Hallo all,

I live and work in your wonderful country for the past 3 years living in the center of Trondheim. Objectively, I absolutely do not need a car thanks to almost everything being at walking distance and the great public transport.

Though, I am thinking of having the option to use a car in the weekends for trips and especially for starting again scuba, which involves heavy gear and travel (edit: Bilkollectiv is indeed a good option, but I would like to avoid carrying 90kg+ of gear in 2 blocks after every dive, requiring 2 trips).

Few info:

  • If I get a car it will be used only for fun activities related to scuba or trips (absolute maximum 3 times a week), and rarely for anything else (helping friends move out/etc)
  • I already have a drive license recognized in Norway and experience with driving (except snow)
  • I have a total disposable income per year of around 150K to 250K NOK, expected to increase the years to come. I save them but I would not mind spending some for something that will behave for a bit (3+ years).
  • I am aware of finn.no and I am checking it regularly.
  • I have no connections with any local mechanics yet and I have no idea how to start and find one. This can be very tricky in my homecountry… with trusted mechanics being rare, but my assumption is that this is not how it goes here (as anything else).
  • I have the experience of a 5 year old boy living in a jungle when it comes to car maintenance, engineering problems, and knowing about cars in general (other than driving). I see cars just as tools that I don't nerd about.
  • I absolutely do not care about the value of the car in X years. I ideally get a car that will die (enough years from now on my hands), or that I will donate it when/if I decide to get a better car.
  • I am looking for second hand cars that will last with minimal problems, let's say at least 3-4 years, and for now, unfortunately, I am far from a handyman.
  • Ideally, I would like to go for gas instead of electric, given how convenient it is with charging etc (not sure what's the situation of chargers in the neighborhood, I got none at my place). I am open changing my opinions if solid reasons are provided.
  • I plan to park it on the street with a residential area fee (around 700NOK/month which is not too bad)
  • I have no idea about taxes I may have to pay for second hand cars for gas/electric.
  • I am not aware of other costs, the expected cost for insurances, average expected cost for repairs annually, other than gas.
  • I have try to ask the relatively few people that have cars, but I really see extremely diverse opinions on whether it's expensive or not, even with people with similar salaries, and its tough to get into details without looking a bit invasive.
  • Most people push me towards electric but it seems like an uber overkill for a good one, and for the minimal use I need. The main reason they promote is store of value (which I don't care).
  • I want to stay away from loans as much as possible, and I prefer to buy within my means. A not fancy 60K NOK car that behaves for 3 years or more, carrying my tanks and friends etc in trips seems like a dream scenario.
  • I travel a lot and it's likely that 3-4 times per year, my car might be parked by itself without anybody moving it (unless emphasized in the responses) for 2-3 weeks.

If you have ANY info that you see relevant, I will appreciate sharing, including more or less expected expenses for a car as described, things to look for (milage, price, year), recommendations on specific cars/models that much this description, any other suggestions, and in general any tip a newbie (soon-to-be car owner ?), lost as my, should know.

Of course feel free to share any info that may help other people reading this thread, even if it may not match exactly my query.

P/S: There are also other past post on this subject, but nothing seemed to fit my case, while also regulations/taxes etc may have been updated the past 3 years or so.

by mariosx12

8 comments

  1. 60K seems low for something that will run for 3-4 with few problems.

  2. Have you checked car sharing? Not sure if it is available in Trondheim, but if you only need a car now and then, trying out car sharing may be an option. A quick google found Trondheim Bilkollektiv, but there may be others as well.

  3. One advice I can give is to use a car sharing company / app. Here in Bergen I used dele.no, it is great.
    I beleive in Trondheim you have a similar option with https://trondheim-bilkollektiv.no/
    Also, there is Hyre or Getaround .

    Do your research and check those. For me they are better options if you only need a car now and then.

  4. If you must have a car, get a sub 200.000 km pizza car, (peugeot partner, ford courier type of car), and treat it as if it was your first born. Service every year, and follow the maintenance schedule.

    For 50.000 NOK, it MIGHT last you the time you want it to, but be prepared to learn about cars.

  5. If you find an old Yaris, eg. 2002-2006, with not too much rust you can get them for 20-50k, obviously depending on mileage and model. They are generally really good cars known to last long. At least for the diesel options the engine is also very durable. Either you buy something old, and expect to have some repair costs through its lifetime, or you have to go with something almost new. Cars are complicated, and things break all the time.
    When you buy you want to pay attention to the date of the last Eu-kontroll. It has to go through an approval every two years.
    Price of insurance (including road tax) you can get from your insurance company. If it’s your first car be prepared to pay. Insurance companies operate with a bonus system and generally give you 10% extra bonus per damage free year. Might be worth to shop around and see if any are willing to give you a higher starting bonus. The type of car, your age and gender and the planned number of kilometres per year will influence insurance price. A boring car is generally cheaper to insure than something your typical daredevil would want to drive.
    Registration will most of the time cost about 1800 as a one time fee.
    Remember to get a chip for toll roads, to avoid paying full price.

  6. I’d go with a car share, and some solution like a cart with wheels to carry the equipment. Do you dive in winter?

    I was in a similar situation, got an automatic 2007 crv. But I got a bit unlucky and had to sell for scrapes after 1.5 years so having an expert look at it (i think NAF has such service) is definitely worth it. People say Japanese cars, especially honda and toyota, are quite reliable.

    Gotchas:
    Insurance + tax cost like 600 per month.
    Need to change tires twice a year, another 2-3k
    Oil service
    Brakes
    Need to check street signs for cleaning, road work, snow clean or they tow the car and you pay a lot to get it back
    Finding empty parking space is pain in the butt in Oslo
    ….

    Even if you don’t use it, it’d easilit cost 2-3k per month. And you’d be driving an old car.

  7. Though they’re not my favorite car brand, the ones that will both last, be fairly simple and easy to fix (less expensive) and somewhat comfortable would be a vag product (Audi, Skoda, Volkswagen). As long as they’re not rusted apart, they tend to be fairly decent running cars. Some issues when replacing front control arms if it’s equipped with multilink suspension. And the more advanced it is, the bigger the issue, such as non halogen headlights (led, xenon), automatic transmission (smaller engines have sometimes worse transmissions, and transmission controller issues). Parts are often very cheap and easy to source from multiple vendors.

    Asian cars tend to rust an insane amount, to the point where suspension parts can be extremely tough to remove, and often need serious body repair after 10 years.

    French cars (only worked on older french cars, might have changed) tend to have some stupid patends and requirements for removal of simple parts, electrical issues, older tend to be hard to get parts for.

    American cars are often simple to fix, but use a lot of fuel, and parts often need to be sourced from America so there’s a longer wait time and many mechanics will charge extra.

    Older Mercedes and BMW are fairly inexpensive to get parts for, even though the internet says otherwise, but speciality parts and knowledge are getting harder to find, more modern ones have stupid amount of computers that fail and will be costly. Intermitten age (10-20 y.o.) are fairly easy to fix, doesn’t cost too much for parts.

    I’d always recommend VAG products, while staying away from them myself, don’t find them to be the kind of fun I like, just make sure there’s not a significant amount of rust around the wheel arches and rocker panel (the part under the doors). You’ll find them as AWD(quattro) and front wheel drive.

  8. Tangential to your question, I am in the same boat (so to speak haha) with scuba gear. I got one of those heavy duty collapsible garden wagons. It fits in the bod in my flat when not in use and is a lifesaver getting to and from the carshare car when needed. I try to dive 1-2 times per week, so this has been an absolutely critical solution.

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