Right finally managed to get the other half to agree to getting a new car and have drawn up a short list any opinions/experiences would be helpful

1 – VW polo match edition1.2 70ps + a couple of options added
2 – Toyota yaris hybrid icon plus spec 1.5
3 – Audi A1 sport line 1.2t
4 – BMW 1 series es1.4
5 – Mini countryman one 1.6

All will be five door versions and brought on pcp and payed off and kept for a while afterwards wife will be mainly driving and most of our driving is in an around town so help me whittle it down a bit

If you aren’t bothered by the badge, then why not look at the skoda fabia? It uses the same platform as the polo and Audi, and are great cars. Skoda are doing some good deals on them at the moment.

5 door MINI out soon…

We tryed the 1.2 Polo – if it’s not the 1.2 tsi don’t bother – it’s so dull to drive!

Can’t give any other advice as it’s all subjective and will just be me being rude about the MINI 🙂 though if you like the look of the countryman how about a fiat 500L – with British Cycling offer/discount you can get a very good deal (think it was a couple of grand towards the deposit and a low finance rate too). The 500L Trekking actually looked alright in the showroom.

Best thing is to go drive them. We really liked the look of the polo, but it was a real disappointment to us inside and driving it. Tried a Mini Cooper SD hatch (not the countryman!) which was a great drive, but no room for anyone to sit behind me when I was driving. We’ve ordered a Fiat 500 TwinAir – big enough for us and we really liked the charicter of the engine. But what is dull for us is somebody else’s safe and dependable!

A1 no brainer

Why have you discounted the Fiesta?

Getting a PCP and then keeping is a bit odd. Buying the above will keep the initial costs down as they have strong residuals, but then you will end up paying more if you want to buy the cars.

If you are doing that, put a tiny deposit in!

Are you bothered about how a car drives? If you are then the BMW 1st, Mini 2nd, Polo last.

Other than that choose the one you like the most. IMO the Toyota is very very plastic inside.

No so much discounted the festa but you do seam to have to pay at lot to get a good spec and the wife’s not a big fan of fords as for paying off the ballon payment going to pay monthly amount and put more aside each month to pay it off at the end but it gives us the option to trade it in if we don’t like it(hope not doing loads of reseach)or it’s no longer suitable for us

Nice list apart from the Mini which looks awful and tank like (I had an original mini as a first car and I hate what they’ve done with these new extra models)

The new Yaris is very spacious for a small car, I could get my bike in front wheel off in the old model. Fabulous reliability.
Audi A1 I really like, expensive for a small car but very classy. Seem to go well, moderately sporty.
M1 I like the styling of and will be the most fun to drive with the Audi second.
Polo, surprised you’re only looking at 1.2 I would have thought for comparable budget you’d be at 1.4 money.

I’m in the market for similar sized car (used though) and will probably go Polo unless I can find a reasonably priced A1 which I am realistic as to my chances.

As an aside I rented a fiesta recently and really didn’t like it, very twitchy and skated around all over the place on wet roads.

The 1 series is in the size class above everything else there, so that’d be where my money’d be heading – assuming the 1.4 has enough poke to not be a drag. The old ES model didn’t do too well for toys though, so worth checking you’d be happy with the level of equipment

Several other cars to look at which you may think differently about once you have looked:-

Ford Fiesta(probably the best all rounder in its class)
Kia Rio/Ceed(depending on budget)
Seat Leon
Skoda Rapide

Don’t discount Skoda, they’re a lot of car for the money.

Just bought a Fabia 1.2 SE and it’s a brilliant thing. Not sporty in any way (it’s the 70PS, ie no turbo) but just gets on with the job without any fuss. Really comfortable on long journeys (good seats, well thought out interior, aircon, good stereo) and I’m getting ~45 mpg all-in, despite it only having done 1K, having F rated tyres (poor rolling resistance) and half of that’s been with a bike rack on the towbar. It gets up to 50+mpg on urban work if you avoid traffic jams.

