Advice on my next car

Bigphil1474

Fair point. I've owned 3 Renaults in the past - a Renault 5, Renault 12, and a Laguna. They all ended up costing me a fortune and dying untimely deaths, but the newest would be 20 years old now. 

DCFC79

Petriix said:

Avoid anything with an engine, I hear they're going out of fashion. 

Haha I like it, yeh ok I wont be joining the electric lot yet

DCFC79

Bigphil1474 said:

Eloise1670 said:

My dad always said don’t buy French cars .. I had a few Peugeots and they werent the  best

My brother used to own a car repair garage - always recommended Peugeots as he didn't see many that needed repairing. I've had a couple and both were great. Renault was a whole different story.

OP, depends what you want, what you need it for, and what is available in your price bracket. I've always had decent cars from Ford, Peugeot, and Toyota. Having said that, I also had a decent Rover back in the day. Kia, and Skoda always seem to be decent these days.

Current one is a Peugeot and Ive had enough, so many spark plug issues, plugs have been changed by Peugeot. A garage Ive used alot in the past is recommending Renaults to me.

DCFC79

Eloise1670 said:

My dad always said don’t buy French cars .. I had a few Peugeots and they werent the  best

My current car a 208, has been crap, was ok until I think earlier this year. It drinks oil.

DCFC79

Stubod said:

A bit of an open ended question really....eg new or 2nd hand...how much money...what type of car...annual mileage...type of journey....fuel preference??

That said I would avoid anything French, and Landrover. 

Would recommend Japanese and Korean, (7 year warranty), and would go petrol hybrid.

I want used, my car plus enough to top it up to £8k. I dont Land rover, just don't see the point, I don't live in an area that makes it worthwhile.

DCFC79

CliveOfIndia said:

This one is quite nice: https://www.pistonheads.com/buy/listing/17083981

Or if your budget won't stretch to that, this one's a bit cheaper: https://www.regit.cars/used-cars/lamborghini_huracan/uk-5-2-v10-640-sto-2dr-auto-coupe-chelmsford_46be4239-431f-4492-96f0-5ea0561aa3c2?store_code=REGIT1&gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIxNK8rpuaiAMV74CDBx2Q1yT_EAQYBCABEgIf-PD_BwE

But it depends to a large extent on your requirements and driving pattern.  Is it usually just you in the car, or does it need to carry 4 adults plus luggage in relative comfort?  Mostly town driving, or do you regularly do long-ish motorway journeys?

It's a massive over-generalisation, but a small "city" car will be economical and easy to drive/park around town, but can be a bit tiring on long motorway journeys.  Conversely, a slightly larger car with a larger engine will make motorway cruising more comfortable, but sometimes at the expense of economy.

What fuel do you want?  Petrol is generally fine for most folk, a diesel can pay for itself if you do a lot of miles, and obviously these days you've got electric cars to throw into the equation.

In terms of manufacturers, it's not so clear-cut.  Again, as a very very broad rule of thumb, German or Japanese have always traditionally been viewed as pretty reliable.  But you'll always get outliers.  You can buy what is reputed to be a "very reliable make" and end up with a lemon.  I had a Peugeot for many years, put close to 200K on it with not an ounce of trouble, but many folk would say don't touch them with a barge pole.

Then you've got the likes of Skoda - when I was a kid they were the laughing stock, these days they're a VW without the expensive badge on the front.  What's the saying - thousands of mini-cab drivers can't be wrong ?  Similar with Seat.

As has been mentioned by another poster, the Honest John website is a good starting point to get an idea of common problems and what to look out for with a particular make, also look at What Car.

Mainly going to work so about 10 miles at most on a return journey, some motorway driving, a 60 miles return journey and some longer motorway journeys so 200/300 miles, not a speed demon either. Definitely want petrol.

Current car is a 208, previous 208 was great until its last year or 2, just felt I was spending too much on it.

DCFC79

Goudy said:

Bigphil1474 said:

 Renault was a whole different story.

I think that's a bit unfair these days.

Sure in the mid 00's they did experiment with lot's of electronic, like fancy LED dashboards that weren't great but these days things are a bit different.
Her in doors had a 2004 Scenic that drove her up the wall, the dashboard constantly flashed like Hamley's on the run up to Christmas!

But these days car electronics are usually only made by one of a small list of manufacturers.
Chances are we've all got the same or very similar electronic in our cars.

