Kia C'eed - A reliable long distance commuter car?

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Fri 22 Mar 2019 14:12
Kia C'eed - A reliable long distance commuter car? - c flynn

After our last car, a Peugeot, broke down (cam belt) we are looking to get a reliable car within a tight budget around the £8,000-9,000 mark.

My partner does a round trip commute of 100 miles a day (on A roads) 5 days a week. We are looking for something nearly new (given the last car we had didn't last very long) and with a warranty. This is why the Kia C'eed has appealed with its 7 year warranty. It also sounds like a good car for commuting, particularly the 1.6 diesel. Any thoughts?

Other options are:

- Ford Mondeo which is the top end of our budget but has no warranty... this feels important given our last experience with a used car.

- Peugot 208 which although are cheaper, I'm reluctant because of previous experiences with the brand when they get over the 5 year age

Do you think the Kia C'eed is a worthy option? We are hoping it would last around 3 years before we trade in again.

Edited by c flynn on 22/03/2019 at 14:19

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Fri 22 Mar 2019 14:34
Kia C'eed - A reliable long distance commuter car? - badbusdriver

Firstly, look through this post as it seems to very similar, www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/129519/ford-focus-...d. Yes, the OP does have a higher budget, but has been recommended to get something within the budget you are on.

The Kia should be fine, but make sure it has a full and proper Kia service history, otherwise the warranty will not be valid. But, on this budget, for your useage, as with the other post, i'd say Honda Civic 1.6 diesel all day long. If you can live with its looks, it is probably going to be about the best option for your budget.

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Fri 22 Mar 2019 15:14
Kia C'eed - A reliable long distance commuter car? - c flynn

Thanks for the reply - I've also noted the points made on the other thread.

The Civic would be ideal but a quick search tells me for the same age and mileage as the Kia they seem to be about £2-3K more (around the £11-12K mark) which feels expensive. Especially as after 3 years we are likely to have put 75,000 miles on the car we buy which is extensive depreciation in a short amount of time. At the moment I feel like this budget over a 3 year period makes the most sense, even if we have nothing to re-sell at the end of the 3yrs. Hopefully not but with this commute we have never had a car to resell, both cars over the last 2 years have not lasted (they were older cars, Peugeots, worth around £2,500 at time of buying). So we are hoping by putting a bit more money in and a warranty we can get something that survives the 3 year mark.

Its a tricky situation when limited on budget, if we had a few thousand more I'd probably be looking at a different model thats be around longer.

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Fri 22 Mar 2019 15:22
Kia C'eed - A reliable long distance commuter car? - galileo

As in the other post, Hyundai i30 and Kia Ceed are essentially the same: difference in warranties is that Kia is 7 years / 100,000 miles, Hyundai is 5 years/ unlimited mileage.

In both cases check that the warranty is still valid because of full manufacturer service records.

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Fri 22 Mar 2019 15:53
Kia C'eed - A reliable long distance commuter car? - barney100

Skoda Fabia I know of has clocked up over 300,000 miles with little trouble.

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Fri 22 Mar 2019 18:19
Kia C'eed - A reliable long distance commuter car? - badbusdriver

The Civic would be ideal but a quick search tells me for the same age and mileage as the Kia they seem to be about £2-3K more (around the £11-12K mark) which feels expensive.

I just put this search criteria into Autotrader: >£9k, >30k miles, diesel engine, manual gearbox, no insurance write-offs. Came up with these results:

The youngest Civic is a 2015 1.6 i-DTEC S with 24.5k miles for £8991

The youngest Cee'd is a 2016 1.6 CRDi 1 with 18k miles for £8287

Not sure what search criteria you are using, but under mine, i'd definately go with the Honda. Bear in mind also that in the 'real mpg' section of this forum, the Honda's average mpg is more than 12mpg higher than the Kia. Using your projected 75k miles over 3 years and the current UK average diesel price of 128.74p per litre, that means the Honda would save you £1533 in fuel cost.

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Sat 23 Mar 2019 10:17
Kia C'eed - A reliable long distance commuter car? - colinh

Not sure of the situation in UK, but here in Spain the Honda dealerships seem to be rapidly disappearing; if you're unlucky you may have to travel for service.

This website is not very encouraging on the UK situation:

"The brand announced last year that it would be shrinking its franchised retail network by 10% and Webb said that this process had been completed “organically”.

He added: “It was something that we needed to do. We are at 155 sites now and there will be a couple of further changes coming in April.”

https://www.am-online.com/news/manufacturer/2019/03/12/honda-uk-s-swindon-manufacturing-plant-closure-could-impact-sales

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Sat 23 Mar 2019 20:46
Kia C'eed - A reliable long distance commuter car? - ifekas

Do you think the Kia C'eed is a worthy option? We are hoping it would last around 3 years before we trade in again.

I have a 2010 Cee'd 1.6D estate which I have had for about five years; I would have replaced it by now but it's so reliable and still satisfying to drive, and the 1.6D is very responsive; mine is a 115 but newer ones seem to be more powerful... mine is plenty powerful enough for me! My next car will probably be another newer model Cee'd! We have now added a new Picanto to the family which shows our satisfaction with KIA.

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Sat 23 Mar 2019 21:09
Kia C'eed - A reliable long distance commuter car? - ifekas

I forgot to add that if you are doing long distances, try to get a Cee'd with '3' trim as cruise control is very useful, particularly when average speed cameras are becoming more and more prevalent; it also makes motorway driving more relaxing. When we ordered the Picanto we had to go for '3' trim because of the cruise control as even the X-Line and GT-line variants (apart from GT line S) didn't have cruise control.

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