Cheap car, which one Micra, Fiesta, Punto or Clio

Tinuel

Morning all,
I have a limited budget, as my OH will only need the car for the day to day chores. Our budget is at 600 quid max. We have also decided to go for a small city hatchback as she feels more comfortable driving those.

Shorlisted we have:

Nissa Micra (£500), a 1998 Fiat Punto SX 85, 1299 cc for £450, a Renault Clio from 1997 (£450) and a Ford Fiesta from 1997, 1299 cc (£400). The only one with power steering is the Punto.

As mechanics isn't my strongest, which one is the more reliable out of those? I read that Fiestas are decent little cars.

Many thanks,

anewman

Out of those I'd vote for the Micra in terms of most reliable - although you don't state the year or engine size. I'd put the fiesta second on the list.

You don't need power steering, especially on a car of this size/weight. It's just one more more expensive thing to go wrong if it does.

Tinuel

anewman wrote: »

Out of those I'd vote for the Micra in terms of most reliable - although you don't state the year or engine size. I'd put the fiesta second on the list.

You don't need power steering, especially on a car of this size/weight. It's just one more more expensive thing to go wrong if it does.

Thanks for the info, forgot include the Micra, it's a Nissan Micra S, 1997, engine 998cc, 3 door going for £495.

negg

Micra is probably the most reliable, the Fiat likely the worst. One simple way to decide which is the most reliable, is to have a drive around, counting how many are still on the road from that age range. You'll probably find plenty of of Micras, large numbers of Fiestas, less Clios and very few Fiats left.

The disadvantage with the Micra will be the spare parts will probably be a little more expensive than some of the other makes. Hopefully it should need less of them and it should work out as six and two threes! It's better to get one six and go to the garage once, than two threes and get more hassle and have to go twice! :rotfl:

Of course it does depend on the particular car from that age as well. If the Micra has been thrashed and is falling to bits but the Fiat has been looked after...it could be a different story!

AdrianHi

No question Micra. Used to have them as courtesy cars, pretty decent little things that do OK on the motorway too.

Inactive

Another vote for the Micra, good little cars.;)

AdrianHi

Micra's were made in Sunderland UK and all the time I had Nissans I found parts (no wait, the one part I ever had to buy because these cars almost never go wrong) to be no more expensive than Ford.

nullogik

I would rank them in this order (best, top - worst bottom):

- Nissan Micra
- Ford Fiesta
- Fiat Punto
- Renault Clio

Definitely if it were me, I would be going for the Micra everytime.

scubaangel

I had a Micra slightly older than that one which I loved, reliable and cheap to run, I followed it up with a 1997 Clio and hated it, it was a horrid drive and felt very very heavy to steer (neither had power steering), and my first car was a 1998 Fiesta, liked it, but only had it 3 weeks before I wrote it off so couldnt really comment fairly, but my family had run it since new and had very few issues.

I would definitely go with the Micra as the first choice but make sure to check it for rust, mine had alot of rust on the underside and not visible which would have cost me alot to get fixed at MOT time, hence I changed it.

Tinuel

Thanks all, I just rang the Micra and Fiesta owners to view them tonight. The Micra has got 112000 miles on the clock and the Fiesta 109000. Would that be average or high mileage for a 1997 car?

scubaangel

My 1997 Clio has milage of 125k, which was greater than the milage on the Micra, but the Micra had been used mostly as a student run around. So I would imagine those milages to be fairly average.