Today their engines are used fairly extensively by different manufacturers.
Most ICE's are a join venture between themselves, Nissan and Mercedes.

Renault/Nissan/Mercedes petrol engines have been proven to be pretty reliable as well. Unlike say Fords similar petrol engine which has a proven serious fault with the wet cam belts they use. A fault that some Peugeot and Citroen engines have been known to suffer from as well.

Yes Ive been told to avoid some Fiestas due to using the same wet belt as my 208.

facade

DCFC79 said:

Yes Ive been told to avoid some Fiestas due to using the same wet belt as my 208.

The ecoboom is sort of worse than the puretech, changing the belt is a £1000 job on an ecoboom, so even the ones that had the latest belt revision and have only ever had Ford oil get traded in when the belt is due (The ones that haven't generally snap the belt and scrap the engine). So there is actually a market for good ecobooms with FSH coming up to belt change (for pennies on the pound obviously), then fitting a belt kit at trade rates and punting them back out with proof of that new belt for top money.

The Puretech is a much easier job, and they don't often break- but they do shed teeth and belt material that blocks the oil pick up and oil ways. For want of an oil pressure gauge they get run for thousands of miles with low oil pressure (the light won't come on until there is no oil pressure at all) which causes huge wear, the vacuum pump for the brakes fails first, so a second hand puretech is a Really Bad Idea. (any puretech is a Bad Idea)

I believe some Toyotas have the puretech engine along with Vauxhalls.

VW use a wet belt to drive the oil pump, which hasn't improved their reputation, and the AWD versions chew their way through rear tyres too.

As advised before look at Suzuki, Hyundai, Kia

DCFC79

facade said:

DCFC79 said:

Yes Ive been told to avoid some Fiestas due to using the same wet belt as my 208.

The ecoboom is sort of worse than the puretech, changing the belt is a £1000 job on an ecoboom, so even the ones that had the latest belt revision and have only ever had Ford oil get traded in when the belt is due (The ones that haven't generally snap the belt and scrap the engine). So there is actually a market for good ecobooms with FSH coming up to belt change (for pennies on the pound obviously), then fitting a belt kit at trade rates and punting them back out with proof of that new belt for top money.

The Puretech is a much easier job, and they don't often break- but they do shed teeth and belt material that blocks the oil pick up and oil ways. For want of an oil pressure gauge they get run for thousands of miles with low oil pressure (the light won't come on until there is no oil pressure at all) which causes huge wear, the vacuum pump for the brakes fails first, so a second hand puretech is a Really Bad Idea. (any puretech is a Bad Idea)

I believe some Toyotas have the puretech engine along with Vauxhalls.

VW use a wet belt to drive the oil pump, which hasn't improved their reputation, and the AWD versions chew their way through rear tyres too.

As advised before look at Suzuki, Hyundai, Kia

Yes my mums 208 is a puretech and so is mine.

Goudy

Yes, Suzuki have been quietly working away at their mild hybrid system and it seems like they are on to a winner.

They have basically dumped the turbo and all the unreliable gubbins that go with them and instead use their mild hybrid system to give a similar sort of boost in power.

The engines they fit this to are pretty much tried and tested engines that are well proven but might have had a bit of an update here and there. They are ran and sold in some difficult and demanding markets when it comes to repair and service. Places like Indian.

The latest Swift seems to fair well when tested against the likes of the Yaris Hybrid for mpg.
Ok they can be a bit low rent inside, but they do tend to be hard wearing.

I had a Grand Vitara on hire in the Caribbean for a few weeks earlier this year, they haven't made it to our market (not yet anyway)
It was a big car, similar to things like the Rav4, yet is only had a 1.5 mild hybrid engine.
It drove like a 2 litre turbo and mpg was very good for a car this size. I can only remember filling it up once, just before it's return and it wasn't like it was ran at mpg friendly motorway speed, not on their crater filled roads.

This one had a CVT gearbox that was a bit fussy but all cars out there are autos.

Something else a bit left field is Mazda.
They've pumped lots of money into their Skyactiv technology.
Instead of adding parts to improve emissions and drivability, they have built technology into their engines for the same result.
Things like using slightly bigger engines but with lower compression ratios, in head exhaust manifolds and clever exhausts that aid cylinder scavenging which lowers combustion temps and emissions.
There's just less to go wrong with them.

Suzuki's and Mazda's are the sort of cars that owners in the know, know, and tend to return again and again.