Sorry Ham1748, missed your question.
Depends a lot on your Dad's financial circumstances
I'm assuming your Dad has enough money to buy and run a near new car, but there is still a big range of how much money, and whether or not he cares what he drives, i.e. is a car enthusiast, and what other commitments he has, eg. family, school fees, mortgage, and so on...
I think its fair to say a well chosen new base model car, eg. Kia Cerato, will cost less and look after its owner a lot better than for example an older performance car, eg. a low mileage VE SS for the same money, so I look at it this way for new cars...
- Kia Cerato has 7 year warranty and only costs around $22k for a base model auto and so at 15,000 kms per year will possibly cost around $7500 per year to 'own' and do everything he needs, I know because my brother's fiance has one and its been great! She could sell it after 5 years with 2 years warranty remaining. A lot of carmakers could probably achieve similar if they just increased all the lubricant capacities by 50 to 100 % so nothing wore out...
- A Mazda SP 25 will likely cost around $9000 per year and be a little better looking and faster and feel like more like quality, but still only about 25 % along the pathway from Cerato to 911.
- A ZB RS might cost up to $10,000 per year to 'own', assuming he buy's a low mileage sedan with balance of 5 year warranty for about $28500 and keeps it it for at least 4 years and sells it for at least $8500 to him, or get a wagon for around $30k and do similar. MUST MUST MUST MUST MUST have at least 4 years left of five year warranty (otherwise Korean Kars start to look a lot more attractive, and also it's a new model, so time for faults to appear, although they might not...)! If he gets a ZB I'd strongly suggest a silver RS wagon as the bang/buck intercept.
- A ZB RS-V is a very very very nice car for the money, but I think it COULD cost up to $11.5 per year as it is a little dearer to buy and uses a little more fuel and the resale may not be much more than an RS. However I bought it accepting that it MAY cost me up to this amount based on $5k depreciation per year, $1500 rego and insurance, $500 servicing and tyres, and up to $4000 fuel and other bits and pieces if needed depending on prices. They are however very cheap at $32 to $34k for demos and have heaps of good features. Your Dad probably remembers when HWP used VL Turbos that did 0-100 in about 8s - V6 ZBs reportedly do it in about 6.5 with every comfort and convenience feature you could think of. It's the best deal I could think of for the money, obviously.
So if we accept that all cars are costs rather than assets, the question is how much your Dad has to spend, and how much he likes cars.
I don't know how old he is or how much money he has to spend each year but:
- If he's retired and renting and total income is around $30k beware of buying anything new or expensive
- If as above but $40k perhaps new Cerato
- If as above but $50k probably RS wagon
- If as above but > $60k then RSV probably reasonale
Can probably use these same figures if still working too...
Note - I'm not an accountant - have done my best to estimate as per above - and how much your Dad should spend depends on how much spare money he has at present, and how much he likes cars, since it is all SPENT money, same as renting a house, or going to see a movie. Don't want to encourage you or our Dad to spend too much if not needed
You could look at RACV or RACQ new car running costs also, but subtract 10 to 15 % as he would probably buy demo rather than new, as do most people.