The engine isn’t one to thrash on a B-road, granted, but I wanted to get away from that type of car anyway, I’ll get my adrenalin fix on the trails from now on!! The other plus is it’s stupidly cheap to insure, went from £600 for my old 1.25 ’05 Fiesta to £260!!

You can get a really keen deal on them at the moment, there’s a new model due later in the year. I got the car with a service pack and the interior treatment for less than the offer price. Would’ve been looking at second hand for anything else.

What on earth were you doing with the Fiesta to make the insurance £600?

Kia is a no no use to work for a Korean forklift company 🙁 and as I said above you seam to have to spend a lot to get a good spec and wife is no ford fan as far as BMW 1 series goes what’s the service bills like as this is the one thing putting us off
Haven’t ruled skoda’s out just haven’t done any research one them yet might make the list and anything by Fix It Again Tony is out of the question had a Punto and it was the biggest pile of s##t I have ever owned

If you are considering the Polo, then have a look at the Ibiza too. Same platform (as the Fabia and Audi A1 too) but you seem to get more for your money than the VW. My wife has got a 12 reg 2 litre tdi FR and it’s great.

Skoda – the new Volvo.

Buy a Volvo.

Don’t discount the Kia, or Korean in general they have come on massively in last few years
I went from a BM 1 series to a Hyundai i30
The Hyundai is far the better car (driving fun excluded) better built and Ive had no problems in over 5 years whereas the BM had several issues the dealer refused to even acknowledge (radio tuner was bobbins for one which sounds minor but on a long journey having to manually retune every 10 minutes gets pretty annoying)
Far better spec on my premium model than the upgraded SE Sport 1 series I had
BM servicing is expensive especially if you go to main dealer
Tyres (on mine at least) where also run flats, harsh ride and very, very expensive (and difficult to find places that kept them in stock)

legend
What on earth were you doing with the Fiesta to make the insurance £600?

Nothing, was bog standard!! Problem is it’s a boy racer car (ie crashed/stolen a lot) and I’m an unmarried guy living in a city. That price was with 7 years’ NCB too!! Was painful paying the premium when they valued it at £500, robbing b******s!!

1 series every day, it’s effortless to drive long distances and nippy round town. You can get a service pack, but the service intervals are intergalactic these days, mine is saying first oil service will be around 23,000 miles.

My missus has a 1 series on PCP. It replaced an A3.

She’s dead happy- PCP was way cheaper than a focus / golf / A1 and others.

But OP: why even consider PCP if you are going to keep it past the minimum period?

The Fabia might be a good car but it was styled by Stevie Wonder. It’s a bloody ugly car.
I have an A1. Mine is diesel mind but I love it. The only problem is the boot space. It’s very small. I didn’t need this otherwise I would have bought an A3.

I have a Fabia estate, hit every branch falling out the ugly tree but its a very spaceous small car.

The wife has just got rid of her Cooper S. Whilst it was fun to drive the build quality was shocking, mpg even if driving very carefully was no where bear official figures. Front space is good, layout is for show only and not ergonomics. Rear space is very limited and boot slightly bigger than most glove boxes.
Polo and Fabia are both really dull inside and not very inspiring to boot but they are well built.
The wife now had a 1 series coupe despite being an M Sport us very comfortable especially compared to the Mini but everything is an extra as they come sweet FA. Very nice cars to drive.
Don’t rule out the Fiesta in your list. Cracking cars to drive and plenty of toys too.

Pcp because it gives me the flexibility to hand it back/trade it back in if it is rubbish or no longer meets our needs

You can’t just hand it back during the running contract…. Well you could but I would assume you would be in negative equity. You need at least 50% ownership before you are entitled to your credit agreement rights.

My understanding of pcp is that after the 3 to 4year period of paying that if at the point of the ballon payment you can hand the car back so long as you haven’t exceeded the agreed mileage or damaged the car if you want to or trade it in and start again or pay it off

mine is saying first oil service will be around 23,000 miles.

No oil will last that long.

We’ve got the Fabia 1.2Tsi 105ps – cracking little car. Polos do feel a bit more solid (get them occasionally as hire cars for work) but value for money the Skoda won for us.