Hi all just had my first child and i'm looking for a cheap 5 door hatchback for the missus. At the minute she drives a 3 door saxo (its crap). The budget is about 2000 and needs to be smaller than the fabia, (she thinks the vrs is to big) I want it to be safe reliable, renault having such a bad rep with going wrong im probably going to steer away from them. Any ideas would be great cheers.

Fiesta? Corsa?

Honda Jazz?

2000 - 2002 Polo?

5 door Micra?

C3 - although might be a bit ££

Edited 16 January, 201115 yr by TriggerFish

Ibiza mk2 or mk3 probably offers beter value than a similar age polo and should be slightly smaller than a fabia.

When you "safe", you might struggle. For £2K, a small car will probably be 8ish years old and quite possible a 10-15 years old design and safety has moved on a long way from the mid to late 90s. Something like the polo/ibiza of that time seems fairly substantial compared to a saxo/106 but its still not up there with modern safety.

Edited 16 January, 201115 yr by 'daiking'

toyota aygo, pug 107 or citroen c1

I have a 52 plate pug 206 xsi with FSH And taxed with less than 60k for sale soon....

Pm me if your interested.

+1 on the Jazz,

Yaris? Corolla?

Depends if theres motorway driving involved. imo fabia size is bare minimum for motorway driving, wouldn't feel too safe in anything smaller.

toyota aygo, pug 107 or citroen c1

:wonder: .........

Surely the polo is the same size as a fabia as on the same platform.

Try and persuade her to go for a slightly bigger car, you need all the space you can find with a child. We had an XR2, and had to swap it for a medium size car to fit in all that has to go around with a baby. It only takes a few hours driving to adapt to a bigger and hence safer car, and you are now going to be carrying your most precious item around in it. Some of the smaller cars have achieved their dimensions by reducing the boot length, sometimes leaving back seat passengers virtually at the rear of the car like in the Lupo, I would not risk travelling in the back of one of them.

My wifes Fabia Estate is ideal for a second car, with just that little extra space for pushchairs etc and easy to load and drive. We have the 1.9tdi which is fast and frugal, (55mpg) and on a 53 plate is worth around £2.5k privately, so there must be slightly older ones or smaller engine variants within your budget. Fully galvanised from new so no rust issues. Find an early 1.4 petrol 8-valve and there are no cambelts to change as they use chain drive.

Find an early 1.4 petrol 8-valve and there are no cambelts to change as they use chain drive.

Although that engine isn't the greatest. Dare I say it but the 1.4 8v in the polo/ibiza is a better proposition even if that still isn't great. Also (identical) saloon and estate variations of them.

The early Fabias were a generation ahead of the same year polos, as they had the benefit of the later common chassis first. When we bought my wifes first fabia, an X reg new, it was bigger inside and better equipped than the equivalent polo for significantly less money and drove and handled much better. I am not sure which year the polo was upgraded, and know nothing about ibiza's, but you need to take care to get the later polo to get an equivalent standard. You will certainly pay more for a polo due to badge snobbery even though the skoda is probably the better car for the same amount of money.

Surely the polo is the same size as a fabia as on the same platform.

One's I suggested are a different platform, shared only with the Ibiza.

Re that Ibiza, I didn't suggest it as they don't get as good ratings on NCAP (3* vs 4*. Fabia is 4*, as is Octavia and if the OP deems his 4* Fabia safe then. . .), think it's as they redid the Polo and upgraded various bits which the Ibiza didn't get or something.

What about a 206?

I'd definitely recommend the Yaris, had one before the VRS, granted it was a 3 door (you can get a 5 door one), it was a cracking little car, nothing ever went wrong with it, really good on fuel, etc.

Changing budget to 3k now as the cars on offer for 2 were to old to many miles ect, looking at the fiesta 02 onwards anyone driven these? She won't be doing any motorway miles as we live in Cornwall and don't have any! If we would go away we would take my car. I'm a bit cautious about French cars never got on with them and the build quality just can't compete with other makes in the market.

Avoid the Micra - loads of space in the front but a tiny boot and no room in the back.

I have 2 grandkids - one is 3yrs the other is 5months. With the 5 month in her seat, facing backwards I had to have the drivers seat much further forward than I found comfortable - it needed a surprisingly large space! There was just no space for the high level overhang of the reversed seat with any recline on the drivers seat. Switched the 3 yr old behind me and she had no room for her legs so spent the whole journey with her feet in my back.

Not too bad when swmbo is driving but when we took 'em home we used the Octavia!

The boot is tiny - add a folding pushchair and it is full - just room to stuff in a few carriers.

Whatever car you test be sure to try the kids seats escpecially the one that are reversed for really young kids. My daughter had a Scenic - seat bealts were not long enough to go around the reversed seat! And this is billed as a family car!!

Edited 17 January, 201115 yr by eccleshill

I'd go for a yaris my g/f has one and it's been all over the country without any problems, they have a cam chain so cheaper to service in the long run

She shouldn't worry too much about size. At that budget you can't really afford to be too fussy.

Not sure I'd want an old small car IMHO

What about things like a the VX Astra, Focus, Hyundai Getz, Fiat Punto.

Yaris is probably the best of the teeny tiny cars.

We've a friend who manages fine in a Micra with her daughter.

We've a friend who manages fine in a Micra with her daughter.

I always managed fine with my Micra, though admittedly my daughter was out of rear-facing childseats by the time I got it. The sliding rear seat is very useful for trading off boot space and rear-leg room, and the high roofline makes it easy to get a child carrier in and out of the car.

Micra or Yaris or a cheap previous shape Fiesta would be my choices there.

The first two are pretty reilaible (and cheap too if you can find a well used example at auction) and the latter is cheap to buy and pretty cheap to run.

owning a garage im slightly confused as to the smaller than a fabia? as fiestas etc are all the same chassis size just less internal room??

buy as your mrs picks most moderns are generally reliable all cars have their foibles just with some we wear rose tinted glasses i just sold a 51 fabia for 1100

I think with the vrs it seems a bit bigger she might just not want a skoda! Will never have a fiat punto again, at the mo the 54 ish fiesta is winning.

Sure your swmbo isn't a secret badge snob?? Fiesta ain't much smaller lol.

Fiesta

Height 1468 mm

Length 3916 mm

Wheelbase 2486 mm

Width 1683 mm

Width including mirrors 1905 mm

Fabia

Height 1451 mm

Length 3960 mm

Wheelbase 2462 mm

Width 1646 mm

Width including mirrors 1893 mm

So a Fabia is 44mm longer but 12mm narrower inc mirrors lol

Easy.........Ford Ka

Easy.........Ford Ka

3dr only I think.

Ibiza is a good value VAG car if the Skud badge is putting her off.

Some of the Korean cars are very cheap if fugly.

5dr. 1.0L Yaris, small, cheap to run and bomb proof. Plenty for under 2k around.