Needing a little runarund

[KenL]

Skoda Citigo. My wife is on her 3rd one. Brilliant wee cars and never had a problem with any of them.?
We'll probably buy this one at end of pcp as despite it doing about 55mpg it has been dropped in preference to an electric one costing twice as much.?

 

[KenL]

He wants to keep it for 5 years, not have 5 engines. They are too big a car for such a tiny engine.
I would sway with a Yaris, Jazz or Mazda 2.

A modern 1.2 TURBO engine is a totally different engine to a regular 1.2.
The 1.0 Ford ecoboost has been around a long time now and is excellent.

 

[SocketRocket]

He wants to keep it for 5 years, not have 5 engines. They are too big a car for such a tiny engine.
I would sway with a Yaris, Jazz or Mazda 2.

Having owned a Mazda 2 and a Quasqai i would reccomend the Quasqai every time, they are a mid sized car and have a good reputation for build quality.

 

[PJ87]

Honda jazz
Ford fiesta
Toyota Yaris
Hyundai i20
VW polo
Seat Ibiza
Skoda fabia
Nissan Micra
Kia Rio
Mazda 2

Any of them would be a good decent choice

In my 16 years driving I've owned a variety

Honda civic
Mitsubishi colt
Mitsubishi lancer
BMW 320d
VW golf
Toyota auris hyrbid
Honda civic
Honda hrv (current)
Seat Alhambra (current)

I'd say Honda's are excellent for storage . Especially golf clubs (no taking driver out)

Toyota only downside was size inside once we had kids it's surprising small for a car of its size where as the civic is a TARDIS

 

[srixon 1]

Wife has had her Mazda 2 for 7 years and no problems whatsoever.

 

[ScienceBoy]

I really hope that soon we can be all using electric cars for this role, the fact it isn’t affordable to do so today is a huge issue.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

It is nowhere near as big as you might think, Mrs BiM having had a 2006 one from new, yet big enough inside. But if it is over budget then that is irrelevant. Still might be worth consideration if you go older as plenty of clean looking 15 or so year old ones running round our way.

The other plus with a Honda is that there is a design requirement to take a full set of golf clubs in the boot without removing anything from the bag...

There is no issue spending more - £5000 is our ballpark but we could go to a bit over £6000 for the right car.

 

[GreiginFife]

He wants to keep it for 5 years, not have 5 engines. They are too big a car for such a tiny engine.
I would sway with a Yaris, Jazz or Mazda 2.

Yeah, this is olde worlde thinking IMO.

The Jazz (in it's 1.4 guise) is ~1600KG with a 100BHP power plant that produces 127NM of torque, and in moving the weight it's the torque that's important.
The Qashqai (in it's 1.2T guise) is ~1800KG BUT it has a power plant producing 115BHP and, importantly, 190NM of torque.

That 63NM difference is massive in terms of getting and keeping the bigger lump moving.

Possibly if it was a NA 1.2 then it would be a different kettle of swimming things, but new power plant production methods are creating higher output, lower capacity all the time.

Off topic, but I love BMWs new modular engine approach, where all BMW power plants are built around a single, modular 500cc cylinder and are, effectively, just bolted together to make a config of wither 1500cc, 2000cc or 3000cc depending on model and then just tuned differently for different models.

 

[Bunkermagnet]

Yeah, this is olde worlde thinking IMO.

The Jazz (in it's 1.4 guise) is ~1600KG with a 100BHP power plant that produces 127NM of torque, and in moving the weight it's the torque that's important.
The Qashqai (in it's 1.2T guise) is ~1800KG BUT it has a power plant producing 115BHP and, importantly, 190NM of torque.

That 63NM difference is massive in terms of getting and keeping the bigger lump moving.

Possibly if it was a NA 1.2 then it would be a different kettle of swimming things, but new power plant production methods are creating higher output, lower capacity all the time.

Off topic, but I love BMWs new modular engine approach, where all BMW power plants are built around a single, modular 500cc cylinder and are, effectively, just bolted together to make a config of wither 1500cc, 2000cc or 3000cc depending on model and then just tuned differently for different models.

I’m just relaying what2 mechanics I know have said about them as well as well documented issues on this.

 

[GreiginFife]

I’m just relaying what2 mechanics I know have said about them as well as well documented issues on this.

Whilst I don't disagree that there were "well documented issues" especially MY 2014 through 16, this was put down to a bad batch of engines and not directly a result of a weight issue.
I say this as a mechanic myself (although not a practicing one currently), I do not believe Renault make good engines, at all, but I also don't believe that a car will struggle or be poor based purely on its chassis weight when the produced torque is enough. There are many a car out there with large body/small engine combos.

