Just wondering what are the pros and cons of buying a used 'nz new' car as apposed to buying a fresh import of a used Japanese car? My partner and I plan to buy a used car around the 15-20k range when we arrive in Auckland then drive it down to Nelson (we figured Auckland has the best range plus we'll be able visit relies and see some of the North Island on the way).

My concern is if you buy an import car that there aren't that many of or is considered as a 'luxury' model will you be paying a huge premium on servicing and parts? For example the cars we are looking at are the 02-04 VW Passat/Audi A4 or Lexus ES300, all of these except the lexus seem to be selling in reasonably large quantities so I'd imagine parts shouldn't be too much more expensive than say a Subaru Legacy, or would they because of the brand?

I understand almost every car in NZ is an import so essentially there isn't a difference, its just that I am wondering whether if the models sold new in NZ are cheaper to run than equivalent import models?

Also I noticed a few of them give a price + on roads, does this mean you have to register the car yourself or does the dealer do this for you and how long does this take as we will only have 3 days or so to buy a car and drive south.

I realise this is a lot of questions and I'd imagine some (or all!) may have already been answered elsewhere but I have done a search of topics and didn't find the answers myself.

Cheers

Tim