New car - Astra, Mazda 3 or Civic - any thoughts?

Dave_Z

I drive a mk5 Astra every day at work. I'd rather just use my legs tbh. I hate everything about it especially the stupid semi-auto 'box our fleet has, which changes gear whenever it feels like and sometimes just loses the gear and leaves you coasting down the road with no drive. It's awful to drive and feels very cheap and dreary inside.

I looked at the previous generation Mazda 3 and the Civic about 6 months ago. Both were quite good, though ultimately i upped my budget and got a Volvo V50 instead. Of the 2 though, i would definitely go for the Mazda 3. I was looking for a gunmetal grey saloon model in 2.0 Sport guise. Stunning to look at, great to drive and very well equipped.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

pinkteapot wrote: »

Haha I've been talking about it for a few months and hubby said "let's wait until the new year".

Just hope we don't blow a big chunk of the new car budget on fixing this one. :mad: Phoned a local garage to see if we can get it taken there by Green Flag if they can't restart it and they said "that doesn't sound good" when I described what happened.

thats what they all say!!!

Lum

atrixblue.-MFR-. wrote: »

thats what they all say!!!

Quite.

Did they do the sucking in air through the teeth thing too?

Mobeer

Honda Civic - a friend has a 1.8 petrol in top trim and loves it, except for the combination of bad rear visibility and parking sensors that go constant when still 50cm from an obstacle. I test drove a 2.2 diesel, liked the engine but not the handling, nor the low trade in offers and small discounts from Honda dealers.

Toyota Auris - driven an auto, been in a manual; a manual might be nice but the top gear in the auto is much too low and hence engine noise is high. Otherwise nice but in no way special; you would not regret buying it, but never love it.

How about the Seat Leon; nice looks (I think), the 2.0 diesel I wanted only came in high end trim which made it expensive, but a 1.4 petrol could be better value?


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new civic - there has been some talk in the press, but apparently not soon given the current car just got a facelift

knightstyle

Which magazine did a test on this type of car earlier this year. Go to the library and have a look.
Results, best...Hyundai i30, other "best buys"...Merc A class and Mazda 3
Think the Hyundai did best as value for money with good reliability plus there are deals for new ones http://www.holdcroftnewandusedcars.co.uk/hyundai/?gclid=COGR3MnagaUCFVBc4wodTEhHOA

pinkteapot

Thanks all. Interesting re the Hyundai i30. One of my friends recently bought one new. She'd always been a Ford girl but got such a good deal on the Hyundai she couldn't say no.

The list seems to be getting longer! Still very much undecided between new and nearly new.

Also thinking about pre-reg for the discount available but am aware of all the potential pitfalls. Hmmmmmm.

vikingaero

I'd look at the Kias and Hyundai's. Also the Skoda Octavia - maybe slightly bigger than you need, but most Skoda dealers get pretty good ratings.

pinkteapot

Are Kias and Hyundai good for reliability and build quality? But I mean build quality in the girly sense - how solid everything feels inside, how plasticky the dash is, etc etc...

kirsty12_2

I have a 1.6 Astra, i've had it 5 years with no problems at all. It's only been in the garage for servicing nothing else. It's not exciting but what car is these days?.

cajef

pinkteapot wrote: »

Our Astra has now done 105k and I just feel like it's going to start costing us money.

That is when they start to give problems, I used to have Vauxhall company cars, they changed them every 3 years or 80K miles whichever came first, they never had any problems.

Then in one of the companies cost saving efforts that changed it to 4 years and 120K, when they all started becoming unreliable at about 100K it cost them so much that they eventually went back to the original policy.