£7k to spend - Micra, Polo or Fox?

Ant1974

balsingh wrote:

It was ... before they started hanging out with the guys at Renault

Very true.

iceicebaby

I bought a brand new polo in april last year, paid 8.5k for a mid range one.

Its great and I love it! (and its blue!)

Just from a girl's perspective!

kitchpoo

i would go for the Polo also - the Micra does depreciate mainly due to volume sales to hire fleets - when these it the marketplace it effects the residuals hard, the new shape also has lost many of the loyal following, forcing nissan to lower prices and cashback - which again knocks on to the used market.

The Fox is new - maybe too new to find as an ex-demo unfortunately, it is built in Brazil if I recall, is roomy but the interior trim is a little flimsy and it is a top heavy car - it sits higher than the Micra and is marginally smaller in track, making it slightly more unstable and suseptable to crosswinds.

Leaving the Polo - avoid the Dune, But a well built if slightly anonymous car but perfectly capable, the 1.2 is a good powerplant and the diesels are superb.

If I was looking - without your shortlist - I would also consider....

Honda Jazz - strong residuals, some nice design features leading to class leading interior space and is well built.

Smart ForFour/Mitsubishi Colt - Smart 1.1 comes in very cheap and the Colt 1.1 Black is exceptional value for money - the Smart is a bit Garish and there is a questionmark over the future of Smart at the moment - but the Mitsubishi makes sense and looks more grown up.

Fiat Panda - as previoulsy mentioned

Seat and the Skoda Fabia and Ibiza

Suzuli Swift - Probably my personal favourite at the moment - a competant all-rounder , strong reliability (I think these have Toyota's engines), and a clean cut design looking modern and chunky.

Toyota Aygo - Rock solid residuals - and a severe lack of quality plastics or bootspace.

Vauxhall Corsa - New corsa launched a month a go - some may be appearing as ex-demos under budget, I would avoid the 12v engines, but otherwise a decent car.

Marsh_Samphire

I have a 7 year old VW Polo 1.6 and it's been absolutely fantastic but I'm picking up my brand new (automatic) Fiat Panda 1.2 on Saturday. I would have liked the Fox but there's no automatic, and I would keep the Polo if I could. I bought it brand new in Oct 1999, personal import from Holland, arranged everything myself and saved £4k. I'm not PX-ing it and haven't put an ad in the paper for it yet - is it possible to get emotionally attached to a car?

Hintza

For fun I would add the Panda to your list!

Anthony74

Hintza wrote:

For fun I would add the Panda to your list!

The Panda will be easy on your pocket and put a smile on your face. And six car awards:D

spanglesugar

Thank you all for your comments.

It's interesting to hear all the other cars you recommend. I have looked at quite a few of them, but they weren't right for me. Despite the fact I only need a very small car, I need one with a big enough boot for the buggy. The Aygo would've been on my list if you could fit more than a carrier bag in the boot!

I've also had a lot of problems with the Nissan dealer whenever I've taken my car in for an MOT. Very poor service.

I have to admit I love the heavy feel to the VWs - the doors make a reassuring bang when I close them! I'm not a fan of the new Micra shape.

So, it'll be a VW. This decision has been backed up by all of your comments, which is fantastic. I keep hearing bad things about VW, so to hear good things from actual owners is very reassuring.

No-one seems prepared to do a deal on the Fox. And that is my favourite - it's smaller and that's all I need. And I need to sort it out in the next day or two.

JonathanA

Deals will be hard to come by on the Fox because it is so new. There aren't any secondhand about at the moment & demand will be relatively high due to its newness. But shop around. Drivethedeal.com will discount by £100 on the base 1.2 - not a lot I know, but it's a start. Friends of ours have also bought through carfile.net (broker) and said very good things about the service from them & the supplying dealer. Again may be worth a try. If nothing else, you can take these savings to your local dealer and ask them to match the price.

hope you find the car you're looking for.

DealDrivers_company_representative

I'd also support the suggestion of Polo....good residuals (which the Panda does not have) and the Jazz...as previously suggested.

Fox suffers as it is built on the other side of the world (along with Jetta and Beetle) so leadtimes are extended to ridiculous levels due to an extra 4-6 weeks needed for shipping unless you can find spare stock already in the UK and margins on them are severe...we usually get around 3-5% depending on the exact final choice so it's not a car where you can make great savings...Polo gets around 8.5-9% dealer discount unless its a 55ps engine....

Jazz is another where savings on brand new/1st owner deals are meagre because of the way the manuf'r structures the background deal into its dealerships...we generally get around 5.5% which is more than many brokers.

The best deals in terms of actual cash-off-list-price are always with Peugeot, Ford, Vauxhall, Citroen etc but the residuals suffer in direct proportion.

Skoda fabia are good value too...as are Hyundai Getz/Amica.

Hope that helps

spanglesugar

I'm going to order a Fox tomorrow. I rang around a lot today and got offered a set of mats and 2 years servicing, which seems quite good ( a full tank of petrol is standard apparently).

Why is it that they reward people who take out the finance offer with 3 years servicing? I'm paying cash and don't qualify for anything unless I haggle for it. Why do they use incentives to encourage people to go into debt? It's ridiculous!