Spec me a car

Bassmansam

Bassmansam

Bassmansam

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Joined
22 Nov 2007
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I work from home so during the week i do short trips around 5 mile round trips to the gym/supermarket. At the weekends i'll do some longer motorway journeys 2-3x a month around 60-70 miles each way. I just sold my Citroen c1 as this car was fine for what i needed it for but the timing belt was on its way out so wanted to get rid of it.

I haven't driven any other cars so i'm really not sure what to go for. I have read that Yaris's are very reliable?
budget - up to 10k

edit: nothing with a wet belt please!
 
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Yaris is a good shout.

I'm not familiar with the current ones, but if you can get one with a petrol engine and no turbo.

In fact, in general, my advice would be Japanese, petrol engine with no turbo.
 
BUDFORCE said:
Yaris is a good shout.

I'm not familiar with the current ones, but if you can get one with a petrol engine and no turbo.

In fact, in general, my advice would be Japanese, petrol engine with no turbo.
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I saw a few cars ( skoda fabia, hyuandai i20) with smaller engines but are bigger than my c1 with a 1 litre turbo engine. How does that work, surely bigger cars needed bigger engines?
 
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Bassmansam said:
I saw a few cars ( skoda fabia, hyuandai i20) with smaller engines but are bigger than my c1 with a 1 litre turbo engine. How does that work, surely bigger cars needed bigger engines?
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Unfortunately it's a trend of modern cars, but what they do is instead of making say a 1.6 litre petrol engine and getting whatever power, they instead make a 1 litre engine, and put a turbo on it

The advantage is you get better MPG for the same power.

However, it's all political BS, and there are lots of compromises with doing that.

If you can find a petrol engine without a turbo they are generally better, but I appreciate in smaller cars probably getting few and far between.
 
BUDFORCE said:
Unfortunately it's a trend of modern cars, but what they do is instead of making say a 1.6 litre petrol engine and getting whatever power, they instead make a 1 litre engine, and put a turbo on it

The advantage is you get better MPG for the same power.

However, it's all political BS, and there are lots of compromises with doing that.

If you can find a petrol engine without a turbo they are generally better, but I appreciate in smaller cars probably getting few and far between.
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Sounds similar to wet belts in that they can do better emissions but they aren't reliable.
Thanks for the advice.
 
Another shout for the Yaris here. My other half has had hers for 7 years, bought nearly new. Zero spent on it other than servicing and MOTs.

We’ll probably get her something a bit more premium when the time comes but we’re in no rush to get rid and I wouldn’t hesitate to buy another. The newer ones look decent.
 
Bassmansam said:
Sounds similar to wet belts in that they can do better emissions but they aren't reliable.
Thanks for the advice.
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For the record, turbos don't make the engines unreliable the lack of servicing and mechanical sympathy is what kills engines.

A turbo car needs to be warmed up gently before booting it, when at destination just let the engine idle for 30 seconds to cool down a bit.

I don't believe manufacturers service intervals are any good either, they are always far too long for the quantity of oil in the sump. 15-20000 miles is a little obscene, probably not too bad if you sit on the motorway all day, but this is rare, and very few get their engines serviced before the service light pops up.

That said, look at Suzuki swifts, they are a decent low cost reliable cars with no turbo if you stick to the 1.2 and 1.6, both engines I believe are chain driven.

The engines with turbos are called booster jets.
 
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You’ll be delighted with a Yaris. And dependent on how fancy the spec is and mileage you will come out with change.
 
Anyone familar with Suzuki swifts? I woud go for the Yaris but i think if i'm paying 10k i want apple car play which a lot of them don't have.
From some research they seem to have good reputation for reliability, its also a mild hybrid so that would help on petrol costs too.
 
Maundie said:
Aren’t Zoe’s using a battery rental scheme or something?
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Depends on the year and model

I believe the majority the 22kwh models will have a lease of some kind (although AFAIK it is now possible to buy this out).
For the 41kwh model, if you get a trim level preceded by "i" then it's a battery owned model (e.g. i Dynamique), and will also have a little blue "i" sticker on the back. You can also buy out the battery lease on these as well (but they don't send you the little "i" sticker ;))
Pretty sure they dropped the lease model altogether on the 50kwh

The lease has pros and cons. The main con obviously being the additional monthly cost (which is mileage dependent - although I believe the excess mileage charge actually worked out at the same cost as going up a tier in the mileage allowance), also the fact that when selling, you'd need to find a buyer willing (and able) to take on the lease.
The pros being a better, and never ending battery warranty (IIRC it was 80% capacity for lease vs 70% for owned, and 8 years/100k miles limit for the owned battery). Also I believe the lease also includes breakdown cover - including running out of charge
 
What one do people think is better?

I'm pretty much set on Swift after seeing that it came top of a reliability survey and it has car play and is a reasonable price.

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Used 2020 Suzuki Swift 1.2 Dualjet MHEV SZ-T Hatchback 5dr Petrol Hybrid Manual Euro 6 (s/s) (90 ps) £9,580 31,483 miles - Grey | Richmond Suzuki Portsmouth | Richmond Motor Group

Buy a used 2020 Grey Suzuki Swift 1.2 Dualjet MHEV SZ-T Hatchback 5dr Petrol Hybrid Manual Euro 6 (s/s) (90 ps) with 31,483 miles on the clock for £9,580 from Richmond Motor Group at Richmond Suzuki Portsmouth.
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