Recommend a car

darich

Inactive wrote: »

Agreed 100%, quite the reverse in fact, many makers would have tried to worm their way out of a recall.

Beat me to it as I was reading the thread.

It's always the same in these threads. Many people recommend cars they've had good experiences with while others have had terrible experiences with the same make and model.
Someone claimed VWs were better than fords and not made of tin cans. In my opinion VW are made with chocolate because they break at ridiculously low miles and cost a fortune to repair. I'l never buy another one. But my experience doesn't make it a bad car even if I refuse to buy another.

In my experience Japanese cars are almost always good. They regularly top reliability polls and are generally well equipped inside. As I've said German doesn't necessarily mean good although I've currently got a BMW Z4 which is superb and recently bought an Audi A4 which is also great so far.

There are countless fiestas, corsas, micras etc etc on the road so while some may love them and others loathe them, I always think they must be at least half way decent (even if I don't particularly like them) otherwise there wouldn't be so many of them on the road.

tomstickland

catflea wrote: »

Just interested, what are your grounds for saying that? Ok, so they aren't super fun to drive or amazingly fast, but they are far far from hateful. I certainly never regretted taking mine on and I'm thinking that my next car will be another.

My experience of one was a 1.1 SPi. So it was woefully underpowered, very plasticky (snapped the bonnet release off by accident), wobbly, absolutely zero driving pleasure.
On the plus side, it was impossible to kill.

Hintza

The best way to choose an older car is to get a cam of a busy intersection in an african city and see what is popular.

Then you know what is/was a good car, these guys can run and fix a car on sixpence and if they can't they wouldn't be driving it.

goldspanners

TR4 wrote: »

No, No, No!

In the trade FIAT stands for:

Fix It Again Tomorrow!

I assume that insurance will be also a major factor, so I would recommend something German (Polo, Lupo, smaller engined Golfs), Japanese - though some are assembled in the UK (Micras in particular are well thought of).

If image is not a problem to you, you could consider Hyundai and Kia, but be warned, some things are cheap for a reason!

My 19 year old and my 17 year old have a 2002 Beetle, and a 2001 Lupo. Both cars stand in the drive all weathers, and always start first time, every time. From a parent's perspective, I like to know that my kids are in well made, well engineered cars, with better than average safety features.

the fiat panda is a good option.

generally german and jap cars are more expensive to insure for young first time drivers.

catflea

tomstickland wrote: »

My experience of one was a 1.1 SPi. So it was woefully underpowered, very plasticky (snapped the bonnet release off by accident), wobbly, absolutely zero driving pleasure.
On the plus side, it was impossible to kill.

Fair point on the 1.1 thing - I still nearly bought one to replace my 1.3 though Suprised that you managed to snap off the bonnet release :eek: mine never ever wobbled, that said I regularly checked tyre pressures and kept a close eye on the wishbones (£15 ea front a factors and half hours work to change)

fakeplastictwee

My mum has always had Fiat cars, (up until now, she's got a VW) and they've lasted her years and she's paid out very little to run them... suprised to read they're not reliable!

flyingscotno1

AdrianHi wrote: »

2009 [leasing] fleet news reliability survey winner - BMW 3 series, for 2010 2nd place just pipped to the post by Honda Civic

Always an exception . Seriously though when was the last time VW got near Skoda in these reliability studies?

Hintza wrote: »

Now if TR4 was talking about the Punto I would tend to agree with him.

So would I, the Punto is the weakest model- quite old too although just launched a new one.

AdrianHi

flyingscotno1 wrote: »

Always an exception . Seriously though when was the last time VW got near Skoda in these reliability studies?

Lets just say that if I wanted a Polo or possibly Golf sized car I'd buy a Fabia, if I wanted a Passat sized car I'd buy an Octavia or Superb, before buying anything VW

Kayl06

Hyundai and Kia are out, insurance is too much, over £500 more than a polo or clio.

Don't like Pandas at all, think they look ugly, no offence to anyone who has one.

Matiz and Cinquecentos are just too small, need to fit 4 adults comfortably.

Did think about the C2 but they're also a bit small and i don't like the C3.

I don't like the old Corsas and didn't like driving it either so would rather not get one.

Haven't looked at Skoda yet but i think its going to be between a clio and polo.

catflea

Out of clio or polo, go Polo (or Fabia...;)) In my experience Clios are horrible little things.

Personally I quite like the C2, but the C3 has a bit of a reputation for poor reliablity....