Car Recommendations £5-6k

scaredofdebt

Hi,

My current car isn't really suitable for my needs nowadays, it's a diesel but my mileage has dropped considerably so I'm looking to go petrol.  It's also getting long in the tooth and will need some expensive repairs soon, injectors etc so have decided now is the time to make the change.

So, what's reliable and good value for money in the £5-6k bracket?

I will probably only be doing 5-8k miles a year, mainly short trips ie school run (12 miles there and back, we live in the sticks).

Ideally I want it to be able to carry 5 people (we have two cars but sometimes I will need to carry passengers).

Not too fussed about badge etc.

Thanks for any advice.

Grumpy_chap

What about an early Leaf?

scaredofdebt

Grumpy_chap said:

What about an early Leaf?

Battery life would be my concern, there's a few on Autotrader around the £6-7k mark but they all have quite high mileage, does the battery need replacing at about 100k miles?

Also the early Leafs are ugly as anything but that alone wouldn't put me off.

cypher007

scaredofdebt said:

Grumpy_chap said:

What about an early Leaf?

Battery life would be my concern, there's a few on Autotrader around the £6-7k mark but they all have quite high mileage, does the battery need replacing at about 100k miles?

Also the early Leafs are ugly as anything but that alone wouldn't put me off.

No the batteries don’t need changing at 100k. Check how many bars the battery has left, it’s the set next to the charge bars. I’ve noticed some very dubious Leaf’s being advertised, one has supposedly only covered 23k but has 1 bar missing already. Another had apparently 73k and yet only had about 5-6 bars left. These cars are either clocked and or had constant fast charging cycles put through the battery.

generally at around 70k the battery should have 10 bars left, I’ve even seen some at 90k+ with 10 bars.

I wouldn’t buy one unless it had at least 9 bars and only then if I was doing low miles.

i would look at finding a cheap reliable (non franchised) garage to see how much actually needs doing to your current car. As used prices will drop by around 20% between now and July/August, and continue dropping into 2023. So if you can hang on like me wait till 2023. Otherwise you will pay over the odds. I guess it depends on how much your current car is worth trade in? My current ones an old car which won’t give me much off.

Goudy

What about a Kia Venga or a Hyundai ix20? (both are virtually the same car under the skin)
Both are what you call hatchback pluses. They are based on the normal hatchback but the body has been increased to give a little more space inside, so can carry 5 and a little more luggage better than the normal hatchback versions.

Both are fairly reliable, good value and pretty cheap to run.

As the Kia came with a 7 year manufacturers warranty, your budget will get you into a car that's probably just dropping out of that now, but the last owner/s will probably have kept the dealer services up to keep the warranty alive, so out of the two I'd start looking at the Kia first, you should find some rich pickings with full service history and  low mileages still within the dealer network as the dealers tend to hang on to the better, lower mileage cars even if they are 6 or so years old. 

Petriix

If you go for an EV then you'll save £1k per year on fuel, VED and servicing. So, depending on how you finance it and how long you plan to own it, that could effectively double your budget. 

bengalknights

1.4 Honda Civic?

Fusion777

Civic, Corolla/Auris, Golf. Stay with manual and petrol.