Help! I have to buy a car. Please tell me if you love / hate your car.

[Wasgijenaj]

Hi, my old car has finally gone to the junk yard in the sky & I have to replace it. I think I need to get an approved used car, but really not sure where to start.

Can anyone recommend their car make & model & let me know why they like it?

Alternatively has anyone bought a car they hate? Please share so I can avoid if appropriate.

I don’t really have a wish list for a new car but obviously reliability is v important. Thanks!

I love my VW ID3.

Easy and lovely to drive (and nicely nippy), good tech, lots of space (especially in the back), economical (about £4-£5 to charge, which gives me 200 miles), easy to park. A great car!

What absolute piffle! 🤣

I ran a garage for 5 years and the only two times I’ve even seen an alloy need replacing is because they’ve been driven on for too long after a flat tyre.

We have had Toyotas for the past 17 years and never had an issue. The only thing we’ve spent money on is wear and tear parts like brakes and tyres. We currently have a Yaris Cross which is a delight to drive. The hybrid engine improves each time we get a new car. I feel very nervous about buying a car from another manufacturer to be honest.

Until I moved to London with free travel, I had a mid-range Renault Clio, and loved everything about it - nice to drive, nippy, oodles of space, really comfortable, good satnav, Bluetooth, good acceleration, cruise control and speed limiter, very manoeuvrable. When it was in the garage, I had a Vauxhall Nova as a courtesy car, and it was horrible.

OMG @RealHousewivesOfTaunton I hear you about the Mazda MX30.
Bloody rubbish. Stupid doors and crap range. They gave me a corsa and then took it off me the next day because they had to match my car apparently. The corsa was better!
Much prefer my Kia (are you me??)

@Barleysugar86 is the T-roc the same size as the Golf? I love my golf but it's 17 years old albeit going strong and have been eyeing up the T-roc.

We have a Honda Civic estate, and it's indestructible and very reliable. The man in the garage trying to sell it to us described them in a fit of candour as "cars for people who have given up," and then looked like he wished he could claw back his words. Luckily, we looked at each other and thought, yep, that's us, take our money for your reasonably priced second hand car please. A friend had already had a Civic hatchback for donkeys years which she loved and eventually drove into the ground, and then replaced with a Honda SUV, and she's been happy with both too.

I had a Suzuki Swift....loved it...it was my 'divorce' car and so nippy...but too small for a family.

Then I had a Kia Ceed GT line...liked it, great kit and loved the heated seats and steering wheel...but a bit soulless.

I have a Kia sportage now, absolutely love it. Not as much kit as the Kia Ceed, but it's amazing to drive.

I don’t have one anymore as it was too small for our lifestyle, but I agree they are SO much fun to drive! Like a go kart, and corners better than anything else I’ve ever driven.

ive got a 10 year old mini countryman cooper all4 called Mavis. Had no issues in all those years, just usual servicing and new tyres. Kids learned to drive in her. I smsmile every day when I get in to drive her. She’s a hefty old bird with a bit of a drink problem but she’s still my favourite possession. X

There is a great website that shows you from each dimension the difference and I found the visuals really useful to picture before we went for a test drive- https://www.carsized.com/en/cars/compare/volkswagen-golf-2019-5-door-hatchback-vs-volkswagen-t-roc-2017-suv/front/
It definitely feels more spacious inside (probably a lot due to the extra 8cm height). In practical terms though it's only 5cm longer and 3cm wider so it's not a difference we have really noticed in terms of space on our driveway or in a parking space.

I have an automatic Dacia Sandero. Absolutely love it. So economical & nippy. Just bought my dd a manual one as she loved driving ours too

If you want a small and cheap to run car, Suzuki Splash. Or Suzuki Swift if you want something a bit more powerful. We have the Splash as a runaround and a Citroen Spacetourer as our "family" car. Very happy with both. Also liked the Nissan Note which we had previously - good medium size car.

I adore my Landrover discovery 4 but it is expensive to run. The car that really surprised me recently was a Fiat 500 that I had as a courtesy car for a couple of days. I'd always dismissed them as style over substance but it was really fun to drive. Much preferred it to the Golf or Micra I'd had before (yes, my mechanic gives me whatever random car he's using as a runaround! ). I'm seriously considering getting one for my DD when she passes her test.

I'm another one who loves her Smart for 2. Had one for 11 years, no problems, replaced it with a newer version. Superb town car, yet holds its own on the motorway and I get 50 mpg. Can park in spaces that are too small to get other cars in. The door skins are made of bumper stuff, so you don't get the usual dings when the plonker parked next to you whacks your door with theirs. We had someone try to drive up our tailpipe, and aside from a chip in the paint where the bumper had crumpled in and then popped back out again, there wasn't any damage to our car. The other car did not come out of it so well.

I have a Ford B-Max. Having had Fords before (Escort, Focus, Mondeo and Galaxy) I wanted a Ford because of the heated front windscreen, which is a godsend in winter.

I also like that the rear doors are sliding, so it's much easier to get kids out of the car in car parks.

Toyota Yaris. Had it 16 years.

I love my T5 Volkswagen but if you need a smaller option, my old Touran ran for years without needing work. I'd never have an Audi or Skoda again as they were always at the garage. And pre-kids I had an ancient Ford Ka that never once failed me. That said I'm so impressed with Volkswagens I've had I'd go for one of those again if I ever switch from the big van.

Nissan Leaf. So easy to drive in town. goes at any speed, including in 20 mph, accelerates like a beast if you need it. Very very cheap to run (free from our solar panels may to September). Clean and quiet, I hate driving a combustion car now, they just feel really unresponsive.

We have and love an i10. Literally travelled the length if the country in her, can get into small parking spaces and kept me surprisingly safe in a crash.

I love my CRV

I also love my Porsche Cayenne - however for reliability I would chose my CRV every day…

Ford Focus Estate. Love it, drives nicely, looks nice (if that matters to you), heated windscreen is a dream, pretty fuel efficient, lots of kit and 'extras' for a very reasonable price, comfortable, lots of boot space.

I had a Skoda Superb Estate before. Loved that as well - great MPG and the boot was cavernous, which was ideal for dogs/pram etc. It was mostly very comfortable to drive but they are very long and it did wallow a bit around corners. I also have a Hilux now and I'd say the Skoda handled similarly around corners to the Hilux, but I expect it from a pick up truck, not so much an estate.

I don't recognise the issue with alloys, specifically, that a PP mentioned above. We're very rural and the roads around us are APPALLING. The Focus has 18" alloys (and I've hit some unavoidable potholes with them) and not had an issue so far, touch wood. I do frequently see people with "premium" cars (BMW and Mercedes) post on our local FB group complaining about potholes and the cost of new wheels/tyres, though, so perhaps I've just been lucky with my comparatively cheap car. 😂

Thanks again everyone, really appreciate you all sharing info about your cars.

😁@CherryHinton - love that!