 grand (australian money) :)

[SpaceMonkey]

O.K, what does the whole kw thing mean? I've been browsing http://www.drive.com.au/buy/new/main.asp and looking at cars in my price range and it includes the engine power (like 2.0 and 1.8 and stuff) but it also says it has a 92kw engine.. What does that mean?

Also, if you had that amount of money for a new car, what would you get..

I might end up getting a second hand car.. I don't know... Very early in the buy process..

Any suggestions will be much appreciated.

[Oz]

kW is a power rating. Basically, the more the merrier (until you start losing traction - not really an issue on stock cars).

Tell me about what you want in a car from the following list (add your own too!) and I can suggest some cars to look at.

-Practicality
-Looks
-Speed
-Fuel Economy
-Durability
-Anonymity
-Offroad/special use (eg. towing)
-Spare parts availability
-Cheap/expensive running costs (servicing+petrol etc)

Furthermore to this, what is your age, location and normal driving style.

[Jimster]

OK, I'm not too sure what AUD$20,000 is going to buy you over there, an entry level Corolla, Pulsar or 323 I'm guessing, but thats what I hate about Australia, the cars are all like that, the roads resemble a rental car lot, Commodore Executive, Magna, Falcon XT, Pulsar LX, Corolla Ascent etc.......

I'd still reccomend you buy one of those cars, you still get plenty in the way of fuel economy, practiacility, availability of parts, basic get-up-and-go etc.

Kw as Oz explained is the power output of the engine, I like to stop at about 270Kw (Wheel Kw) when building any car, as anything else will cause either terminal oversteer (Rear wheel drive) or understeer (Front Wheel drive) on a lightly tweaked chassis (and it usually satisfies my craving enough)


My reccomendation- slightly used Mazda Astina SP20.