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First up, I don't like cars, I know nothing of them and dislike spending money on them. For this reason I sold my last one 5 years ago and haven't regretted this for 1 moment. Mrs lunge has a similar attitude but the nature and location of her job means she needs one, currently a 10 yer old, very basic spec Nissan Micrca. It's fine, it works but it's starting to show it's age, it's got a few rattles and it's a bit of a heap. Someone mechanically minded could likely keep it going indefinitely, I'm not that man.
So we want a new one.
2 or 3 years old that we can keep for 7 or 8 on top.
Small, Mirca size is fine, a touch bigger is better.
Basic spec, as long as it has AC and a Bluetooth stereo then we have every box ticked.
Reliable long term.
Reasonable economy, she does 120 miles per week ish.
Can you give me a few ideas to research? I got hugely overwhelmed when I started earlier today.
Sounds like you want to stick with the Japanese small cars -
- Nissan Micra
- Toyota Yaris
- Honda Jazz
All have a good reputation for reliability whilst not being the most exciting models on the market (from a visual or driving perspective).
VW Up or VAG stable mate with 90bhp engine. Small, but the engine will make the 20ish miles a day more relaxing.
Hyundai i10/i20, or the kia equivalents.
Japanese/korean cars are generally more reliable.
Fords maybe slightly less so, but to balance that parts are generally cheaper.
Avoid anything french, unless it comes in a bottle of course 😂😂
Yaris or Fabia would be on my list.
Wife’s pal has a skoda citigo, (VW Up wwith a different badge).
Feels solid enough. She says it’s needed nothing in 2 years apart from petrol and servicing.
Go electric and get a Nissan Leaf - you're already happy with a Nissan and Leaf can be had quite cheap. You'd no longer need to buy fuel, tax, oil, anything. The only thing that really needs serviced are the brakes.
There are lots of examples out there for about £12.5k with no lease on the battery. You'll save over £1000 a year on fuel, tax and servicing. The longer you keep it the more it pays for itself. A petrol/fuel car won't do that.
General example of a 30kwh version with an owned battery
We run a fleet of Panda 4x4 at work. They are cracking little cars and now come with petrol rather than Diesel engines.
I think Micras got smaller whereas the other small cars got larger. There now seems to be two sizes of small car e.g. VW Polos got larger so they introduced the Up which is properly small.
Jazzes are a decent size for an everyday car.
The wife of a colleague I liftshare with had similar requirements a couple of years ago.
Replacing an ageing Micra, didn't want too many gadget (probably only A/C) and didn't want anything bigger than the Micra.
She ended up getting a very good deal on a Suzuki Celerio.
Now, it's a cheap & basic car. Getting into it, feels like getting into a small car from the early nineties. But, it does the job & she is very pleased with it. The build is fine, it just feels very light, the doors don't close with a thunk & the plastics inside are hard & scratchy. Does any of that matter; probably not.
If you want something a bit 'funkier' there is always the Suzuki Ignis?
There's also the Kia Picanto or the Hyundai i10?
Our neighbour has a Fiat 500 that she loves, but I would be worried about long-term reliability (especially coming from a Micra) and build quality isn't great.
I too would go Japanese/Asian. i20, Jazz, Yaris or Micra
Too many VW issues, and I don't think the premium the often command is worth it.
How about a Toyota Auris or Mazda 3? Dull as ditch-water for many, but totally competent and reliable, a smidge bigger but less than many of the really small things as they are bought quickly by new drivers.
Suzuki Swift.
What's your budget?
If it were me I'd get a Fiesta just for the electric windscreen (correct me if I am wrong and there are other small cars with them).
We are getting about due to replace our 13.5 yr old Mazda 3 and I want a Fiesta, my wife likes the Fiat 500. Unfortunately it is me that drives it 90% of the time.
We had the faster of the two types of Up when they first came out and I found it hard work holding 70 on motorways. It was great in every other respect, but that was enough for me to get rid of it after about 2 years
We had a similar thought a couple of weeks back. Our 13 year old BMW 3 series estate was starting to smell a bit warm meaning it broke the first rule of cars - we couldn't feel certain about reaching our destination - and a big service was due.
Having had no previous thoughts and having done no research we (just to "get our eyes in") spent a couple of hours looking at 2nd hand car showrooms, which felt grim, but then popped up to the big Arnold Clark superstore up the road. With a cynical attitude to them firmly fixed.
Anyhoo, 90 minutes later, Mrs BigJohn had seen a 69 plate Golf she liked, we got a sensible price which included a part exchange on the BMW which WBAC had quoted £420 for, and we picked it up next day.
I never thought I'd buy a car that way but it took half a rainy Sunday and none of the weeks of agonising and pissing about I'd imagined.