Hi All,

My parents are in the market to get a new car and have narrowed it down to the following:

new shape vw polo
fiat 500
new shape fiesta
alfa romeo mito

want to keep it under £7k and just want something reliable and economical. What do people thing? anyone owned or driven these? only experience i have is the 500 which is pretty small but i like the design.

Ideally be able to fit a couple of kids in the back and a push chair would be a bonus for me so they could take my son and the one i have on the way out for the day

not my cup of tea but you can't really go wrong with this. Sure it's 7 years/100000 miles warranty too

KIA Picanto

I had a 1.3JTDm MiTo Sprint as a courtesy car for a few days. The engine was surprisingly quiet once warmed up, and it gave a decent amount of poke, even though it only had 95bhp. It had a DNA switch, with N for normal driving, A for all weather, and D for Dynamic. D gave more torque and the throttle response improved, but wasn't great in slowmoving traffic, which N was better suited.

The interior was a nice place to be for a car of that size, the seats were supportive and the dash well laid out, and steering wheel felt suitably beefy. I found I couldn't quote get the driving position right. I'm sure if I owned it I could get comfortable.

I'm a fan of the MiTo's looks and it had 16's with white paintwork, which certainly stands out. Overall I was impressed with the Alfa.

suzuki swifts get pretty good write up. I've driven a couple before (the sport version) and found them to be pretty lively and good handling. The lady across the road has just bought herself a new black swift sport, It looks great... she's just turned 70!!

http://www.carbuyer.co.uk/reviews/suzuki/swift/hatchback/review

All good choices - I assume ( ) that your parents aren't racers, so it just boils down to the available space for grandchildren and accessories. The only way to find out for sure is to try them.... manufacturers' claims for cubic feet etc. mean nothing if you can't fit the pushchair in because of a rear suspension strut!

Plenty of room for a pram in the boot of a Coupe

I think it might be worth a look at the Polo.
I loved the packaging of our old one. You could get 5 adults in there, or a sofa on the roof, and it was light and agile.

The newer ones look like a bit of a return to the old formula and our neighbours loved theirs so much they got a second one.

Just a shame that ours was a bit of a "Friday afternoon" car.

I like the kia my wife's parents just bought one, I was impressed and the overall package is hard to turn down,but my parents don't fancy one. But the deal is exceptional and at the moment I hear Kia are offering a minimum £800 part ex, which would be even better for them as they could get rid of their current beat up polo.

I also mentioned the swift but that was turned down as well, probably have difficulty seeing pass the badge

If I could I would twist their arm to have my plus but there is no chance.

It could be looking like another polo. The current one is what I use to take things to the tip and when I need to get 8ft sheets of ply etc home

My mum has the most influence, think my dad still likes a turn of speed now and again but he has a 540 to scratch tht itch, which is les often these days. Think it only did 800 miles last year and that included taking me to Gatwick. He has had a vr6, v12 e type (which he used to tow a 26ft caravan, another story :o) and a few other things.

Personally I quite like the Alfa but expect it to depreciate the quickest.

I had a 1.4 Polo Match manual as a courtesy car recently - awful thing - no chance of pulling the skin off even the least resistant rice pudding! It also had the longest clutch travel I had ever experienced, nad it had only done 3k miles! The DSG models are a bit better but still zzz

I'd probably choose the Fiesta - they do nice colours, so much better than the dull as ditchwater greys and silvers of most cars now!