Searching for a new car

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Honda Jazz Owner here. The modern Jazz has the annoying modern "safety" tech but seems pretty reliable. It's also comfortable and economical. We get better than 60 mpg from ours. The washer jets seem to clog and need replacing, apparently they can't cope with hard water. The infotainment user interface isn't great but it's adequate.

Agree that you should run a mile from the 1.2 Mokka or any 1.2 from a Stellantis brand (Peugeot, Citroen, Vauxhall and others).

I would expect any of the Toyotas to be reliable and long lasting.

Johnmcl7

moneysaver1978 said:

I found Fiesta and Polo to be more roomy inside than a Micra. While the Mokka isn't luxury like say a Lexus or similar, it does seem to have nice interior premium materials compared to say a Nissan Micra.

Did you mean Mazda CX-30? Looks like a really nice car but 2.0L engine size might be overkill for us!

Mazda did make a CX-3 which was a crossover version of the Mazda2 and smaller than the CX-30 but they stopped making them back in 2020 so doesn't meet your two to three year old requirement.

Something to bear in mind with Mazda is that unusually they use bigger engines but without turbos so they're comparatively low power output when compared to rivals.  For example the Puretech 1.2 engine you mentioned in the Mokka can produce either 100 bhp or 130 bhp while the 2.0 litre engine in the CX-30 starts at just 120bhp so not much different.  The reasoning is that the engines should be more reliable longterm so I wouldn't let that put you off.  I have a 15 year old Mazda with a 2.5 engine which also is not very powerful for the size but I've never had a single issue with the engine.  

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If you are looking at Mazda, avoid the diesel engine. Diesel Mazdas are a lot cheaper than the petrol equivalents for a reason! 

Keep away from small turbo engines in large bodied cars. Modern 1 litre turbo engines give the performance of a 2 litre, with the economy of a 3 litre (when you use the power) and the reliability & lifespan you'd expect from something that spends most of its life revving high and producing maximum power.

Petrol Mazdas are very reliable because they use larger low powered engines that are much less stressed all the time.

Goudy

Different model Toyata's run different generations of Hybrid systems.
I think the latest Yaris, Yaris Cross and now the new Aygo X use the G4 version.

The Yaris and Yaris Cross can be bought with both the 1.5 HEV 115hp and 130hp. 
The 130hp versions are in the Excel and GR Sport trims.

The biggest features of the 4th gen is it can use the electric motor independently of the ICE.
The battery is also around 10% more energy dense, nearly 10% lighter and can absorb energy 28% better like for like over the last battery.
This all equals more electric only motoring and more electric only but the ICE working as just a generator, rather than always working together.

The engine it's self is lighter and far more thermally efficient than the last. It actually recovers waste heat from the exhaust to help warm up the engine faster to optimal working temp. 

And they have finally revised the electric water pump. The old one did tend to fail after 150,000 miles or so, so hope that's improved. 

The beauty of it all it's they are improvements over the last gen and the gen before. It's no new and frightening, it's all proven and reliable.
They started with something good and continued to make it better.
All that Japanese Kaizan really does work. Small improvements on something that was already reliable and proven, trouble is it does tend to come at a cost.

They aren't the cheapest things on the market, but with what could be in effect a ten year/100,000 mile warranty and doing little miles yourself,  you could pick up used one with slightly higher miles and run it until it's 10 years old with little problems.

The older gen stuff did 150,000 to 180,000 miles before things like water pumps and their old NiMH batteries started to become problematic.