Looking to get a small car to be used as the second ‘occasional’ car.

Needs to be 5 door, have a decent-sized boot, cheap to run, insure, maintain etc. It should also fare reasonably well on NCAP ratings as it will sometimes be used for ferrying our kids around and my wife worries about this sort of thing.

All I can think of is the Ford Fusion but is there anything else worthy of consideration?

Got a budget of MAX £2k – but would prefer £1.5k

Alternatively, can you convince me that a Ford Puma will be suitable despite it only having three doors…

Is the Honda Jazz in that price range yet? Consistently amazed at how good it is for a wee hatch. Tardis so it is!

Kev

Jazz is a good choice but I doubt you’ll get one for that price… :/

I’m not a fan of the puma personally unless its the sports version with wide arches an big engine.

A Fiesta 1.25 zetec on about a W or X reg would be bang on, I think you can probably get a focus on that money too if you’re after something with a bigger engine, great they are. probably your best option, cheap to fix, big boot etc…

I just got a hand me down fiat panda and its ace! I got a roofrack and bike carriers for it, you can fit a couple of bikes in the back plus kit.

Its good on fuel, got 5 doors, cheap to insure and much better than my old astra estate. Maybe I would have thought of buying it myself but to honest I love it!

clio 172 is that sorta money, that era renaults are normally good NCAP (not checked that one specifically), boot might be a bit small, not sure if it came in a 5 door?

…because you’d be disappointed if I didn’t 😛

Yaris FTW – boring as, but uber reliable, safe, my D4D costs £35 to tax for a year and does 60+mpg, boot is OK, gets bigger with slidey back seat.

I have a 1.25 fiesta. about 2003 or something.
Its pretty great to be honest. I stick bikes all over it and in it and it never complains. Petrol is cheaper than lots of other cars.
I’ve had two mountainbikes, a bmx and 3 people inside it, although one of us had to duck a bit.
Great.

If you don’t mid high mileage, you could get an A2, we have one as a second car and hit has been faultless for the last 3 years. 4 star NCAP as well

Also it ike a small van if you collapse/remove the rear seats.

Audi A2

VW Golf?

MF – don’t we seem to have this thread about once a week, and we are both still undecided? 😆

Doesn’t help that I saw the new baby Range Rover for the first time this morning. Suspect it’s outside our budgets……

Puma and Fiesta need careful inspection for serious rust .

Have a look at a Skoda Fabia Estate if you want a boot with reasonable space, a high mileage TD would suit low mileage usage.

ABS airbags etc standard , very strong and hard wearing cars. Cheap to run and easy to live with.

I have one of these. Loves it. Also available with 5 doors or shooting brake.

Clio Turbo

baby RR looks like someone dropped a skip on it 😯

not sure if these are in budget yet but Citroen C4 ticks most of your boxes

Lol at DD – I should have expected that.

Certainly not looking for a 172 (although I would like one) or Focus. Just want cheapo – low tax, insurance etc. (which does rule out the Puma really I know).

Fiat Panda 100hp FTW

Hmmm Fabia… What are the running/repair costs like on them?

76 Chevy Caprice Classic should see you right. Plenty of room for baby stuff and she can do Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe at whichever superstore of choice you use.

The Fiat Panda 100hp are silly money!

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5m1kba38YM&feature=related[/video]

Fiat Panda, are they are Puma’s left which haven’t got corrosion issues now?

running costs – cheaper than most, its a VAG car so parts are common , not
complicated , try to avoid the 16v 1.4 if you can, no torque and certain engine codes bbu, I think can suffer from piston ring problems, look on briskoda website for info, bodywork and paint should be perfect unless its had a respray/accident, we have a 1.4 16v 2000 hatch, low torque engine so needs to be thrashed if you want to be in a hurry, they make the vw Polo of a similar age look very shabby, VAG setup new factories for Skoda , they got the best equipment/investment Fabia is always one floorpan ahead of the Polo. Oh and air con is standard on confort models.

Upto 2k. Can you squeeze the budget abit?

If not why not buy my Puma? I’m bored now. Want new toy.

Get a 1.25 zetec fiesta 5 door. A bit slower than a Puma 1.7 but not much and near on the same handling, as after all they are the same car. All you miss out on is less space, tacky silver dashboard and metal gear stick.

On a more serious note m_f, how about the early-plates current model Megane? (Or is that a bit bigger than you’re looking for?)

I did a quick check on BoughtoTrader, max £2k, and 52/53/High Mileage 54 plates are going for that money with traders…so I imagine they might be in your budget? Some of them are diesel.

(I imagine NCAP ratings are high on your list of priorities. I always have this idea that Renault do quite well with their mid-range cars on the NCAP…but only guessing.)

🙂

Personally I’d look for inspiration using the <20miles >2k and “1 owner” search in your area with <60,000miles.

You could also look at the Mazda2.

Jazz’s are like any car- if you managed to find one at 2k it’d be royally knackered out.

You could also look at the Mazda2.

I’m not sure m_f is Mazda’s biggest fan at the moment 🙂

On a more serious note m_f, how about the early-plates current model Megane? (Or is that a bit bigger than you’re looking for?)

You need to be careful with Megane’s, the electrics are not great which leaves many with windows that don’t work, AC that doesn’t work and if you’re really lucky, a steering lock that won’t come off. They do lots of MPG, the boot is reasonable and they have a good NCAP rating though. If you can find one with all the above already fixed then it may be worth looking at, if not then be prepared to fix them at some point in the future.

I’m not sure m_f is Mazda’s biggest fan at the moment

I am not – will be glad to see the back of our current 3 (although I accept the 2 would never have either of the two big faults our 3 has)

Ah right, ok. I was only throwing it out there to make up for posting m_f’s favourite pink panther tigra 🙂

EDIT: the above @ lunge

i had a mk 2 facelift clio (with the 1.5 dci) did 65+mpg insurance was cheap and the tax is £20/ year.

I’m sure you could pick one up for around 2k. mine was 3k but that was a year ago & low milage.