anything at all - Small hatchback - suggestions welcomed

Honest John Back Room » Motoring discussion
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Fri 10 Mar 2017 13:46
anything at all - Small hatchback - suggestions welcomed - RobJP

A number of years ago, we helped out my sister-in-law with changing her car - she got a petrol manual Corsa (R reg), and it's been great. Her partner (a HGV driver) and son (tractor mechanic) have maintained it well ,and it's really done well for it. No real faults, reliable.

However, it's now reaching the end of it's life, a fair bit will be needed for the next MOT, and it's generally very tired.

So, suggestions welcomed for a replacement. We'll be helping her out with the purchase, and want something that;s going to be as trouble-free as possible (we hope, obviously).

Budget £3,000. Petrol, manual, hatchback with 5 doors. My wife would prefer something at 119 or lower CO2 (as that's then £30 or less tax per annum), but that's not an absolute essential.

The floor is open ...

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Fri 10 Mar 2017 15:08
anything at all - Small hatchback - suggestions welcomed - Wee Willie Winkie

Cue a collective response of "Yaris"!

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Fri 10 Mar 2017 15:50
anything at all - Small hatchback - suggestions welcomed - badbusdriver

Be careful with the yaris, at that price, assuming you want petrol, its going to be the 1.0. Trouble is, they are not all in the £30 bracket. My Dad owned a 2007 yaris 1.0 T2, i assumed it would fall into the lower bracket, but it didnt!. I think the later mk2 yaris's were, but just so you know.

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Fri 10 Mar 2017 15:54
anything at all - Small hatchback - suggestions welcomed - Oli rag
Mazda 2 1.3 would fit the bill.
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Fri 10 Mar 2017 16:13
anything at all - Small hatchback - suggestions welcomed - gordonbennet

Yes, Yaris, and i suggest the rare 1.8SR, which are usually low mileage, is likely to be as trouble free as anything out there, can't beat large capacity for easy running, though the 1.3 is more plentiful.

To be fair the family Aygo has proved a reliable bus, it's only real vice is eating front discs as quickly as pads but a doddle to fit and cheap as chips, new clutch was £285 fitted for a LUK unit at my local indy, tyres are £30 apiece for decent quality (Uniroyals presently).

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Fri 10 Mar 2017 16:07
anything at all - Small hatchback - suggestions welcomed - badbusdriver

Re the yaris, just had a look on autotrader, and you CAN get a 1.33 for that budget, which is 119g co2. But with an upper limit of 50k miles, there is only 1! (apart from a couple of CAT D jobs). Might be a few more with higher miles though.

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Fri 10 Mar 2017 16:53
anything at all - Small hatchback - suggestions welcomed - SLO76
Assuming longterm ownership, mostly local driving, low costs, £30 tax rate and similar space requirements to the old Corsa I'd shortlist the following.

Hyundai i10 1.2
Hyundai i20 1.2
Toyota Yaris 1.33
Toyota iQ
Kia Picanto 1.0 Mk II
Suzuki Splash 1.0
Mazda 2 1.3

I'd suggest not having a fixed budget if at all possible, it would be mad to give up on a nice wee car for the sake of a few hundred quid and if you increase it to around £4K you'll also start to find the excellent VW UP!/Seat Mii and Skoda Citigo becoming a possibility or a cute Fiat 500.

Personally and all things being equal condition and history wise I'd favour the Mazda 2 which is great to drive, cheap to run, has an excellent reputation for reliability and has a chain driven engine so avoids any costly timing belt changes.

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Fri 10 Mar 2017 18:22
anything at all - Small hatchback - suggestions welcomed - badbusdriver

Thats another 'wee'!

I cant speak, im also Scottish!.

I would also through in the daihatsu sirion mk2 1.0se. We had one for 3 years, cracking wee(!) car, it uses the same running gear and floorpan as the mk2 yaris. I remember reading in the motoring press at the time that the 1.0 was no use outside built up areas, but all i can say to that is, rubbish!. twice i drove from North East Scotland to North West England and on one of those occoasions, on down to Solihull. The sirion had no trouble at all maintaining, and exceeding the speed limit on the motorway.

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Fri 10 Mar 2017 20:02
anything at all - Small hatchback - suggestions welcomed - SLO76
"Thats another 'wee'!"

Just a wee slip... :-)

But yup the... erm, small Daihatsu was a hardy thing and dirt cheap now but you could buy a fleet of them for £3k and some parts are hard to come by since the firm left the UK market 6 years ago. Good cheapie though.
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Fri 10 Mar 2017 20:29
anything at all - Small hatchback - suggestions welcomed - John Boy

Following on from the list by SLO76, the Vauxhall Agila B is virtually the same car as the Suzuki Splash. Around here at least, there are almost more of them around. I notice too that some of the 1.2 versions of both also manage to get into the £30 tax category.

