Quick flashback: so my parents need the minivan more and more as they do more seasonal markets and need to move more pottery stuff around. So I’m left with a mission: look for a small manual subcompact that gets you around the city and can take some highway from time to time so I can do my photographic trips eventually and go places.
So far after a day of looking at stuff online and some dealership visits, I have three cars that will most likely be getting test drives tomorrow. The Kia Picanto (1.0 67hp), the Ford Ka+ (no, not the soccer parent wannabe crossover variant) and the Hyundai i10.
I’ll tell you guys how it went tomorrow, but I guess I might as well share how I spec’d the one I am heavily biased towards, the Picanto:
1.0 Concept, 67 horsepower engine. Nothing out of the ordinary but should do the trick. We’ll see if it takes the win tomorrow though…
Don’t. My Mom has a base model i10 (basically the same as the Picanto) which I incidentally had the fortune of bashing the living hell out of from Berlin to Hamburg today. If you want to make any trip beyond a city miserable, you have found your car.
Be a good boy. Get a 1997-1999 Citroen XM 2.5 Turbo D Break instead.
Edit: On a more serious note, don’t buy new, buy a lightly used car (1-3 years old). Low mileage, already broken in, a large portion of the depreciation already dealt with, better equipped and cheaper to buy. Mom’s i10 was brand-new, spec’d like a turkish prison, for €10k. Meanwhile my Dad bought a one year old, 10.000km Smart ForFour 1.0, with folding roof, satnav, probably some other bits and snazzy paint scheme for €9k.
I’m in the same situation, and I have looked at the following models:
Have do you looked a KM 0 car? I reccommend for example, the Micra K13 1.2 DiG-S. 3 cylinder, 1.2L, and supercharged. You can get one for 8000-9000€, with very low mileage. Other car that I tested a couple of months back ago, it was the new Micra.
A Micra 0.9T 90cv, Tekna trim. Is fun to drive, smooth to be a 3 cylinder, it accelerates fast for the size and power, and is well made. But I found a bit expensive to don’t have (included as an extra), for example, electric rear windows.
Other car it was the Mazda 2. I tested the 1.5 Skyactiv G 90cv 2 years back ago, and is a very good car: good dynamics, good quality, well equipped, and a good engine. Is not so punchy as the Micra one, but has a better response, and maybe more reliable.
And other very good B-segment hatchback, is the previous gen Suzuki Swift: reliable, fun to drive, comfortable, and you can get a good mileage (but worst that the other ones). But try to find a km 0 new-gen unit.
But my advice is to not buy a brand-new car. Is the worst decission that you can do.
Thank you everybody for your feedback and recomendations for tomorrow. There might be something to save the day, KM0 (newish but lower price), Hyundai i20 1.2 75hp. I think I might have to push for this one instead.
From my limited experience, I echo the “buy slightly used” advice.
I got my Hyundai Elantra that way, and at a steal of a price.
I also recommend Hyundais based on the one my mom had, and my own. Nice cars that are very reliable.
Depends on what you need the car to do and what you’re gonna use it for, really.
I bought a “brand new” Ford Fiesta in 2016 (brand new in quotations because it was still a facelifted 2008 model at the time) because I wanted a warranty, with everything that comes with it. Maintenance plans, free loaner cars, free parts change (my shifter got stuck in my hand after 40k, changed for free).
And honestly, if you’re planning to keep that car until it becomes too expensive to maintain (we’re talking at least a decade here), buy brand new out of the dealership. So you know the entirety of the car’s history and you’re sure nobody revved the piss out of it during break in or things you can’t see on the maintenance record.
As for the cars… first off which dealer do you trust the most?
I don’t know much about your situation, I’m not familiar with cars outside the U.S. I would not recommend Kia or Hyundai anything. It may be a U.S. thing, but I’ve had a couple. The powertrains are fine, but things like water pumps, fuel pumps, etc. go out, and are more expensive than say a Toyota, or something domestic.
