New car for the little lady

Pondrew

Pondrew

Active member
So; in the new year I need to start thinking of a new (used) daily car for the wifey as the Skoda Octavia goes back in Feb (last of my leases).
I have set a budget of £15k, as this is what BCA want for me to buy the Octavia but the wife wants a change.
It needs to be a hatchback, 5 doors, manual, petrol, less than 30k miles, fairly good mpg, less than 4 years old, sat nav built in (otherwise she won't get to work) and have pdc. It also needs to be slightly interesting to drive (for me).
I have been looking and have only found three contenders that aren't too boring:
Focus Titanium x 1.5 ecobost (182bhp)
Vauxhall Astra SRi Vx line 1.6 (200bhp). Not a fan of the griffin but they seem to be under estimated from what I've read.
Fiesta ST 1.6 (180bhp)

Can anyone think of any alternatives?
Ta
 
I couldn’t fault my mark 7 golf gtd- 130k didn’t miss a beat and ticked every box

Not sure what prices are like at the mo?
 
Pondrew said:
Can anyone think of any alternatives?
Ta
Click to expand...

I believe you can get mail order wives these days, no idea on warranty or return policy and certainly doubt you would get one under 4 years old tbh.
 
How about a 308 Gti 270 - very subtle but also very under rated

208 Gti prestige - 200bhp and is a really great car to drive

Civic type R - Not certain these are win budget and a bit polarising on the looks front

Seat Leon Cupra - not the Cupra branded one
 
A Mercedes E Class coupe almost fits your criteria - 2016, £18k, 34k miles: https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202112050245109?advertising-location=at_cars&year-from=2016&maximum-mileage=35000&postcode=Hp91dt&body-type=Coupe&model=E%20Class&sort=price-asc&page=1&make=Mercedes-Benz&include-delivery-option=on

My wife has had an E250 coupe from new and it is a very good car. Powerful enough to be fun, yet economical too, and it handles surprisingly well. It has a cavernous boot, looks good and seems very well put together. It has never cost anything except servicing and consumables.

ETA - yes, she parks that one by touch too!
 
Ole gits rule said:
How about a 308 Gti 270 - very subtle but also very under rated
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I have looked at those but they are over budget for a decent one. I will look at the 208 though. Not 100% on another French car. Have had a couple and reliability (mainly electrical) were not the best.
Merc E class is too big, apparently. It must be a hatchback aswell.
 
We have a manual 2018 Golf GT EVO 150, it really is a great five door hatch, but they're over your budget. Our four year PCP is up in April and we will be buying it as the GFV is only £8k and WBAC are offering almost £15k at present, and forecourt pricing is nearer £18k (a factory order, we paid just £21k four years ago). Trouble is there's nothing new out there that's not going to cost us a lot more per month than we are currently paying. More importantly is does everything we need it to do, is comfortable, has a nice interior and is quite roomy, it was such a good purchase.

Before that we had a 208 1.2 Pure, whilst fun to drive it wasn't very practical being so small.
I like the look of the Focus, just the interior is a mess with a centre console that juts out as does the Fiestas, difficult choice. I quite liked the VW T-Roc which was just launched when we bought the Golf and we very nearly purchased an unregistered Tiguan 150 SE petrol, but had no tow bar

Good luck with the search
 
sars said:
We have a manual 2018 Golf GT EVO 150,
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Would be ideal but, as you say, is over budget. The dashboard and infotainment of the Octavia IS a MK7 Golf so would be familiar too.
Leaning toward the Astra as the prices are better. The only problem is none of the models, even the Elite, come with pdc as standard. Leather seats and heated steering wheel but no parking sensors; that's a strange one.
 
My mum picked up an F56 Mini Cooper S for roughly your budget that ticks most of your boxes except that it's a three door and has no PDC, but plenty of them do. She bought it in spring this year and it's a 2018 car so it was just over three years old at the time of buying. You can get them with five doors (although it spoils the look, imho) and all sorts of other variations if you need a bit more room. I don't know what mpg she gets, but as I can get high 30s in my JCW on the right type of journey I am sure it's not horrendous. I wouldn't go lower than a Cooper S (which is a 2.0) because I've found the smaller engines (Cooper is a 1.5 three cylinder I think) feel weaker as you push on.
 
