Looking for a small auto car for the wife, looking at Fiat panda, Peugeot 108, Toyota aygo etc .... anything else worth considering or avoiding ??
ball park figure between 5 and 6.5 k , 13 14 15 plate
cheers in advance
Toyota.. crazy reliability..
Hyundai i10, Aygo, Smart fourtwo, Ford Ka, old shape Micra, Nissan Versa
Had an auto Panda, admittedly a while ago now (was a 2005ish model I think) but the gearbox was bloody awful: jerky and unpredictable, randomly chucked you into 2nd at 30+mph making you boing all over the road, or refused to shift down so you were stuck chugging along at low revs for no reason. Rubbish, avoid.
Would probably go for Toyota personally, pretty bombproof, not exciting but just keep on going.
The Toyota Aygo, Peugeot 108 and Citroen C1 are the same car, just rebranded.
Wife has a 2000 Yaris, can agree on them being reliable. One exhaust manifold, a bonnet catch and a spring in the last four years, total bill £150ish.
Ex gf had an Aygo, biggest pile of dung I've ever been in, that was auto too. Very noisy and the auto box was terrible but it was also extremely uncomfortable, mainly due to crap seats (both sides are the same, rather than left/right specific as in most cars, cheaper but not good on the bum! If you have a test drive go for at least an hour, not just once round the block, and you'll see what I mean) Also not the usual Toyota build quality (she had two actually, god knows why she got another, they were both really shoddy, but she crashed the first), go for the Yaris, a 2000 one is a vastly superior car to a 2012 Aygo, a newer one should be even better.
Sister has a 2litre diesel 206 which is a hoot to drive, not tried the auto one though, and has so far (2006, she's had it since about 2011) been very reliable.
Or if after dull but reliable, Honda Jazz. Wife's aunt had one and it was great until she crashed it.
I used to take the mick out of the Honda Jazz but a friend has one of the newer models and they are actually a great little car, more space in them than you’d expect, great for city driving but good on motorway too. Looks ok too now, amazing quality and doesn’t feel Japanese either.
Should be loads of autos available too. It’d be my choice, fold seats down and you can get bikes in surprisingly easily.
The Aygo/108/C1 are noisy, it’s that tiny little engine, (although Smart fourtwo’s have tiddily little engines they don’t make as much noise, better soundproofing in a more expensive car, I guess). The auto ‘box in the Aygo, etc is pretty shonky if left to its own devices, but if you select manual and use the paddles it can be a bit of a hoot to drive, or at least that’s what I found when finding I had to pick one up. As a small, short-distance town car they’re ok. Toyota also do the iQ, which is quirky as far as the styling’s concerned, it’s a sort of four-seat Smart, which in reality a 2+2, ‘cos you won’t get anyone much bigger than a 6yo in the back.
IME Aygo/C1/108 is very small. Picanto/i10 has a bit more passenger room
We need pics of wife, to she if gaining her in exchange for a small auto car worth £5-6k is a good deal. 😉