Anyone bought a new or nearly new one of any kind in the last twelve months?

Just interested in running reports, the general ownership experience

Got to bite the bullet and get one for my partner fairly pronto as her old nail is about to give up the ghost

It will be within manufacturer's warranty so up to two years old max

No real brand prejudice other than no French

Current favourites are Fiesta (1) and Swift (2) - I know plenty about both

But there's an outside chance I might be missing something

Oh yeah - absolutely no diesels

And please don't pm me if you have one for sale - will be a main dealer purchase

 

fiesta seems to be the mag's choice - the Swift would be my choice! it seems a little less fussy than the fester.

 

Any preferences for autos/manuals?
Needs to be fun to drive/economical/cheap as possible?
Will be serviced through main dealers/independents?

Pitching the company card the yaris hybrid is supposed to be decent but if you hate automatics and want an interesting drive you'll hate it. Dealers are normally very good though and very pain free and obviously very economical.

 

I have been looking at the Suzuki swift myself and intend to purchase one (albeit 3 years old) in the next few months.

Really does seem to tick a lot of boxes. Definitely the 1.6 sport model mind.

Was looking at a Diesel, but Petrol just seems better at the moment.

 

1. Interesting - actually a preference for an auto but they seem to be harder to find and still seem to suffer from the 'autos don't suit little engines' thing
2. Nice to drive in her estimation would be comfy and good steering, not sporty/suspect unlikely to be anything else as it will be a small hatch, but not supermini/I think £10K should be more than enough and can't imagine why it would be necessasry to pay more
3. Main dealers

No prejudice against hybrids per se but I feel the Yaris is a tad too small. Might just be perception though. And I think she regards them as 'pensioners' cars'

 

Swift Sport is a cracker but she wants five doors

Bit of a bugger because I like the Sport and it only comes as a three door!

 

My lady has just bought an a1. If your interested in more info we are picking it up Saturday

 

Cheap enough to lease from what I can see, and clearly a nice car, but way too much money to buy at the moment. Cheapest 5 doors seem to be north of £16K

Plan is to buy outright and run till it's worthless, like the last car, plus she kerbs, dents and scratches cars for fun....

 

Had an A1 courtesy car the other week, 1.4 TDi Sport. Oh dear...

Thought it might be fun to chuck about like a proper Mini or a Ka. No way.

Nice inside except for terrible visibilty due to the stupidly thick A and B pillars.

Get a Fiesta, I had a new shape 1.6 Zetec S for a while and thought it was great.

 

Convince her 3 doors is enough. The swifts get major abuse as rental cars at the ring, brilliant to drive and very reliable. They sell the old ones off after a year or two of abuse, and they're still going strong.