toyota aygo or fiat 500

[MHIssues]

Looking to buy a car this afternoon and have a choice of these 2, both automatics.

Toyota Aygo. 2012. 1.0ltr 36,000 miles on clock
fiat 500. 2010. 1.3ltr. 42,000 miles on clock.

The Toyota is £500 cheaper. So I guess on paper looks the better deal but the Fiat looks a bit bigger, maybe a bit nicer to drive? Any thoughts on reliability?

Toyota every time.

I have a Fiat 500 - bought from new - it’s been a shocker .... cost me £££££££ in repairs. Fun to drive though when I am not seething with resentment. How much are you paying for them?

Fiat is £5000. Toyota is £4500

Just found a Peugeot 107, 2014, 22,000 miles on the clock for £5500?

My gut feeling was that the Toyota would be more reliable than the Fiat

I had a Fiat 500 for 7 years. It was fantastic and nothing ever went wrong with it. Obviously you never know, but just wanted to say that it's not always the case that Fiats are unreliable

I have had both - my current car is a Fiat 500 that I have had from new. Both great cars, cheap to run and fun to drive!

Have you driven them both? I thing the Toyota Aygo and Citroen C1 are the same car. I test drove the C1 and it felt like I was driving in a tin can! It just didn't feel solid. I ended up getting a VW Up which felt so different, and was a much nicer car to drive.

Again, Toyota every time. Recently bought one for DDs to learn to drive in. We looked at Fiat 500 too, amongst others. They both preferred the Toyota anyway, luckily, as from a reliability standpoint they are going to be far better. Certainly wouldn’t have said the Fiat is bigger, on the inside in any case. They look nice from the outside but, for me, that’s about it. Wouldn’t touch a Peugeot after having one a few years back. Constantly needed to go back for things going wrong.

Aygo every time. Just sold mine due to increased motorway miles but absolutely loved it

Of small cars, my preference would be the VW Up! or Skoda or Seat equivalents. I had a Citigo and it was great.

Of the two you're looking at I'd pick the Toyota, newer, cheaper, lower mileage, better reputation. The Fiat 500 is widely thought of as looking nice but crap reliability.

But they both seem quite expensive for a car that age. Here's a 2017 model for that money

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/363435377446?hash=item549e6fc326:g:wnwAAOSwz9xgAYVJ

Sorry, previous link was a cat s. This one isn't though:

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/203494796173?hash=item2f613c2b8d:g:IykAAOSw74hgenb2

Anyway, I'd have thought £4.5k for a 9/10 YO tiny car is way too much, I'd expect more like £2-3k. I paid £1800 for a 2008 Mini and they're expensive for what you get. I was also looking at 2015 Citigos at the same time and they were around £3-4k.

If you've got £5k on a very small car, I'd be wanting one around 5 years old, not 10. They're only around £10k brand new and depreciate to 50% way before 9+ years old.

But they both seem quite expensive for a car that age. Here's a 2017 model for that money
Agree, our Aygo is a 65 plate, 25k miles, lots of extras the original owner had opted for and was GBP4995.00. It wasn’t available locally, we went through the Toyota dealership who found it on their database and had it brought to us (Kent) from Cardiff.

I think used car prices have shot up and also automatics are more expensive.

The Peugeot model apparantly was built by Toyota which Honest John says is a plus point so I think I might go and see that first as it's low mileage

And autotrader say the Peugeot is a "great price" on their price classification thing.

Don't get the fiat, £££ to repair, very basic and very small

Don't worry too much about Toyota and mileage. Admittedly mines a diesel but it's now 266000 miles with little more than wear and tear.

I bought a Peugeot 107 last year (late 2012, 62 reg) for £2200 - higher mileage than the ones you are looking at but still a huge difference in price. Great car though for town driving. Zero car tax and free parking permit where we live as it's a band A emissions car.

Look elsewhere except Autotrader. A lot of people use ebay or Facebook marketplace these days to sell cars.

I hired i Fiat 500 in holiday for 2 weeks when travelling City to city in Spain.
I would never willingly drive one again. I really didn't like it at all.
I've no personal experience of the Aygo but my friend loves his.

If you are test driving, make sure you are 100% happy with the Toyota automatic gearbox. My daughter has one and the gearbox is awful. It doesn't creep like a regular auto and tends to kangaroo jump when you try to pull away or do fine adjustments parking it. It needs a clutch re-teach and actuator lubrication about every 6 months to keep on top of the issue.

I dont know if I'd dare buy a car off ebay or fb...I'm looking at garages not private sales

If I had was selling a car that had problems, I'd get rid of it through the trade rather than as a private sale. I have bought 6 cars over the years on ebay from private sellers, with never the slightest problem. I think you are far more likely to get a duff car from a garage.

Right, I've had a look at fb marketplace and not really anything. I think small automatics are hard to find.

The mechanic at the local garage says he's never failed an MOT for a Toyota Aygo.

I have had a Toyota aygo, it was OK but nothing special, very tinny and plastic. I changed it for Skosa Citigroup, the Skoda was brilliant, sturdy and better quality. I now have a larger Skoda.