I am contemplating getting my wife a new car next year and need a bit of guidance on what to look for, whether it be specific models to match our criteria or just general advice on various factors like hidden costs of certain marques etc.
As some background I cannot drive myself due to a visual impairment and the only used car we’ve bought was from the mother-in-law so very lacking in experience in this sector. I've tried to come up with some answers myself but wanted to get this validated.
Tl;dr version: £8-12k safe/reliable hatch 17k/year to replace a Corsa 1.2
Proper version:
Requirements:
-Small i.e. family hatchback with 5 seats and preferably 5 doors. For a point of comparison, she once had a VW Jetta as a courtesy car and found it too big for her liking. Not looking for a supermini though.
-No strict budget but let’s say £8-12k. I appreciate that is a fairly wide band and looking to spend up to £10k really but I don't want to limit the options too much.
-Mileage ~16-18k/year with a possibility it may increase. Majority of the mileage is on Motorways and A-roads (hence currently thinking Diesel).
-Likely to keep it for a minimum of 3 years assuming no problems
-Insurance hopefully not a problem as she is over 30 with 5 years no claims BUT I understand the new equality regulations coming in could mean a massive hike for female drivers
-Mediocre acceleration or better (i.e. not very slow), say 0-60 <12s? Her current car (07 Corsa 1.2) is underpowered and is a nightmare when trying to overtake on a hill.
-Nothing too crazy, she is used to driving slow cars but probably time to go to something with a bit more grunt now. She is very much a middle lane driver i.e. doesn’t cruise along the inside at 60 but equally isn’t going to be doing a ton tailgating in the fast lane. Lack of acceleration does annoy her (and me!) though.
-Reliability is important as if anything were to go wrong it would be 100% my fault for suggesting a used car and we should have bought a nice brand new pink one with 50bhp. Does this mean I should be favouring petrol engines?
-Therefore something with a long transferrable warranty or maybe franchise dealer coverage might be a safe bet (not sure how this works??)
-Current thinking is would like to get a reasonbly well specced model which may rule out less common models I guess due to availability.
Have been doing some research in my own way for a while which is probably not how one should be researching cars and more akin to how I look at gadgets i.e. weighing up the technical specs and benchmarks with a bit of reading on sites/forums on the side. On the back of this I looked at a few options with these conclusions (interested to hear alternative views):
-BMW 116/18/20d: RWD is a slight concern as not sure how she'd get on with it plus when it snows we are screwed (our estate doesn't get gritted - a couple of years ago it was a skating rink for days after other roads were clear). Also think repair costs could be an issue?
-Kia Cee’d 1.6 crdi: Long warranty appeals but seem to holding their value reasonably well (i.e. not as cheap as I was expecting)
-Audi A3 1.9 tdi: reading around general consensus seems to be better off getting a Golf as you are paying for the badge
-Focus 1.6 tdci: Seems like a viable option
-Hyundai i30 1.6 crdi: Seems like potentially a better choice than the Kia as seem to be generally well specced, reviewed and reliable? A contender on current thinking.
-VW Golf Mk6 1.6 TDI: On paper they didn't stand out but reading around they seem to be generally regarded as possibly the best car in class with good build quality, reliable and not massively expensive to maintain. I think they look 'overpriced' to me because their residuals are so good compared to other cars - I read a £20k Golf is worth up to £2k more than a £20k Focus after just 1 year.
-Alfa Romeo Guilietta: Did consider pushing the boat out a bit and getting something a bit different/risky but Alfa seem to have a pretty bad rep for reliability etc. Also heard there is no headroom in the back.
-Seat Leon: Difficult to say, basically a cheaper Golf with supposedly worse build quality, a colleague has a 12 plate and it seemed pretty good, on paper a good option but worry is if we get one will I just be thinking "should have got a Golf"?
So at the moment front runners in no particular order are i30, Focus, Leon and Golf. Would like to whittle down the list before test driving though.
As I said there is no strict budget and what I’m finding trawling the web/autotrader is that there is so much variety/granularity in the car market that it is difficult to know where to start or even stop – you can always spend a little bit more and get something a little bit better in contrast to say computer hardware where I can normally identify a ‘sweet spot’.
At the moment I’m mostly working on the basis of something up to 4 years old with medium mileage (sub 60k) but is this a sensible approach? Would it likely mean buying a 3 year old 50k car and then it hits 60k and there is going to be some massive serving bill and bits needing replacement? I just don’t know what all the hidden costs/problems might be, which is where you come in...
