Not everyone's cup of tea but you can get into a new Dacia Sandero for the same price as a 2 to 3 year old Fiesta/Corsa/Polo. For a couple of grand less a 1 year old Sandero is still 2 years younger than equivalent other superminis.

My wife had a Fiat 500, not great on long journeys very firm ride and a fair bit of tyre and road noise comes through. She now has an i10 which is miles better. I had a Fabia a long time a go and that was great on a long run, felt like a much bigger car.

The engines in Corsas vary from the bullet-proof 1.7 diesel to the 1.0-1.4 petrol range which sound the same as the diesels after a few years poor maintenance and are all based on the same layout as the 1.0 and 1.2 available since ~2000.

I would personally avoid a non-diesel variant as I've worked on the 1.4 and they're awful and tappety at any excuse. If you're going to own one do yearly oil changes and don't pay any attention to the 2-year extended interval.

Edited by mfarrow on 06/11/2014 at 20:49

I would second the reccomendation for a 1.2 Dacia Sandero.

I have had the latest shape Corsa on 3 occasions, one of those I had it for over a week.

Each time, it was a 1.2 model and the engine was fine, it cruised comfortably at 60.

The one thing I liked about the Corsa was the space inside the 5 door model, it was more spacious than the current shape Fiesta.

I am told Corsa insurance is one of the lowest around.

Im not normally a fan of GM products, bu the Corsa did impress me.

Friends who have had current shape Corsa's have taken them upto high mileage without any major problems.

And dont buy a C3; one of my collegues purchased for his wife one of the first of the current shape C3's and its been nothing shot of a disaster. I suspect it shares alot of components with the 207/208.

I drive a citroen berlingo mutlispace and have 4 citroen berlingos/peugeot partners in our fleet.

Im not saying citroens are all bad, far from it.

I am saying the current C3 has some serious problems and the 2 citroen main dealers he has used where clueless about how to sort them.

I am certain the C3 shares many items with the 207/208/general peugeot and citroen parts bin.