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Fri 10 Mar 2017 22:59
anything at all - Small hatchback - suggestions welcomed - Ethan Edwards

Another vote for Yaris or Aygo here. If you go for a mk1 Aygo check for water ingress into the cabin. Mk2 sorted this problem.

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Sat 11 Mar 2017 16:56
anything at all - Small hatchback - suggestions welcomed - Smileyman

Interesting to see the Toyota Aygo suggested, but not the Citroen or Peugeot that is built in the same factory - any reason?

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Sat 11 Mar 2017 17:01
anything at all - Small hatchback - suggestions welcomed - gordonbennet

Interesting to see the Toyota Aygo suggested, but not the Citroen or Peugeot that is built in the same factory - any reason?

No reason really, most here would expect those two to be included under the Aygo brand.

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Sat 11 Mar 2017 17:29
anything at all - Small hatchback - suggestions welcomed - SLO76
Toyota or rather Daihatsu under Toyota's ownership did most of the running on the design, certainly on the mechanical side. They all use the same chain driven Daihatsu 3cyl engine except the relatively rare and pretty pointless PSA 1.4 diesel and all are pretty robust if they see fresh oil every year.

Sadly though too many are bought by people who treat them like an appliance and never service them which kills the timing chain. Clutches are a bit weak too but not hugely expensive to replace, possibly more down to the popularity among young inexperienced drivers and some elderly drivers who can't always hear how many revs they're using to pull away and can be a bit heavy on the clutch as a result.

Not the most refined thing at higher speeds but fun to drive, surprisingly nippy and certainly cheap to run but the likes of a Mazda 3 or even a Hyundai i10 are much more refined and practical.

It's a small car I'm happy to recommend (assuming it has a full history) but often do just say Aygo to mean all three of them. No difference other than styling and some trim, though the Citroen does seem to fetch slightly lower prices through the ring but it really is marginal.

Edited by SLO76 on 11/03/2017 at 17:39

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Sun 12 Mar 2017 10:43
anything at all - Small hatchback - suggestions welcomed - Big John

Also consider a Honda Jazz. Super reliable/very comfortable car with loads of room front and rear and the boot/"magic" rear seats are amazing.

I recently posted for advice on this forum to try and find a small car for my sister that was capable of carrying a double bass and we ended up buying a fabulous Honda Jazz 1.4

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Sun 12 Mar 2017 11:22
anything at all - Small hatchback - suggestions welcomed - badbusdriver

Also consider a Honda Jazz. Super reliable/very comfortable car with loads of room front and rear and the boot/"magic" rear seats are amazing.

I recently posted for advice on this forum to try and find a small car for my sister that was capable of carrying a double bass and we ended up buying a fabulous Honda Jazz 1.4

The jazz is a fine car no doubt, and extremely reliable too. But Rob wants a car thats sits in the £30 per annum tax bracket for £3k. Cheapest jazz on autotrader at the moment which sits in that tax bracket is a 2012 1.2 at nearly £4900. For £3k you would be looking at an older jazz which, at best, would be in the next tax bracket, a fairly big jump up to £110 per annum (which is what my Dad's '07 yaris 1.0 was)

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Sun 12 Mar 2017 22:02
anything at all - Small hatchback - suggestions welcomed - Big John

He did say it wasn't essential

Reasonable car tax (not the £500+ stuff) is one the lowest costs of car ownership overtaken by depreciation, fuel, servicing and repairs

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Sun 12 Mar 2017 12:19
anything at all - Small hatchback - suggestions welcomed - Avant

The important thing, surely, is for the husband and son to look carefully at the cars on the short-list and see what they're happy with in terms of servicing and repairs.

Their careful attention is what's made the Corsa reliable: unfortunately there are a lot more electronics in newer cars, and so going for something like a Toyota (where these components are reliable) makes good sense.

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Sun 12 Mar 2017 18:17
anything at all - Small hatchback - suggestions welcomed - daveyK_UK

| would get another corsa, heard nothing but good reports about them.

the best in the vauxhall range

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Tue 11 Apr 2017 18:41
anything at all - Small hatchback - suggestions welcomed - catsdad
We have a 2010 Corsa 1.2 three door as a second car. Its quite nice to drive except both of us (5'6" and 6') find the seat belt cuts too high across our chests. Its also built down to a price with several well known issues such as seats prone to internal failure, a very expensive heater control if it fails and a wiper that slaps the windscreen pillar - again an expensive fix if you cant live with it.

I know HJ reports few faults but the ones I've listed are frequently reported on other forums. Its not in the same league as a Jazz or Yaris.
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