As some background I cannot drive myself due to a visual impairment and the only used car we’ve bought was from the mother-in-law so very lacking in experience in this sector. I've tried to come up with some answers myself but wanted to get this validated.
Tl;dr version: £8-12k safe/reliable hatch 17k/year to replace a Corsa 1.2
Proper version:
Requirements:
-Small i.e. family hatchback with 5 seats and preferably 5 doors. For a point of comparison, she once had a VW Jetta as a courtesy car and found it too big for her liking. Not looking for a supermini though.
-No strict budget but let’s say £8-12k. I appreciate that is a fairly wide band and looking to spend up to £10k really but I don't want to limit the options too much.
-Mileage ~16-18k/year with a possibility it may increase. Majority of the mileage is on Motorways and A-roads (hence currently thinking Diesel).
-Likely to keep it for a minimum of 3 years assuming no problems
-Insurance hopefully not a problem as she is over 30 with 5 years no claims BUT I understand the new equality regulations coming in could mean a massive hike for female drivers
-Mediocre acceleration or better (i.e. not very slow), say 0-60 <12s? Her current car (07 Corsa 1.2) is underpowered and is a nightmare when trying to overtake on a hill.
-Nothing too crazy, she is used to driving slow cars but probably time to go to something with a bit more grunt now. She is very much a middle lane driver i.e. doesn’t cruise along the inside at 60 but equally isn’t going to be doing a ton tailgating in the fast lane. Lack of acceleration does annoy her (and me!) though.
-Reliability is important as if anything were to go wrong it would be 100% my fault for suggesting a used car and we should have bought a nice brand new pink one with 50bhp. Does this mean I should be favouring petrol engines?
-Therefore something with a long transferrable warranty or maybe franchise dealer coverage might be a safe bet (not sure how this works??)
-Current thinking is would like to get a reasonbly well specced model which may rule out less common models I guess due to availability.
Have been doing some research in my own way for a while which is probably not how one should be researching cars and more akin to how I look at gadgets i.e. weighing up the technical specs and benchmarks with a bit of reading on sites/forums on the side. On the back of this I looked at a few options with these conclusions (interested to hear alternative views):
-BMW 116/18/20d: RWD is a slight concern as not sure how she'd get on with it plus when it snows we are screwed (our estate doesn't get gritted - a couple of years ago it was a skating rink for days after other roads were clear). Also think repair costs could be an issue?
-Kia Cee’d 1.6 crdi: Long warranty appeals but seem to holding their value reasonably well (i.e. not as cheap as I was expecting)
-Audi A3 1.9 tdi: reading around general consensus seems to be better off getting a Golf as you are paying for the badge
-Focus 1.6 tdci: Seems like a viable option
-Hyundai i30 1.6 crdi: Seems like potentially a better choice than the Kia as seem to be generally well specced, reviewed and reliable? A contender on current thinking.
-VW Golf Mk6 1.6 TDI: On paper they didn't stand out but reading around they seem to be generally regarded as possibly the best car in class with good build quality, reliable and not massively expensive to maintain. I think they look 'overpriced' to me because their residuals are so good compared to other cars - I read a £20k Golf is worth up to £2k more than a £20k Focus after just 1 year.
-Alfa Romeo Guilietta: Did consider pushing the boat out a bit and getting something a bit different/risky but Alfa seem to have a pretty bad rep for reliability etc. Also heard there is no headroom in the back.
-Seat Leon: Difficult to say, basically a cheaper Golf with supposedly worse build quality, a colleague has a 12 plate and it seemed pretty good, on paper a good option but worry is if we get one will I just be thinking "should have got a Golf"?
So at the moment front runners in no particular order are i30, Focus, Leon and Golf. Would like to whittle down the list before test driving though.
As I said there is no strict budget and what I’m finding trawling the web/autotrader is that there is so much variety/granularity in the car market that it is difficult to know where to start or even stop – you can always spend a little bit more and get something a little bit better in contrast to say computer hardware where I can normally identify a ‘sweet spot’.
At the moment I’m mostly working on the basis of something up to 4 years old with medium mileage (sub 60k) but is this a sensible approach? Would it likely mean buying a 3 year old 50k car and then it hits 60k and there is going to be some massive serving bill and bits needing replacement? I just don’t know what all the hidden costs/problems might be, which is where you come in...
![[TW]Fox](/data/man-of-honor/2009.png){kind=avatar}
