Advice needed on replacement for Peugeot 207 / Ford Escort

makara

Gave up a 1997 Ford Escort hatchback a few years ago due to ULEZ non compliance / and my mother let me use her 2009 Peugeot 207 since - which now might be too expensive to repair after MOT emissions failure

Want a replacement 5 door hatchback that isn't Ford or Peugeot - 1.4 to 1.6 litres - and a bigger boot than a 207 (the Escort's boot was much more roomy)

Budget around £5000 

Mileage - between 40000 to 50000 (not more) 

Since we bought the 207 in 2016 - I have no clue on what makes and models would be a suitable non Ford and non Peugeot replacement - would be grateful for suggestions as per budget and mileage

Obviously don't want something as old as 2009 - so less than a decade old (for example between 5 and 9 years old)

Many thanks 

Mildly_Miffed

At that end of the market, don't get TOO hung up on "I want one of these..." - find something in good condition, with good history.

But first, let's put your requirements into Autotrader.
Within a 35 mile radius of central London, there are 20,000 cars <£5k listed.
Of those, just over 200 tick all your boxes.
<50k mile, 2016 or newer
...but THREE-QUARTERS of those have been previously written off.
You're looking at 55 cars in the whole London area - and you've also said you want to ignore 22 of those just because of the badge (Ford, Peugeot/Citroen/DS)

Do NOT get hung up on very low mileage. It's counter-productive. You're paying more for a car that's often in poorer condition, because very low mileage and short journeys are bad for cars. That's almost certainly what's helped to do for the engine in your 207.
Take that off, and your 2016-and-newer non-write-off count goes up to just over a thousand cars.
Take the cap to 90k, and you've just ruled out half of them.
70k, and you're down to <250.

As for ULEZ - no issue. Everything petrol since about 2005 is compliant - and everything diesel since about 2015, but whatever you do, do NOT buy a ULEZ-compliant diesel for 1,500 miles a year. You will have no end of problems with the emissions kit.

If you've only done 15,000 miles in that 207 in a decade, and you live in London, I'd seriously be questioning whether owning a car is worthwhile or not. Surely, by the time you add up all the ownership costs, using a local carclub rent-by-the-hour makes much more sense?

makara

Many thanks - and a fair point about low mileage cars given what's happened to ours 

Location wise we live in Outer West London - about 5 miles from Heathrow (which is West of us) - in other words we are much nearer to Heathrow than to Central London 

fatbelly

Your advantage is that you do a low mileage. So get a higher-mileage car and in a few years it will become a lower mileage one. Don't be afraid of a 100k mileage because a well maintained car will sail past that. 

Also your idea of 1.4 to 1.6 litres engines is outdated. Cars these days get more hp out of less size

I had a look at what might be available where I live and found a Seat Leon (post 2012 are nice cars, VW Golf sized), Kia Rio (anything Kia is worth looking at, Hyundai is similar ) and Peugeot 2008

If you want a small car with a big boot, see if any Skoda Fabia estates show up. A nice example popped up in my search. I still regret selling mine. 

makara

fatbelly said:

Your advantage is that you do a low mileage. So get a higher-mileage car and in a few years it will become a lower mileage one. Don't be afraid of a 100k mileage because a well maintained car will sail past that. 

Also your idea of 1.4 to 1.6 litres engines is outdated. Cars these days get more hp out of less size

I had a look at what might be available where I live and found a Seat Leon (post 2012 are nice cars, VW Golf sized), Kia Rio (anything Kia is worth looking at, Hyundai is similar ) and Peugeot 2008

If you want a small car with a big boot, see if any Skoda Fabia estates show up. A nice example popped up in my search. I still regret selling mine. 

Many thanks

Can you elaborate on the 1.4 to 1.6 thing? 

Do you mean that nowadays an engine that is less than 1.4 will give similar performance as what 1.4 / 1.6 used to give?

makara

fatbelly said:

I had a look at what might be available where I live and found a Seat Leon (post 2012 are nice cars, VW Golf sized), Kia Rio (anything Kia is worth looking at, Hyundai is similar ) and Peugeot 2008

This is good info - I have no clue on Seats / Kias / Hyundai - so just looked on Autotrader for some near my area

Hyundai looks didn't grab me - and the same for the Seat Leon

Kia Rio did - a nice shape externally

However the boot looks a little small - compared to the boot of the VW Golf (Mach 7), whose dashboard / features also look better

- except the Golf looks bland externally

I'll look at some videos of the Rio - as those will probably be a better indicator of boot space (etc) than just Still photos

Mildly_Miffed

makara said:

Location wise we live in Outer West London - about 5 miles from Heathrow (which is West of us) - in other words we are much nearer to Heathrow than to Central London 

5 miles east of Heathrow would put you around Brentford/Kew? Basically, where the circulars meet the river? There's not many would call that "outer"...

I repeat my suggestion about whether you actually NEED to own a car... Maybe try it for a month or three, see how it goes.

Seat - VW's Spanish mid-range brand, same under the skin as VW/Audi/Skoda.
Kia/Hyundai - Korean sister companies, same as each other under the skin.

fatbelly

You will probably find a 1.2 tsi engine more lively than a traditional 1.4/1.6

It sound like boot space is important to you. You can now add that as a filter on the autotrader site

Herzlos

makara said:

fatbelly said:

Your advantage is that you do a low mileage. So get a higher-mileage car and in a few years it will become a lower mileage one. Don't be afraid of a 100k mileage because a well maintained car will sail past that. 

Also your idea of 1.4 to 1.6 litres engines is outdated. Cars these days get more hp out of less size

I had a look at what might be available where I live and found a Seat Leon (post 2012 are nice cars, VW Golf sized), Kia Rio (anything Kia is worth looking at, Hyundai is similar ) and Peugeot 2008

If you want a small car with a big boot, see if any Skoda Fabia estates show up. A nice example popped up in my search. I still regret selling mine. 

Many thanks

Can you elaborate on the 1.4 to 1.6 thing? 

Do you mean that nowadays an engine that is less than 1.4 will give similar performance as what 1.4 / 1.6 used to give?

With turbos and adjustable timings and stuff, the displacement doesn't correlate to performance in the same way it used to years ago. Especially since in a lot of cases the same engine is available in 2 or 3 different states of tune.

My 1.4T puts out the same power my 2.5 of 20 years ago did.

So you want to look at the power output and not the engine size, though if your driving is almost all at low speed then you don't really need anything more powerful than the base models (60-80bhp). Where it gets more complicated is that the lowest power cars are more popular with new drivers which means insurance may cost more.

I guess the short answer is to ignore the engine size and just buy something that you like and is in good condition.

makara

Mildly_Miffed said

5 miles east of Heathrow would put you around Brentford/Kew? Basically, where the circulars meet the river? There's not many would call that "outer"...

I repeat my suggestion about whether you actually NEED to own a car... Maybe try it for a month or three, see how it goes.

Seat - VW's Spanish mid-range brand, same under the skin as VW/Audi/Skoda.
Kia/Hyundai - Korean sister companies, same as each other under the skin

Many thanks for the info on the sister brands

At the moment I'm leaning towards a Mk 7 Golf - although they look horribly bland on the outside, but seem to have a big boot and nice interior / dashboard

We're in Hounslow - which has always been classed as an Outer London borough - 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_London?wprov=sfla1

makara

Herzlos said:

Where it gets more complicated is that the lowest power cars are more popular with new drivers which means insurance may cost more.

Many thanks - and wow that is mad - hadn't considered smaller HP cars being favoured by newer drivers could mean they insure for more!

Our 207 is 95 bhp I think