Basically what you are saying is that the additionally produced 63NM of torque is insufficient to effectively move the 200kg delta on weight (versus the Jazz). I don't think that's true.

We probably won't agree on this but that's OK, no one says we have to.

 

[Doon frae Troon]

My Mrs has a VW UP.......smashing wee car and very good mpg.
WE got a great deal on it on the 30th Nov a couple of years ago.
Struck me afterwards that the date was probably the best day to buy a new car.

 

[Deleted member 18121]

I recently asked the same question but for a lesser budget..... For £2700 I picked up a 2009 Suzuki swift sport and have loved it. For £5k you'd be able to pickup a nice little swift..... Tough as nails and got character too.

 

[Robster59]

Another one just occurred to me. I was researching a car for my stepson and came across the Suzuki Baleno. Gets decent reviews, good capacity and can be picked up at reasonable prices. Same mechanicals as the Swift so spares readily available.

 

[williamalex1]

what's a crate II car?

TBH as the owner of a 2013 plate Hyundai i40 I couldn't really recommend one [ 2nd hand ] I've had a few problems with fuel filter warning lights, the brake pads wearing ,then the rear discs and calipers had to be renewed.
Once the 5 year guarantee expired, the reversing camera, parking sensors, CD player and the USB port all stopped working , nice car to drive though.

 

[SocketRocket]

Whilst I don't disagree that there were "well documented issues" especially MY 2014 through 16, this was put down to a bad batch of engines and not directly a result of a weight issue.
I say this as a mechanic myself (although not a practicing one currently), I do not believe Renault make good engines, at all, but I also don't believe that a car will struggle or be poor based purely on its chassis weight when the produced torque is enough. There are many a car out there with large body/small engine combos.

Basically what you are saying is that the additionally produced 63NM of torque is insufficient to effectively move the 200kg delta on weight (versus the Jazz). I don't think that's true.

We probably won't agree on this but that's OK, no one says we have to.

I had one with an engine fault (noisy timing chain) Nissan put in a brand new engine after 45,000 miles free of charge, no problems after that. I found the six gears allowed you to cruise at 70mph doing around 2,000 rpm which felt very comfortable, also returned around 50 mpg.

 

[3-off-the-tee]

Something like a Kia Ceed might work for you. I believe they do a 1.4 petrol engine. Reasonably sized car for the money. If you can get one a few years old, balance of the 7 year warranty remains.

Just a word of warning on these..
I had one of these a few years ago and couldn’t wait to get rid of it.
They are reliable cars but the engine is massively underpowered and has absolutely no pulling power, motorway journeys were a nightmare on fuel as well do to only being 5 speed. Driving up hills with any sort of weight of passengers in the car often required dropping down to 2nd or 3rd gear and even then acceleration was poor.

I swapped mine for a MK7 Golf with a 1.4 Turbo and the difference is absolutely vast.

Personally for that type of budget I would look at a any of the VW/Skoda/Audi group of cars as you should be able to pick up a decent run around for that money.

 

[GreiginFife]

Just a word of warning on these..
I had one of these a few years ago and couldn’t wait to get rid of it.
They are reliable cars but the engine is massively underpowered and has absolutely no pulling power, motorway journeys were a nightmare on fuel as well do to only being 5 speed. Driving up hills with any sort of weight of passengers in the car often required dropping down to 2nd or 3rd gear and even then acceleration was poor.

I swapped mine for a MK7 Golf with a 1.4 Turbo and the difference is absolutely vast.

Personally for that type of budget I would look at a any of the VW/Skoda/Audi group of cars as you should be able to pick up a decent run around for that money.

As far as I was aware, the Ceed 1.4 petrol is a 6 speed 138BHP single turbo. OP said they had a 5k budget and looking for only a few years old, that rules out much of the VAG stable in that age/price range.

 

[3-off-the-tee]

As far as I was aware, the Ceed 1.4 petrol is a 6 speed 138BHP single turbo. OP said they had a 5k budget and looking for only a few years old, that rules out much of the VAG stable in that age/price range.

Apologies mate I thought you were referring to the older N/A Kia 1.4 engines ? I think mine was 85bhp.

 

[GreiginFife]

Apologies mate I thought you were referring to the older N/A Kia 1.4 engines ? I think mine was 85bhp.

No worries, there will certainly be some NA ones kicking about in that price range, IIRC the NA was phased out in 2014 so right on the bubble for the search.
Personally, I'll stick with the M340i, especially with it's recent remap

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Lots of excellent thoughts and guidance so many thanks to all who have been making suggestions...will take a while to digest - plenty to be thinking about but any further suggestions keep them coming.

Note on size - and one suggestion...the Qashqai. We had one of these until 18months ago. and yes - we did like it. But we consider a Qashqai a big car...goodness knows the monsters some on here must drive