Help deciding which car?

stphnstevey

I am looking for a budget car. I travel about 15K a year and plan to keep it for 3yrs. Then give it to my wife (she can't afford a new car) who will also keep it another 3yrs and do about 8K.

I did want air con as without it previously I often got to meetings streaming with sweat in the summer - not good look! However I will be doing less motorway driving so I can leave a window open more.

I could go for a real budget Kia Picanto with no toys (electric windows, air con, central locking) at about £6700.

I looked at the Hyundai i10, which has air con and electric windows at about £7,700. However I found I could get the Kia Picanto Strike for the same spec plus remote central locking and alarm at the same price. However I found both a bit ugly and a little small.

I liked the size and look of the Kia Rio also at £7,700. It is a 1.4 petrol, but again has no toys. The toys are another £1,000 and also you can pay another £1,000 again for the diesel, which is more efficient than the petrol Rio, but more or less the same mpg as the Picanto. So the rio diesel would pay for itself against the rio petrol, but wouldn't really against the Picanto.

Rio Petrol Mpg = 48
Rio Diesel Mpg = 63
Picanto Petrol = 59

INSURANCE
Picanto Petrol = 2 (9)£184
Picanto Petrol Strike = 3 (10)£192
Rio Petrol = 4 (12)£208
Rio Diesel = 4 (16)£222

ROAD TAX
Rio Petrol = £125
Rio Diesel = £35
Picanto Petrol = £35

SO, basically

Can get the no toys Picanto.

Pay +£1000 for either Kia Rio Petrol (no toys) or Kia Picanto Strike (toys)

Pay +£2000 for either the Kia Rio Petrol Strike (toys) or Kia Rio Diesel (no toys)

Advice appreciated! Thanks

harveybobbles

The Rio diesel is a 3 cylinder and drives like a block of concrete.

You could always spend £7000 on something like a Fabia, Polo type car - which are better than the Korean stuff.

Hintza

15k miles a year is not a huge amount so the larger more relaxed one is probabl not as important as if you were doing 30 miles a year.

Whether diesel or petrol is also marginal on that mileage. If in doubt I would personally opt for the petrol.

The MSE route would be to go for the cheapest option possible, but then life woud be very dull. If you are not stretching yourself then I would probably go for either the bigger one (if you are say over 6') or the highe spec one for making life a shade more enjoable.

Of course my reply is really of no real help and you hae to pay your money and make you choice......:D

Hintza

harveybobbles wrote: »

You could always spend £7000 on something like a Fabia, Polo type car - which are better than the Korean stuff.

But they don't give you 7 year warranty!

harveybobbles

No, but you don;t look a knob driving one either

stphnstevey

harveybobbles wrote: »

The Rio diesel is a 3 cylinder and drives like a block of concrete.

You could always spend £7000 on something like a Fabia, Polo type car - which are better than the Korean stuff.

The diesel I drove flew along! It was comparable to a Golf TDI I used to drive.

Also I think the Korean brands have come along leaps and bounds and they used to be just cheap, but now there cheap and competing efficiently against other more well known brands.

I know what you mean about the look of the Kia Picanto, but the Rio is fine and personally I think looks like the Vauxhall Astra (although I seem to be the only one!). But certainly looks like a normal car.

mark5

Some diesels feel a lot quicker than they are, i dont think it would compare to a modern Golf TDI personally.

Hoof_Hearted

Daugher bought an i10 Comfort with scrappage. Utterly fantastic small car with 5 year warranty. It seems very solid and there is an amazing amount of space for such a small footprint and it's quite zippy. It seems more refined than the Picanto. It is also in heavy demand (long waiting list) so I suspect it will hold its value better. However, it is a small car and personally I would opt for something bigger as a family car.

Marsh_Samphire

Fiat Panda? Love mine (1.2 Dynamic aircon) had it 3 years so far with no problems. Great small car that feels very spacious on the inside.

whatmichaelsays

stphnstevey wrote: »

The diesel I drove flew along! It was comparable to a Golf TDI I used to drive.

Also I think the Korean brands have come along leaps and bounds and they used to be just cheap, but now there cheap and competing efficiently against other more well known brands.

Until you want to sell it on.

The used car markets are full of knock-down European and Japanese models. That means that your "cheap" Korean models ends up costing you a fortune in depreciation.

Inactive

harveybobbles wrote: »

The Rio diesel is a 3 cylinder and drives like a block of concrete.

You could always spend £7000 on something like a Fabia, Polo type car - which are better than the Korean stuff.

I disagree.