We found an ingenious alternative to buying a bigger car, which will save usthousands of dollars. Our six year old Hyundai Lantra is considered amedium-sized car (2.5litre engine). Its cabin space is fine but the boot is quite small. It has always suited us for running around the city, especially given the fuel economy and ease of parking.
We have a two year old child and another on the way. Family members kepturging us to buy a bigger car, seeing how cramped it was when we packed for long-distance visits to them. Our family lives 600km away and we usually visit them three times a year. To upgrade our car just for those three visits would be a very expensive exercise, but with the new baby coming some more room was definitely in order.
After doing some calculations we found that a box trailer was the perfect solution! Even spending a bit extra and getting a smaller/lighter trailer witha water tight cover, we're still better off than if we buy a bigger car.Trailer registration is $40 per year. A decent trailer and cover can be bought second hand for around $500. If it needs new tyres they'll cost around $200 for the pair. Over five years this comes to $180 per year. Trailer hire would cost us around $270 per year to cover our three trips. The Hyundai already hada towbar, and the trailer increases its fuel consumption by about a third, orone extra tank on each of these family trips.For a bigger car, based on the models we checked out thoroughly, we would belooking at a changeover cost of about $8,000 - or $1,600 per year over fiveyears. That's before any other on-road or unforeseen costs, and not countingthe permanent increase in fuel consumption!
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