Ford Focus, BMW 118i or Hyundai i30 (or others) - help!

[car342020]

I'm 8 months' pregnant with my first child and our existing car has just died on us and so we are looking to buy something new and relatively easily/quickly...

We don't have much experience in cars but think our criteria are:

• Buy 2-3 year-old second hand car, rather than lease - more cost effective in the long term
• Up to about 12,000 miles per year previous usage
• Petrol preferable to diesel
• Happy with manual or automatic
• Want decent boot space for pram etc
• Something reliable as main family car - mainly suburban driving to supermarket etc with weekend motorway driving/trips.
• Budget 10-12k

We've narrowed down to these three from an online search:
www.cargiant.co.uk/car/ford/focus/BD67OJJ
www.cargiant.co.uk/car/bmw/118i/VO17NFD
www.cazoo.co.uk/used-car/98f7e113-8ff8-5521-b922-8aa15b5707ec/

For those who know cars/car specs - any obvious ranking of those three, or anything else we should be considering?

Thanks

@RaspberryToupee misses the point entirely.

Mileages mean nothing when it comes to reliability. My aunt purchased a brand new Astra SRi in 2017.

7 miles in, the timing chain snapped on the way home at 60mph. Result, car written off.

But I digress as its clear you havent watch the video in full at all.

Most of the vehicles in the bottom of the table are typically used as company cars or used by people who do a lot of commuting and typically generating lots of mileage

Oh yeh, meant to say, Land/Range Rovers - bottom of the list - and in your world, somehow are company cars....LMFAO.

I've had hyundai i20/10s in the past very reliable cars. In fact the independent garage where I took my car for mot said they were very reliable cars. I never found any problems. My parents have both had them too.

@FartingInTheFence I watched the video in full, which is how I was able to say that most of the cars at the bottom of the list were used as company cars. Most not all. If I handed watched the video, how would I know that fiat trumped VW in reliability? It’s certainly not a brand known for being reliable. Just because I’ve taken a different stance on the reliability of the data used, doesn’t mean I didn’t watch the video.

Of course mileage doesn’t matter when you’re looking into buying a car

@FartingInTheFence they are certainly company cars for the perk drivers.

I have the 118i and then found it I was pregnant with baby number 2. It’s a lovely car to drive, o haven’t had any issue with it at all. Agree it’s not as economical as my old Vauxhall and perfect if it’s just you. With a baby or the poke risk to expand your family is not great. Boot is okay, fits in the cosatto giggle, but nothing else. There is very little room for passengers in the back - I’m quite tall so my seat is far back. My eldest at 5 is behind me and the baby car seat behind the passenger as that’s the only place it will fit. Naively I hadn’t realised is rear wheel drive and on winter I wasn’t able to drive when we had loads of snow! I missed my corsa then as that never had an issue. I’m looking to now sell this car and coincidently had looked at the focus but likely end of with the Volvo as that’s what I wanted initially.

Mazda are very roomy - we have that as the family car and will run it into the ground.

Bloody typos! Should review before I post.

Volvo V40 5 door.

Safe as houses, big enough boot space, come with loads of kit for the interior.

https://www.waylands.co.uk/search/volvo/v40/t2-momentum-manual-u7b65glb?utmagency=blancoadFeeder&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI9amTot-u6gIVwbTtCh0wzwVJEAAYAyAAEgLKRPDD_BwE

A Civic would be my choice over those 3, proper under the skin build quality that VAG can only dream of. The Germans have mastered putting a high quality veneer on a pile of shit.

@Elai1978

A Civic would be my choice over those 3, proper under the skin build quality that VAG can only dream of. The Germans have mastered putting a high quality veneer on a pile of shit.

110% agreed.

Even the alleged high quality veneer that VW and other German car-tat makers use is shit too.

Baffles me to no end when people buy such German rubbish. But I do get a laugh out of seeing a slew of broken down VW/German cars all over the place, particularly on motorways....hilarious!! 🤣

@RaspberryToupee

We bought our Kia at 4 years old, sold it when it was 8 and it had electrical problems in both front windows pretty much throughout the time we owned it. These weren’t covered by Kia’s 7 year warranty - one of the main selling points for us getting that car. It was also a nightmare to get bodywork done on it. But ‘Japanese cars are superior’

so what you're saying is, you've never owned a Japanese car?

(Kia comes from Korea😜)

I used to have a Focus, best car I’ve ever had. I sadly sold it to dh when I needed an automatic instead of a manual. I bought it when it was 3yo. Dh has it now and it must be 9 or 10 years old. The only things I’ve ever had to buy for it are brake pads, tyres and wiper blades. Never broken down and nice to drive. It’s an estate and boot is massive.

I had a focus for years, bored the tits off me but had a good spec and never let me down.

@PhilipJennings yeh, I realised my faux pas after posting but no edit button! My poorly made point was that Kia has a higher reliability score than VW, Skoda and Ford (according to the video) but from our experience the Kia experienced a lot more problems than any of the other cars. We’ve probably the same amount repairing the other less reliable cars as we did fixing the Kia, even though it was still under warranty for most of our ownership.

My last 3 cars have been Honda, Skoda and Ford. Surprisingly, to me at least, the Ford has been the most reliable of the 3. The Honda was really good. The Skoda was pretty reliable for most of the 8 years I had it, but had one bad year when it went through £2000 of repairs in very short order.

I don’t get all this German car bashing! I’ve got a BMW X3, used to have a Mini Countryman, FIL has a VW Golf and we used to have a VW T5 camper. None of them ever gave us any bother and all sailed through the mot time after time. The only cars I’ve ever had problems with are fords, they’re cheap to repair but spend a bit of time in the garage!

In your price range do consider the Skoda Octavia estate - I have a few mum friends with this and find them great. The other popular family car at the moment is the Nissan qashqai as it has the boot space.

You could probably pick up a Dacia Stepway or Duster cheaply but they have zero credibility 😂 they are essentially a cross between a Renault and a Nissan.

I hope this is helpful and remember : there’s no such thing as enough boot space!

I don’t get all this German car bashing

Bashing?

They wish!

Fact is, German cars are unreliable, overpriced and shit. Thats facts, not bashing. 😂

I don’t get all this German car bashing!

Generally speaking they’re below average reliability. Not JLR levels of shit but still pretty bad. If you work on a BMW or Merc from the early 90s they’re beautifully built but that has gone downhill gradually since then. Take an Honda apart and you’ll be faced with a million bolts where 3 would do the job and they’ll all be FT but once cracked finger tight. A modern Lexus feels like it’s made from granite, exactly as the early 90s BMWs and Mercs.

I enjoy driving BMW M cars and get why an M3 is desirable, a cooking model with a small petrol or Diesel engine not so much.

Not JLR levels of shit

😂😂😂