What car to buy?

Yorkie1234

I'm hoping that someone will be able to help me decide what car to buy. I have a budget of about 10K (or a little more for the right car) and I'm looking for a small 5 door car. I want one that will last as long as possible with minimum running costs as I don't earn a great deal.

I've been looking at Kia cars because of the 7 year warranty. I've been thinking about a 1.4 engine but as my current car (Chrysler PT Cruiser) has a 2 litre engine I'm not sure if it will seem really slow. Maybe a 1.6 would be better?

I do very little motorway driving but as this will be the only car in my household (lone parent) I will probably be using it to go on holiday so I will be doing some motorway driving.

So, as I know practically nothing about cars I would be grateful for any advice as I need to sort something out sooner rather than later as my car seems to be falling apart at the seams.

Thanks

Ultrasonic

Yorkie1234 wrote: »

I'm hoping that someone will be able to help me decide what car to buy. I have a budget of about 10K (or a little more for the right car) and I'm looking for a small 5 door car. I want one that will last as long as possible with minimum running costs as I don't earn a great deal.

Are you looking to buy new or second hand? Second hand will offer better value for money but you'd want to factor in possible repair costs. Are you planning to buy from savings or a loan? If you don't earn a great deal I'd be looking at spending less that £10k plus on a car.

I've been looking at Kia cars because of the 7 year warranty. I've been thinking about a 1.4 engine but as my current car (Chrysler PT Cruiser) has a 2 litre engine I'm not sure if it will seem really slow. Maybe a 1.6 would be better?

Look at engine power, torque and 0 - 60 mph times rather than engine sizes, and compare these to your current car. Especially as many more modern cars have turbos (both petrol and diesel). (Look on www.parkers.co.uk for this sort of performance info.)

wallbash

Fiesta / Corsa or the Focus .

Top three selling cars last year. Others will give you there views BUT more people bought these than any others. Ten grand will buy a very good example.

Yorkie1234

I would love a new car but would buy whatever is better value for money. I'm buying from savings but will still have savings left if I spend 10K on a car but would like to keep the rest for a rainy day so ideally want to be able to fund any repairs/MOT/Insurance from my salary.

I've looked at mine and have found the following:

Engine power - 140 bhp
Torque -186 Nm 139 lb-ft
0 -60 - 9.3

For a Kia Rio 1.4 it shows:

Engine power -107 bhp
Torque - 137 Nm 101 lb-ft
0 - 60 - 11.1 secs

It's easy to see what the 0 -60 value relates to but where I can see that the Rio has a lower bhp and torque I don't know enough about them to be able work out how much less powerful it would be. Also as my Cruiser is almost 13 years old I'm assuming that it will have lost power due to it's age?

Yorkie1234

wallbash - a friend of mine has recently bought a fiesta which she is really pleased with. I do like the shape of them so will have a look.

RichardD1970

We had a Kia Rio 1.5 crdi. It never went wrong in the 7 years we had it and when bought new was £4000 cheaper than the equivalent Fiesta.

Guest101

I'd recommend a Hyundai I30, genuinely one of the best car's i've ever driven, have the speed on the motorway when you need it, and a great town car, good mileage.

And 10k should get you a late '11 or early '12 model in very good condition

MX5huggy

Yorkie1234 wrote: »

It's easy to see what the 0 -60 value relates to but where I can see that the Rio has a lower bhp and torque I don't know enough about them to be able work out how much less powerful it would be. Also as my Cruiser is almost 13 years old I'm assuming that it will have lost power due to it's age?

BHP and torque are fairly irrelevant, because weight and to a lesser extent aerodynamics effect the out come of the power.

BHP and Torque are related to each other together they are the force that pushes back in your seat.

So is your PT fast enough now? Do you use it's full power most or some of the time? You need to go and drive the Kia to see if it is acceptable to you.

The 0 to 60 tells you how fast a car is. Top speed is of course not important as most are nearly double what is legal.

Personally a car with a 0to60 of over 10 seconds would not make it on to a short list for me. But could I tell the diffrence between 9.8 and 10.2 no of course not.

Ultrasonic

MX5huggy wrote: »

BHP and torque are fairly irrelevant, because weight and to a lesser extent aerodynamics effect the out come of the power.

They're not irrelevent, but a 0-60 mph time is the most easily understood. If I was looking at two cars with the same 0 - 60 but one had more torque than the other then that one would be better up hills, or with lots of people/stuff in the car (and of course towing).

OP - your current car is pretty fast actually. Do you use that, or would you be happier with something a little slower that would be more economical to run (improved mpg and likely insurance)?

Personally a car with a 0to60 of over 10 seconds would not make it on to a short list for me. But could I tell the diffrence between 9.8 and 10.2 no of course not.

The 0 - 60 mph time of my car is 11.4 seconds but it is in all honesty faster than I need it to be. It is not slow or underpowered (but is a diesel so a little different in that it's sluggish off the line, but quicker once your moving, to e.g. overtake). It's all a question of what the OP wants.

Strider590

If you want a small car that'll last, you need to go for those with a long warranty.
Most small cars aren't really built to last more than a few years, neither are those with a long warranty, but they just assume you'll sell it before things start to go wrong.

Ectophile

Buy a car you like.

You could look around, compare fuel economy, acceleration times, boot capacity and so on. You would end up with a very ordinary car that you wouldn't care about.

Or you could just look around at cars in your price range, decide what you like, and buy one of them. You might be giving up something in the specifications somewhere, but for the next few years, you'll have the car you wanted.