What used car to choose?

Little_Miss_Confused

My current 03 Clio is my most expensive car to date (£1600 a few years ago.) I want something newer but not sure I want to pay more than £6k. I want a similar size (or tad bigger,) cheap to run, reliable, 4/5 door. I was looking at the Rio because of Kia's 7yr warranty but not sure now as many have said that over 3 years old and most things will be classed as wear and tear plus having to get all work done at the dealership will be expensive.
Generally I do short rural or about town journeys with occasional motorway trips.
Some pointers as to what models to look at would be great.

Cap2019

You can get a nice Hyundai i30 (2nd gen) for that price. I've had mine for a year now and would definitely recommend. The japanese and korean cars (hyundai, kia, mazda, nissan etc) are widely considered the most reliable and parts shouldn't be too expensive if somehting does go wrong. You're right about the warranty, dealerships can be known to put everything down to wear and tear so you'd do well not to bank on it. I would look for a 3-5 year old car and perhaps try and get a 6 month to 12 month warranty to cover any early issues. Anything beyond that would be likely to be wear and tear related anyway. If you're looking at the Rio then perhaps consider a newer (late 2nd gen) Hyundai i20? but that's coming from a bias Hyundai owner ..

Goudy

Little_Miss_Confused wrote: »

I was looking at the Rio because of Kia's 7yr warranty but not sure now as many have said that over 3 years old and most things will be classed as wear and tear plus having to get all work done at the dealership will be expensive.

That is likely with any used car, things wear out on all of them.
Even the warranty on a new car will be very limited on wear and tear items like brakes and clutches.

If you can get a Kia with some of the 7 years warranty still remaining, you should still get the benefit in case anything none wear and tear related does goes wrong.

Using an approved dealer should see you negate some of these issues.
If you spot a worn tyre or two, negotiate new ones or if the cam belt is due a swap in the next year, get them to do these before you buy.

An approved dealer might not seem the cheapest way to buy, but you can use it to your advantage. you might have to keep asking and haggling but you can edge some bets if you're persistent.
(don't ask for them all at once, you'll get their back up, chip away one thing at a time)

The only other option is a used car with no warranty or an expensive and flaky third party warranty and neither of those will cover wear and tear either.

parking_question_chap

Warranties are great, but they are only as good as the terms and conditions and even if repairs are covered, it still a hassle to have your car off the road. I would just try and find the most reliable car that fits the bill. Honda Civic would be my choice.

jimbo6977

If you are warranty-phobic (which is a reasonable position) then go for the simplest car available with least to go wrong.

Citroen Nemo/Fiat Qubo/Peugeot Bipper.

zagubov

I'm thinking Hyundai or another Kia.

Have you relatives in different parts of the UK?

Three of the last four cars we bought have been bought hundreds of miles from here in another city where I have relatives that will do a test-drive for me.

You can save quite a bit of money if you look a lot further away.