What car for 10k

So, the lady in my life is looking at downsizing her car, looking for something ~2017 or newer, less than 50k, manual (her eldest to learn to drive in), need to chuck her road bike in the back

these are her requirements, not my recommendations as such

these are all much newer cars than i’m good with, and many have stupid little bombs of engines, like 1 to 1.2 litre engines

a few 1.5ish diesels , although for her a petrol would be better, i cant help feel a lazier diesel would be better, what we’ve looked at:

Seat Arona, she liked it, i thought it was super basic for the money, bike takes up all of the rear space (she ideally needs one seat in the back free), one of those stupid little engines

Vauxhall Grandland … see engine comments

Peugeot 5008, higher milage example, looked battered outside, rest out of budget

Mazda cx-5, loved it, but higher mileage, rest out of budget

going to look at a Renault Kadgar ? 1.5dci tomorrow, although i feel better about the engine, its the electrics, and kashqai reputation (same platform) that bothers me

She’s started looking at Hyundai’s online, they seem like a good target

If it were me, i’d up the age/mileage and go looking for well maintained cars.. but i also do not want to advise her on something that could then go wrong

Downsizing and the need to chuck a road bike in the back don’t equate! 🙂

What is she currently driving?

oh, she’s got a nearly new Skoda Kodiak, so shes looking to drop down to mid size car/SUV and get a bit of cash back

Nissan Leaf.

If you are going to use it to teach a kid to drive, look at the insurance once the kid passes their test

You can get a roadbike in an Up!

Not much else alongside it mind you..

bike takes up all of the rear space (she ideally needs one seat in the back free)

Look at proper estate cars, not SUV’s… Far more practical in the rear world, especially for carrying bikes.

one of those stupid little engines

Ignore what you think you know about engine outputs historically… Modern small capacity turbo engines in cars are not only plenty torquey enough but generally quite a bit more frugal than their larger capacity counterparts.

a few 1.5ish diesels , although for her a petrol would be better, i cant help feel a lazier diesel would be better

Diesel definitely not better these days unless you have a hell of a commute… I’d say 25k annual mileage and under, stick with petrol still as a general rule.

manual (her eldest to learn to drive in)

You keep saying BIGGER engines though!!! He’s not going to get insured to drive anything above about 1L capacity to be honest, not unless she’s willing to shell out a fortune on insurance… I’d be more tempted to start looking at petrol hybrids myself, which will be automatic of course…

However… If it must be manual… Then take a look at the Seat Leon Estate, ideally the 1.2TSi engine as it keeps it under the 120g/km tax threshold (so CHEAP VED), still has about 110bhp so quick enough, genuine 50+mpg as long as not thrashed everywhere, nice to drive and she stands an outside chance of not having to remortgage her house to insure her lad on it! One like this…

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202409103880428?sort=price-desc&advertising-location=at_cars&body-type=Estate&fuel-type=Petrol&make=SEAT&model=Leon&page=2&postcode=wr2%205jf&price-to=10000&fromsra

Hyundai Kona…can even get an electric one for £10k
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202409134009681

Is insurance still heavily influenced by engine capacity? these little engines are making as much power as the larger simpler engines, economy isn’t the biggest deal, neither is ULEZ etc, but what i do see is every modern small petrol seems to be wet belt driven and potential time bomb, i don’t dispute power output, but reliability. I’m prepared to be wrong however

Oo, the Kona looks like an ice motor, ticks the boxes

Engine capacity / location / power / statistics

We got a small fast French thing for the lad – and because it’s an obscure type of car not many of them get crashed, so insurance was reasonable.  Things like Fiat 500 were way more pricey as they get crashed more / people want spare parts so they get robbed and stripped…

Jazz, Fabia?

her eldest to learn to drive in

This is a huge thing. Insurance….

Small? Big boot? Cheap Insurance?

Fabia Estate ftw.

Ours has 60k but is about £5k to buy.

these are all much newer cars than i’m good with, and many have stupid little bombs of engines, like 1 to 1.2 litre engines

our ‘stupid little bomb’ of an engine churns out 110bhp, enough torque to only notice when 5 people and bikes are on board, 50mpg and a reet fun noise from 3 cylinders wazzing away…Don’t knock it until you tried it.

but what i do see is every modern small petrol seems to be wet belt driven and potential time bomb

Only Ford are wet belt.

the fabia is an excellent shout, passed along, with justufucation

Fabia estate with 1.0 Tsi engine..

