Best Small Car?!

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I’m planning to upgrade my current car - Fiat 500 2018 plate. I love it but it’s too small and I don’t enjoy motorway driving in it.

12k max budget
5 doors
Feels sturdy on the motorway
Small-ish as I live in a city centre with small parking spaces

I would love a Polo or A1 but I’m unsure whether I’d be able to get a decent enough one without problems in my budget - I’m literally open to any suggestions!

Thank you x

Toyota Aygo. I had one for years. It was great.

Toyota Yaris would tick all those boxes and are generally pretty reliable.

Love my VW up
we have a bigger car but this is perfect for me for work and running round it - really economical and nice to drive - there’s some good secondhand ones about

I’ve heard Aygo so many times but I’m not sure if they’ll be sturdy enough for regular motorway driving?

Toyota Yaris, just bought one last month, so happy with it and it’s fine on the motorway

How is it on the motorway? That’s one of my biggest worries as I feel like I’m in a baked bean tin in my Fiat 🤣

Does it feel too small on a motorway?

Seat Ibiza. Lovely cars and feel big inside. Perfect for city and motorway driving.

Honda jazz

I’ve also looked at these as they’re meant to be similar to Polo and A1!! I like that’s a bit bigger!

I have a mini and it’s decent on the motorway. Mine is 3 door but pretty sure you can get the small one also as 5 doors. By far away the most popular car on our London street so clearly a popular choice for cities.

It’s absolutely fine very safe

Hyundai i20. City and motorway.

I love Mini’s!! But I don’t think I have the budget for a decent one and I have no clue with cars so I don’t want to buy something that’s in the garage a lot

12k just bought my mum an ex-demonstrator Clio from a Renault dealer with only 8k on the clock.
It was by far the most sturdy and well appointed of the cars I test drove for her. Rear camera, parking sensors all round, sat nav.
She blats up and down the M6 in it quite happily without me worrying about her and she’s in her 80s.

I would not buy a VW group car. They are expensive to repair and they only give three year warranties for a reason.

I would either go for something maybe less reliable and cheaper, or something with a long warranty. Something like a Hyundai or Kia for the long warranty, or the Fords I have had have been cheap to repair but probably about the same level of reliability as the VWs/Audis.

If you don't care about the maintenance costs then VW group/BMW and Mercedes are fine.

Are Audi, Seat and Skoda ones to avoid?

I have seen some nice Kia Rio’s that I like.

We have never had any problems with VWs, they have always been very reliable. Same goes for Minis, though I only like the three door ones not the 5 doors.

Hyundai i10, the 1.2. Feels a sturdy little car, great for city and motorway driving. More roomy/comfortable inside than the other small cars I looked at.

I've had a Honda Jazz and a Skoda Citygo (like the Up). Loved them both. The Honda had a bit more pike on a motorway but the Skoda has taken me to London and Wakes from Devon many times but does lack a bit of acceleration so careful planning needed if overtaking.

Would a 5-6 year old Polo with 40-50k miles on TSI engine be ok or is this too ‘old’ ?

I’ve looked at that and the i20 - they are really nice!

My daughter drives one of these. She has done a lot of motory driving in it and when I took it down to where she was living at the time it was great to drive. I highly reccomend.

We also had an i20 and honestly, apart from the boot space I prefer the i10.

Brilliant car! Known by some people as The Tardis because of the amount of room inside for transporting stuff!