£5000 Hatchback

ramirez · 29 Jan 2009 at 11:21

The wife's Clio has again failed us, she hates it and so do I. So we want to look at another hatchback for her.

Requirements :

Not French (sick to death of useless Clios

)
Petrol
Not arsed about age or miles as long as looked after.
Under £5000

So far i'm thinking Civic, Focus or outside choice maybe a Yaris?

ps. any engine size is fine, she doesn't do mega miles and drives like a fairy so could be 1 litre could be 2 litres.

[TW]Fox · 29 Jan 2009 at 11:22

Mini.

peterattheboro · 29 Jan 2009 at 11:25

http://pistonheads.com/sales/812268.htm

No idea what the mileage is though

Spamalot · 29 Jan 2009 at 11:55

Mini can beat it for what you want!

ramirez · 29 Jan 2009 at 12:13

hadnt thought of minis actually. Decently reliable motors?

MarkDavis · 29 Jan 2009 at 13:03

Focus, Civic, Mini, Yaris, Clio etc, are all very different cars in the way that they 'feel' and drive. So really its going to depend on what your wife feels comfortable with (unless she drives simply what you dictate

).

I think it would be worth her test driving a Mk2 Focus, a Yaris2, and a Micra 1.2 SVE (or equivalent spec) and seeing what she thinks of each.

I think Minis are massively overpriced for what they are, you'll be looking at a high milaege Mk1 for £5k, and they're not exactly Honda-esque in terms of things not going wrong at high(ish) mileages.

Unless you can get a current Civic (which I don't think you can at £5k), the old one is too dull to drive as well as to look at to seriously consider IMO, even if it is a modicum of reliability.