Honda civic or seat leon

zee34

Yes i did read about the timing belts in a honda civic so i would deffo look for a 1.5l with a chain. 

zee34

Goudy said:

I take it you'll be buying petrol?
If so I beg to differ with the Honda, normally I would lean towards one but not the 1.0 Turbo Civic with the CVT gearbox.

The CVT isn't anywhere near as good to drive as the later DSG in the Seat.
Also the 1.0L engine has a wet timing belt and has been known to suffer similar problems to Fords wet belts, ie it breaks up, clogs the oilways, takes the turbo out and snaps ruining the engine.

Even if you get a good one, like most timing belts they needs changing every 5 years/75k but due to it being a wet belt in oil the job is massive and so is the price to change it.
Last time I checked it was around £1200 + VAT, so a 2019 model isn't far off a rather big service bill.

Like most cars, your Seat and other similar VAG models aren't perfect, but most problems are well known and catered for.
There are always plenty of VAG specialist about locally that are well versed in them and under cut the dealers on labour charges.

Early dry clutch DSG's in VAG products could be problematic but the later wet clutch ones tend to be more reliable and drive much better, though they do have a service interval of around 40 thousand miles (a fairly cheap oil change).

Yeah i did read about the timing belts in 1L Hondas...so i would deffo look for a 1.5 l , and read about the wet/dry clutches in DSG autos. But i think 2019 are wet clutches so might be smoother. I just really want a car where for a few years i only have to deal with breaks, suspension etc normal maintenance stuff. My current car keeps giving me problems that im sick of fixing. 

Goudy

Have you thought about another make/model?

For the sort of money you are looking at spending, plus lots of town driving with the odd long trip a Toyota Corolla Hybrid would be on my list, perhaps at the top of it.

The drivetrain is pretty much bombproof.
The same hybrid drivetrain is used in lots of Toyota hybrid products and mini cabbers have been putting 300 or 400k on Prius' and the likes without much trouble.

The latest CVT gearbox has been redesigned.
It was never a normal belt/cone CVT to start with but used planetary gears.
The latest version no longer handles all the lower gearing, that is done by a single direct link to the electric motor, just like a normal electric car. Take offs and lower speed town driving is done in electric so it doesn't even use the gearbox for that.

This mean the CVT part is smaller and lighter as it only handles the longer gear ratios when you are up to speed.
This also means it takes some of that elastic revs/road speed feeling away.

The engine runs in a mock Atkinson cycle rather than Otto as it doesn't need to produce lots of torque, it gets that from the electric motor which means it's a lot less stressed.

Of course they are no sports car or hot hatch, but the pick of the bunch, the 2.0 has 180hp yet averages 50mpg+.

Keep in it the dealer network for services and they should offer another 12 months/10,000 mile warranty up to 10 years/100,000 miles.

We run a fairly large fleet of slightly older Auris and newer Corolla sport tourers that tend to do a lot of daily miles in and around the city, so fairly hard miles.
They spend little time off the road due to problems and the drivers love them.

photome

Goudy said:

Have you thought about another make/model?

For the sort of money you are looking at spending, plus lots of town driving with the odd long trip a Toyota Corolla Hybrid would be on my list, perhaps at the top of it.

by a twist of fate I mentioned earlier we have a 
a Civic 1.8
a Leon 1.4 in our family

then you mention the Corolla, we also have 2 litre sports tourer

we like all 3 and all 3 are reliable

for the money the OP wants to spend and  power and entertaining value I would go with the 2.0 Leon auto (we havent got one but have driven one) it has a chain rather than belt 

I know you go in to detail about the corolla CVT box and it isnt as bad as most people who have never driven one say, but it is still a CVT box, having said that I still like mine and I have done 70,000 in just over 3 years in it

ZIGGYBOO

Don't buy from Honda!  I am having a nightmare at the moment with my civic!  I bought a brand new Civic in 2018 from Honda & had it serviced every year by them.  To cut a long story short, my car is 5 years old now & under 33,000 miles and "my engine needs replacing" at a cost of nearly £9000!   obviously I'm not paying that because this situation should never had happened but if your out of warranty, Honda couldn't care less about you!  

photome

ZIGGYBOO said:

Don't buy from Honda!  I am having a nightmare at the moment with my civic!  I bought a brand new Civic in 2018 from Honda & had it serviced every year by them.  To cut a long story short, my car is 5 years old now & under 33,000 miles and "my engine needs replacing" at a cost of nearly £9000!   obviously I'm not paying that because this situation should never had happened but if your out of warranty, Honda couldn't care less about you!  

In your other post you say you have been offered a goodwill gesture so they do care. You dont say how much of the 9k they have offered ?

Is that their first offer, if so have you tried negotiating