aventis or lancer

john1963

trying to pick between these two cars. i know avensis is due to change in 2009 but its a great car. lancer is brand new model and really high spec. the toyota is about 3 grand more any opinions anyone?

Green Hornet

Hmmm. The new Lancer does look like a nice car but they tend to depreciate a little more than say Toyota, Honda or VW.

IMO the Avensis is very bland though, although they are doubtless excellent cars. No personality at all but will keep going forever.

What about the 1.8 Civic saloon. Very, very well equipped and stylish with 140 BHP - ca. 27K.

I must say that the new Lancer does look really well.

colm_mcm

the Avensis should still be worth the 3k more, even in 4 years time when it's an old model

mickdw

Im driving an avensis hire car (new) for the last week. God they are poor cars. it can just about cope with the 1600 cc engine when driven hard. plasticy dash too. wouldnt buy one for half its price.

Zonda999

colm_mcm wrote: »

the Avensis should still be worth the 3k more, even in 4 years time when it's an old model

Not so sure about that.Those cars are so insanely common that they will be pretty hard to sell down the line.Another thing, they dont appeal to a wide market either.Only to the people who want a boring, thirsty, anonomous family car

JHMEG

The Avensis might cost more because it's in a bigger size class than the Lancer? The Lancer strikes me as more equivalent to the Corolla.

colm_mcm

Zonda999 wrote: »

Not so sure about that.Those cars are so insanely common that they will be pretty hard to sell down the line.Another thing, they dont appeal to a wide market either.Only to the people who want a boring, thirsty, anonomous family car

Put one next to a Lancer, and it's going to appeal to a much wider market, just look at the sales figures. Lancers have never sold well. The Lancer isn't a competitor to the Avensis, it's a Corolla rival. Although it is a good car, it will never hold its value like a Golf, Corolla or even a Focus.

Compare the used prices of a 05 Avensis and a 05 Lancer, then look at 03 old or new model Avensis vs 03 Lancer
then 01 vs 01.

Then try and argue that the Lancer is a better financial prospect than an Avensis. The Carina, Carina II, Carina E, Avensis 1 and Avensis 2 have always sold large numbers in Ireland. Despite this they have always held strong second hand values here.

JHMEG

colm_mcm wrote: »

The Carina, Carina II, Carina E, Avensis 1 and Avensis 2 have always sold large numbers in Ireland. Despite this they have always held strong second hand values here.

Corolla holds its value better. I found when looking for a Corolla for the brother that once you went back x number of years (eg 6), that the Carina/Avensis was cheaper than a same age Corolla.

Avensis 2 may turn out to be different, but all the others didn't hold their value that well.

colm_mcm

JHMEG wrote: »

Corolla holds its value better. I found when looking for a Corolla for the brother that once you went back x number of years (eg 6), that the Carina/Avensis was cheaper than a same age Corolla.

Avensis 2 may turn out to be different, but all the others didn't hold their value that well.

That only applies at the moment when you're going back to 6/7 year old models. you'll find Yaris's making as much as Corollas once they hit the €4/5k mark.
Of course, the more you spend, the more you stand to lose when the cars get very old.

The Avensis will still lose less money than the Lancer though, unless you keep the Avensis till it's worth €4/5k and the Lancer is worth 1/2k which will be a long time.

bazz26

Zonda999 wrote: »

Those cars are so insanely common that they will be pretty hard to sell down the line.

Zonda999 wrote: »

Another thing, they dont appeal to a wide market either.

Aren't you contradicting yourself there? Do you have any facts to back this up as I as a former owner of a couple of them have never had any problems trading them and always got decent money for them too. Alot better than some of the crap euro boxes I've owned.

Zonda999 wrote: »

Only to the people who want a boring, thirsty, anonomous family car

Personal experience or just repeating what you read somewhere else? Most cars in this class fall into that catagory.

JHMEG

For the craic. A quick look on Carzone.. for €6k I could get a 2002 Avensis 1 or also I could get a 2002 Corolla, but not a 2003 for the money.

I wouldn't consider 2002 to be too old, and neither model is the current model.

Quick look for what sort of Lancer I could get for the same money. An awful lot are modified etc, so it's hard to tell. The only one I can find is a 1.4 1999 saloon, asking price is a completely unrealistic €7k.

Green Hornet

A good point made above is the fact that the Avensis, boring and plastic as they are, sold a lot of cars in Ireland. I think that when the new model comes out the resale value of the current model will drop dramatically due to the availability of second hand ones on the market. I wonder will the new one be much different than the current one:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:.

Somehow doubt it. It will be a reliable car no doubt but beyond that............

E92

JHMEG wrote: »

For the craic. A quick look on Carzone.. for €6k I could get a 2002 Avensis 1 or also I could get a 2002 Corolla, but not a 2003 for the money.

I wouldn't consider 2002 to be too old, and neither model is the current model.

Quick look for what sort of Lancer I could get for the same money. An awful lot are modified etc, so it's hard to tell. The only one I can find is a 1.4 1999 saloon, asking price is a completely unrealistic €7k.

A 02 Avensis would be the old one, the one derived from a Carina, which would explain the fact it's worth €6k. Though a 02 Corolla would be the one that's been recently retired.

An Avensis will be desirable on the used car market because.....it's a Toyota. If it wasn't a Toyota it wouldn't be a desirable car at all in the eyes of the Paddy.

Surely a post July diesel Avensis would be a much better proposition, though then again, it's pretty pointless buying a new Avensis until next year when the new one comes out.

As for the Lancer, well I've never liked Mitsubishis(though I wouldn't say no to a spin in an Evo model, and the FTO V6 makes a seriously good noise:D) but I feel the whole it's Japanese therefore it's reliable thing is completely overplayed, and in any event, any JD Power survey or anything like that, Toyota(though less than before I notice), Mazda and Honda are always the top Japanese makes.

john1963

Thanks folks for various opinions. i have had mitsubishis before and they are really reliable. until the recent lancer the predecessors were dull and boring . The new model is really stylish and has great spec. The avensis is probably boring but again is reliable. a post july diesel might be an option. the new model is due in sept 09 i understand. The honda 1.8 is about 28 k so its actually more expensive than an avensis but smaller

R.O.R

There is a 2.0d coming in the Lancer post July, along with a 1.8 petrol. For the cost of them nothing else comes close to the specification (currently), and it does seem larger than the outgoing model - probably similar in size to an Octavia now.

As mentioned above, it won't hold it's value anything like an Avensis though.

pburns

AFAIK the Lancer doesn't come with any form of ESC (Electronic stability Control) which with all the hand-wringing about safety these days is a big omission.

The Toyota's supposed advantage in terms of resale should also be measured against the fact that come trade-in time the Lancer is still likely to be a current model whereas the Avensis will have been replaced. From experience I know that this can make a BIG difference to residuals.

Anyhows sometimes I think people get too caught up in resale value - but the car that tickles your fancy. Neither of these makes are going to completely fall out of bed value wise...