Toyota Verso vs Golf SV: thoughts?

SouthLondonUser

Can you please share your views with a non-petrolhead like myself who is quite ignorant of all things cars?

I’m in the market for a used family car; the use will be ca. 6-7k miles a year, 75% city traffic (of which a great part in 20mph zones) and only 25%, possibly less, motorways. I’m thinking petrol and automatic – I can’t be bothered with manual in city traffic, and the diesel filter would probably be troublesome with so much urban driving.

I have narrowed it down to:

1) 2015 Toyota Verso, 22k miles, 2 years of warranty remaining, 1.8L petrol

2) 2017 Volkswagen Golf SV (called sports vagon on the continent – the MPV-version of the Golf), nearly new (2k miles), 1.0 TSI turbo

The Golf SV costs £2k more. I like the driving position (less tall, feels less like a van and more like a car), the interiors and the visibility better, but it has less storage space and:

I’m not sure if the nearly new is worth £2k more, considering they both have 2 years of warranty remaining (the Japanese give 5 years vs the Germans’ 3)

I wonder if the 1.0 litre engine is too small for the car; it feels OK in the city but I wonder if overtaking on the motorway becomes impossible, and if the small engine will simply last much much less

I wonder about running costs and parts; is Volkswagen much more expensive?

Thoughts? Thanks!

As you may have guessed, boot space and practicality are more important to me than how exciting a car is to drive; I prefer MPVs to estates because the taller boot makes it easier to store luggage and family paraphernalia (eg bicycles) upright.

daveyjp

One word from me - Toyota.

From my experience they know how to make cars which are built to last and when they very occasionally go wrong the dealers are good at sorting problems.

From my (very recent and ongoing) experience German brands have a flaky reputation for reliability. Once you have handed over the cash for the vehicle they can quickly not care it takes 8 weeks to source a part.

CardinalWolsey

Which model of car has the better placed satnav?

And don't look at engine size - completely misleading these days. Look at the other power related stats, e.g. bhp, torque etc, and see which better suits your driving requirements.

SouthLondonUser

CardinalWolsey wrote: »

Which model of car has the better placed satnav?

Neither The BMW 2 Active Tourer with heads-up display, but that's beyond my budget

CardinalWolsey wrote: »

And don't look at engine size - completely misleading these days. Look at the other power related stats, e.g. bhp, torque etc, and see which better suits your driving requirements.

I couldn't find a torque chart to compare the two (torque charts are ubiquitous in bike reviews but not in car reviews, it seems), but the Toyota peaks at 160Nm at 4,000 rpm, whereas the Golf 200Nm at 2,000 rpm

I have no doubt the Golf will be fine in city traffic; I'm just wondering about motorway overtakes.

Is it true that smaller engines tend to last less? Or is this less true with modern engines? Either way it shouldn't be a huge issue if we only drive 6-7k miles a year.

SouthLondonUser

@daveyjp, which German brand were you referring to?

knightstyle

The VW 85PS engine is a bit underpowered but fine for everything other than motorway cruising when the 110PS engine with the 6 speed gearbox is much better. However a 1.0K engine will have to work hard most of the time.
it is surprising that VW only offer the 1.0L petrol or a diesel engine, I would have thought one of their 1.5L petrol would be a good choice if available.
As for the Verso, bullet proof with loads of space and useful bits. A friend has a new one every 3 years or so and has never had any problems, so probably cheaper in the long term to run.

System

SouthLondonUser wrote: »

I wonder if the 1.0 litre engine is too small for the car; it feels OK in the city but I wonder if overtaking on the motorway becomes impossible, and if the small engine will simply last much much less

There's a Fifth Gear video on Youtube where they put a Ford Focus with a 1.0L 3 cylinder Ecoboost engine against a 1.6L Ford Focus in a drag race. The Ecoboost wins. Not by a lot but it does win. Overtaking is most certainly possible with a 1.0L engine becuase it is turbocharged but you will find that the power may need you to be in a lower gear.

No reason why the engine should last any less. Regular servicing, remembering that it has a turbo so if you've been giving it some beans not to just turn the engine off but sit there idling for 30 seconds or so to allow the turbo to cool and it'll last plenty.

knightstyle wrote: »

However a 1.0K engine will have to work hard most of the time.

However reading the OPs post where 75% of the time it'll be urban driving, a lot of that in 20MPH limits, I would say that it won't be. Given the type of use it is going to get I personally think that'll be better than a 1.8L.

SouthLondonUser

I should have clarified it's the 110PS 1-litre engine. VW does offer bigger petrol engines - it's just that I'm not going to buy new and the 1-litre 110PS is all I have found in the used market so far (this Golf SV does not seem to be very popular, whereas there's loads of Versos around).

So, in summary, is it fair to say that the Verso is reliable, and the German 1.0l 110PS should be fine for the limited motorway miles we'll be driving?

The Verso is only 10cm longer than the Golf SV, which shouldn't be life-changing when it comes to finding a parking spot.

Svein_Forkbeard

Can I lob another car in the mix. The new shape Nissan Note with the 1.2 DIG-S (supercharged) engine. Zero VED and a great torque engine and they suffer from high depreciation early on which means they are relatively cheap to buy. I bought one recently and I must say i'm very impressed.

SouthLondonUser

@Svein, thanks, but the Nissan Note is a bit too small for us: it's about 20 cm shorter than the Golf SV and 30 cm shorter than the Verso. We'd need to be able to fit a large suitcase, a medium suitcase, a backpack and a pram in the boot. The Golf SV is one of the shortest petrol cars that lets us do this, excluding the BMW 2 and Mercedes B which are beyond my budget

k3lvc

SouthLondonUser wrote: »

@Svein, thanks, but the Nissan Note is a bit too small for us: it's about 20 cm shorter than the Golf SV and 30 cm shorter than the Verso. We'd need to be able to fit a large suitcase, a medium suitcase, a backpack and a pram in the boot. The Golf SV is one of the shortest petrol cars that lets us do this, excluding the BMW 2 and Mercedes B which are beyond my budget

We've just been looking at similar but wanted diesel and ended up with a Kia Carens - the other key contenders available in petrol were the Ford B-Max/Grand C-Max - great with the benefit of sliding doors