A medium road bike will squeeze into a Fabia hatch but not that well.

1.2 puretech Citroen/Pug are wetbelt too

yup, sounds like the small VAG engines are pretty damn good

Berlingo or the same with a different badge

Nissan note worth a look too. The dig-s version, not the n/a version though. Loads of room, reliable, pensioner styling so no-one will nick it 🙂

smokey_joFull Member
1.2 puretech Citroen/Pug are wetbelt too

Yes, and they’re shite

Source: I own one, it’s shite

If she cannot face a Fabia estate the Scala feels a bigger car, although it has a smaller boot, and was my preference over the Fabia – think Golf not Polo.

Downsizing and the need to chuck a road bike in the back don’t equate! 🙂

You can get road bikes in very small cars pretty easily.

Mazda 3. Big enough, doesn’t have a “silly downsized engine”,  reliable if you go for the petrol not the diesel and drives great .

Will easily take a bike with the rear seats folded.

Nice  manual gearbox too.

Only Ford are wet belt.

No they’re not.

Just been looking for a car for mum with a similar budget. Plenty of low milage and great condition Fiesta’s about, 17 reg on + Focus a bit older or a bit higher miles. She also looked at a 2017 Seat Ibiza in mint condition with 15k on the clock for £9.5 but didn’t like the interior (so immediately ruled out the Fabia and Polo).

I’d just go to Motorpoint and pick whichever you like in budget. Tried this with Mum but she’s 86 and has pretty fixed ideas of what she wants even though she’ll dismiss cars that perfectly fit the bill in favour of one that doesn’t, before insisting she liked the other later in the day!

Honda Jazz mag.

.

Honda Jazz mag

Local lad put one in a hedge last week

Local lad put one in a hedge last week

Mustn’t grumble…

Seat Arona, she liked it, i thought it was super basic for the money, bike takes up all of the rear space (she ideally needs one seat in the back free), one of those stupid little engines

We have an Arona.  If you’re looking at 10-year old models then it’ll be pre-facelift so, ahem, YMMV.

The 1-litre engine is more than sufficient, you really need to get past this.  When we were ordering it I was looking at the 1.5, the salesman said “you don’t need it” and I was like “I’ll be the judge of that” but he was right.  I made the same mistake you are of was judging “small engines” based on back-in-the-day knowledge, but we’ve come a long way since then.  The 1.0 petrol in the Arona is something like 115 horses, by way of comparison a 1L Citroen AX was about 50 and the Cavalier SRi was 130.  And in any case, if it’s for The Boy to learn in then if you get something with a big engine you’ll paying more than the value of the car to insure the thing.

The boot space, honestly, for something marketed as a mini-SUV isn’t all that great.  I haven’t tried to get a bike in the back but if possible at all I expect it’d be tight.  The integrated roof rails are probably the way to go here.

Of the rest of your list, I had a Hyundai i40 for a while.  It was decent enough but it getting a saloon was a mistake.

Re the Citroen/Peugeot Puretech engines. I had to have a new wet belt fitted a couple of weeks ago. This is in a nine year old car with 57k on the clock. So a bit under the 10 years/69k recommendation. It cost me £600 all in. The car, a Citroen C3 Picasso has been fantastic for the 5 years I’ve owned it. Apart from tyres and servicing it’s been a great motor. Fine on motorways and for just pootling round it’s bang on. Getting the wet belt done was straightforward. The garage I went to have done plenty of them before and knew exactly what they were doing.  I guess what I’m saying is a £600 repair bill on a 9 year old car that has and still is great is fair enough. I’ve been looking at Berlingos recently with an eye on a diesel. I’ve now swerved on that as there seems to be so many negative reviews on the 1.5hdi and ad blue issues as well . Now I would seriously consider a ‘Lingo with a Puretech. I’d just be prepared for a wet belt replacement at some point.

Toyota Corolla, Yaris or RAV 4

Suzuki Swift or Swace

Honda Jazz, Civic, CRV

P/s: Including Mazda

mazda have larger na engines instead of smaller turbod ones. so one of them?