I need a new car soon, what options do I have?

elwistua

I run around in a Sport Ka which as the same engine as the OP and has a roof and 2 more seats. They are great fun to drive but they do like a drink of unleaded when pressing on.

I too am looking for a replacement purely a I fancy a change and something a bit more comfortable. Been looking at an Toyota iQ and with the 1 litre engine you pay NO road tax, averages 50+ miles to the gallon and is well specced if you can live with the size (quite small). Also looking at Alfa Romeo Mito's. Alfa are doing some very good leasing deals at the moment.

motorguy

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

No, you'll not make money, but neither will the leasing company;) Why line their pockets by leasing??:)

Because sometimes you can get a better deal that way compared to the discount a national lease company can make OR it may be a manufacturer backed leasing deal that the manufacturer has injected a lot of cash into?

Kilty_2

pgilc1 wrote: »

Because sometimes you can get a better deal that way compared to the discount a national lease company can make OR it may be a manufacturer backed leasing deal that the manufacturer has injected a lot of cash into?

+1 - finance isn't always the terrible thing people make it out to be if you know what you are looking for.

Strider590

Charliezoo wrote: »

I've had my StreetKa for 8 years now and its been great but I'm starting to have problems with it resulting in unexpected big bills. Now it is no longer made by Ford certain parts are starting to get difficult to source

Can I just say..... That the biggest load of tripe i've ever heard. No offence to you, but vehicle manufacturers are required to stock pile enough spare parts to last 15 years!!!

You should be having no issue getting parts for an 8 year old car, especially one that shares so many parts with it's hardtop brethren!

Charliezoo

Strider590 wrote: »

Can I just say..... That the biggest load of tripe i've ever heard. No offence to you, but vehicle manufacturers are required to stock pile enough spare parts to last 15 years!!!

You should be having no issue getting parts for an 8 year old car, especially one that shares so many parts with it's hardtop brethren!

The parts are available to order but not generally in stock. I needed a part for the roof mechanism which I waited 2 weeks for, boot lock - 2 week wait, injector - 3 weeks wait.

Any parts that are the same as the regular Ka are easily available, anything specific to the StreetKa are not easily available. The engine is different to the 1.3 Ka engine so many of the parts are not the same.

Ford have told me that they will continue to produce the parts required for the StreetKa for 10 years after production ceased in 2006 but they do not keep many of them in stock - I went to the Ford Parts dept last week and the man showed me the computer screen, pretty much everything specific to the StreetKa was on backorder or out of stock.

In any case the car is costing me more to run than its worth to me and I want rid of it.

bigjl

I don't think Strider read your second post OP.

On the subject of Renaults and reliability, my parents had Renaults for years and Peugeots, no issues, a snapped clutch cable on a Ren 5 that was about it.

Renaults are nice to drive but have a habit of having annoying problems, quite often electrical, or gearbox related.

I have personally owned a Ren 5, 11, 19, 21, 25, Laguna and Safrane, wife currently has 56 Clio, build quality has improved but they still have electrical issues, note more recent ones have a huge fuse/?spike-surge protector attached to the battery, perhaps that is to try and assist in preventing problems. Apart from some of the recent diesels fitted to the Laguna/Megane they are usually strong engine wise.

But I stiil can't bring myself to recommend one to anybody, in case it goes bang and they bought it on my advice.

However I am sorely tempted by the newer Grand Scenic or Scenic. Mega comfortable, and i would be happy to take the risk personally.

I like the Clio DCi, just don't get the 68bhp one or get it remapped if you do.
It drives better than the new Corsa.

My dad reckons his 208 is the best car he has owned, he is retired and does few miles, but finds it comfortable and easy to park.

It comes down to personal choice for the OP to an extent. Any relatively small diesel will give huge financial benefits, and certainly don't rule out Kia and Hyundai cars till you test drive one, they do seem to be well thought of by owners.