Small automatic car

Gredawarha

Gredawarha

Gredawarha

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Joined
22 Nov 2017
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363
Afternoon all

We are a two car family, I own a Skoda Octavia estate and my partner has a 2011 Yaris which has lived a hard life and realistically needs replacing. It's done 160,000 miles and it shows.

Any recommendations for a small reliable car, needs to be an automatic, manual is not an option. The car will be used for predominantly short runs of 10 miles with occasional use for medium journeys of maybe 40 miles round trip.

I think we are likely to be looking at around £10k in terms of budget.

Because the car will need to be modified slightly for her to use it will be a car that will be kept for ten years so needs to be reliable and cheap to run.

So what would you suggest I be looking at?
 
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The DSG Polo we had was great, probably would still have it (or a newer replacement) had we not needed a larger car for baby/toddler paraphernalia.

As you say, much smoother than the gearbox in the Yaris, as well as a more premium feeling cabin and a LOT more sound deadening.
 
Realistically it’s doing such short journeys this is the sort of usage where EV’s are options. If you really don’t want to go down that route, Fabia DSG? Not a fan of the Spanish cousin.
 
paradigm said:
The DSG Polo we had was great, probably would still have it (or a newer replacement) had we not needed a larger car for baby/toddler paraphernalia.

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As you say, much smoother than the gearbox in the Yaris, as well as a more premium feeling cabin and a LOT more sound deadening.
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You had the 1.4 right? My better half has one of those with the DSG and honestly I find it pretty dismal. In D it's far too lethargic for the horribly underpowered engine, you basically have to floor the thing to get anywhere and it's borderline dangerously slow off the mark. In S it's drivable but it continues to thrash away once you are up to speed and never settles into a reasonable gear. It feels like they tuned the box for a far more torquey engine and didn't bother to change it for the asthmatic NA engine. I would not recommend it personally.
 
Clarkey said:
You had the 1.4 right? My better half has one of those with the DSG and honestly I find it pretty dismal. In D it's far too lethargic for the horribly underpowered engine, you basically have to floor the thing to get anywhere and it's borderline dangerously slow off the mark. In S it's drivable but it continues to thrash away once you are up to speed and never settles into a reasonable gear. It feels like they tuned the box for a far more torquey engine and didn't bother to change it for the asthmatic NA engine. I would not recommend it personally.
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Having run at least 5 DSG based cars, most to reasonably high mileage, that’s not how any of them have ever behaved. The closest to that engine combo I have direct personal experience of is a 1.2 Fabia estate, you just treated it like a go-cart, it ran out of steam pretty quickly, but off the line it was surprisingly nippy for what it was. I’ve driven Merc/smart/Vauxhall/Audi CVT/Volvo and even the odd BMW 5 series as a rental, a lot worse exists.
 
Some of the Nissan dealers have some decent finance deals at the moment on new and used Leaf and Micra, etc. though stock availability is a bit hit and miss - for some reason some stuff (new) isn't available until September - probably just skipping to the next iteration due to the current situation.
 
Haggisman said:
Leaf or Zoe
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Second this, assuming they have access to off-street parking, and at least a 3-pin plug socket close by? If you shop around you can find some great deals on Zoe's with warranty left of the drivetrain/battery and will cost less than £10k even after buying the battery out from RCI. If looking at a Leaf then it would need to be a 30kWh version, of a 24kWh from no earlier than 2015-16 if you want 10 years out of it IMO.

You can calculate the running costs savings pretty easily as well, MOT as normal, likely no brakes/pads ever, no oil, no expensive auto-box (potential), no TAX, and fuel/energy costs as low as you can be bothered to make them, and the residual value after 10 years is going to be higher than any of the ICE options. The amount saved over 10 years would likey almost pay for the next car. :)
 
Journey said:
You can calculate the running costs savings pretty easily as well, MOT as normal, likely no brakes/pads ever, no oil, no expensive auto-box (potential), no TAX, and fuel/energy costs as low as you can be bothered to make them, and the residual value after 10 years is going to be higher than any of the ICE options. The amount saved over 10 years would likey almost pay for the next car. :)
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This - I had my regular* fuel costs down to ~1.25p/mile with the Zoe (Octopus Go Faster tariff @ 4.5p/kwh, averaging ~3.6 miles/kwh), you aren't going to get cheaper to run than that. You'll probably struggle to get a 41kw for £10k unless you go battery leased, but a 22kw will easily do a 40 mile round trip even in winter. The only thing that's going to cost more than a comparable ICE will be tyres, as you will need to run XL due to the weight, and they seem to wear quicker on EVs.

Also, if your partner has mobility problems (a guess based on the modification requirement, apologies if I'm wrong), then the Zoe has a higher driving position than most similar cars due to the battery being in the floor, so this might make getting in & out easier.

Obviously if you don't have off-street parking where you could plug in then it makes this a less viable option, but definitely worth looking into.


* public charging is obviously more expensive, but if your use is as per OP, then you can ignore that.
 
Clarkey said:
You had the 1.4 right? My better half has one of those with the DSG and honestly I find it pretty dismal. In D it's far too lethargic for the horribly underpowered engine, you basically have to floor the thing to get anywhere and it's borderline dangerously slow off the mark. In S it's drivable but it continues to thrash away once you are up to speed and never settles into a reasonable gear. It feels like they tuned the box for a far more torquey engine and didn't bother to change it for the asthmatic NA engine. I would not recommend it personally.
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I'd not be going dsg either, moreover the peugot 208 automatic with torque convertor, would be nicer around town, vag sell automatic gearboxes in the usa (unconstrained by finickity emissions)
eg https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202102249416828 10K£ 20K miles 110bhp 2019 , still some warranty.
 
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