How about a VW Polo GTI. Thats what we have for the wife, Ours is a 2015 and has the 1.8 turbo engine and is 192bhp and a cracking little car thats well worth a look :thumbsup:
 
sars said:
We have a manual 2018 Golf GT EVO 150, it really is a great five door hatch, but they're over your budget. Our four year PCP is up in April and we will be buying it as the GFV is only £8k and WBAC are offering almost £15k at present, and forecourt pricing is nearer £18k (a factory order, we paid just £21k four years ago)
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Kathleen has one of these too, due back 3 weeks ago but she’s had to extend her lease, eventually. Got a price to buy in March/April £13 odds November £18 odds now so almost what was paid for it new only got 12k or so on it, VW dealers dream in the current market. Was told a year for a spec’d replacement
 
Jollyjoiner said:
How about a VW Polo GTI. Thats what we have for the wife, Ours is a 2015 and has the 1.8 turbo engine and is 192bhp and a cracking little car thats well worth a look :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

[ref]Pondrew[/ref], my brother has a 66 plate one of these. He loves it standard servicing, tyres and for some reason a couple of sets of rear pads as they seem to corrode 🤷🏼‍♂️ But no issues or additional costs on top of these routine things

Almost lost no money from new too :thumbsup:
 
Pondrew said:
Ole gits rule said:
How about a 308 Gti 270 - very subtle but also very under rated
Click to expand...
I have looked at those but they are over budget for a decent one. I will look at the 208 though. Not 100% on another French car. Have had a couple and reliability (mainly electrical) were not the best.
Merc E class is too big, apparently. It must be a hatchback aswell.
Click to expand...

I thought a 308 could be had for £15k with sensible mileage.

The 208 is a great car, we miss ours and never had any issues with it and its probably the closest that Peugeot has come to matching the 205gti, get the prestige with full length glass roof.

Good mpg, decent servicing costs
 
Pondrew said:
sars said:
We have a manual 2018 Golf GT EVO 150,
Click to expand...
Would be ideal but, as you say, is over budget. The dashboard and infotainment of the Octavia IS a MK7 Golf so would be familiar too.
Leaning toward the Astra as the prices are better. The only problem is none of the models, even the Elite, come with pdc as standard. Leather seats and heated steering wheel but no parking sensors; that's a strange one.
Click to expand...
Motorpoint have a 67 plate GT EVO for £16,999 on Autotrader, that's about the cheapest I've seen
How about a Mazda CX-3?
 
The Focus is a pretty good car, exterior looks great drives really well and lots of space inside but the one thing that puts me off is the plasticky crap interior quality. Can't go wrong with a Mk7 Golf which is what we replaced our Fiesta with but not sure what engine you can get for your budget.
 
Jollyjoiner said:
How about a VW Polo GTI. Thats what we have for the wife, Ours is a 2015 and has the 1.8 turbo engine and is 192bhp and a cracking little car thats well worth a look :thumbsup:
Click to expand...
+1. My wife has a 2016 model which she has had from nearly new and absolutely adores it. Great fun to drive, fantastic spec (sat nav, reversing camera, heated seats etc) and pretty cheap to run.
 
Polo doesn't have half the kit (no pdc or sat nav), although I like the idea. Golf spec would be crap too for the budget and a 1.0l engine (same as in the Octavia which is not the most exciting or powerful), or the 1.5l at a push.
I don't like modern Minis; sorry.
She really needs something Focus/ Golf size or bigger (not too big though) as it will be the main family car (the E92 is OK but not the most practical space and obviously the E89 is useless for most things).
She doesn't like SUVs or MPVs (nor do I).
Maybe because of the rise in prices this year, but it seems that pretty much everything of a similar type, age and mileage is the same price! :o
Never thought I'd be OK with paying £15k for a four year old Focus.
I am interested in a Mazda3 sport Nav, as I have had two Mazda6s and they were great everyday motors.
Something like this is top of the list ATM

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202111269984998?postcode=pe111xn&fuel-type=Petrol&year-from=2016&maximum-mileage=35000&sort=price-asc&onesearchad=New&onesearchad=Nearly%20New&onesearchad=Used&include-delivery-option=on&quantity-of-
 
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