Recommend my wife a car

My wife’s only been driving a few years and we’re looking to get her something a bit more modern. She currently has a 2000 Renault Clio and, whilst it’s served her well as a first car, she wants something with a few more creature comforts.

It needs to be 5 door, as we have a toddler to get in his car seat, but she doesn’t want anything bigger than a hatchback. Ideally, she’d go for a small hatchback (think Clio, Fiesta) rather than a family sized one (Focus, Golf, etc.)

Toys-wise she certainly wants decent aircon, bluetooth and assistance with parking (ideally a camera, but parking sensors are probably more realistic with this type of car).

I’m not really sure whether buying (on finance) or leasing would be better for us. She does very little mileage (less than 6k miles in the three years she’s owned the Clio) but does need to have access to a car all the time.

Does anyone have any recommendations in this category?

I test drove a 1.0l turbo Ibiza today. 115bhp and sounded great. Nice handling, easy to drive, good visibility. The interior may look a bit plastic but overall it's a good looking car.

Lots of choice out there mind you...

My wife has a intuitive Peugeot 208 pretty much top spec 2013 model.
I absolutely love it except for the power, its brilliant around town and is quite nippy, it even goes fast, but is just not brilliant at overtaking quickly.
1.4l diesel tax free road fund licence
drives brilliantly handles well is comfy too
Comes with front and rear parking sensors and even parks itself if not a tad slow, sat nav, climate 17" alloys and panoramic roof, also very spacious in the back, boot is reasonable, pretty sure you would get a buggy in there

I would have one tomorrow, but only if the gti was in a 5 door variant

I would say the panoramic roof is nice but a bit of a gimmick as it gets quite hot and you cannot open it, but it does have an internal blind.

Was always wary of french cars, but this has changed my opinion!

Definitely worth a look

Best of luck

MRS WMT has a Mini Countryman, she loves it, has all the toys you mention

Whilst its not the outright fastest in the Cooper D guise we have, it's very pleasant to drive

All depends on budget id personally say myself, however I'd say the polo tdi ( 5 door option ) would be a good shout with enough room required.

Loads of choice out there from fiesta's to ibiza's I guess it's a case of viewing a few and seeing how she feels in each one. With many dealers out there I'm sure if finance was the way forward for you, you'd probably find a good all round deal that suits.

If you want low price consider a Kia Picanto or Rio - these weren't expensive to start with and so are cheap to buy.

2015 Kia Rio £4795

2016 Kia Picanto £5985

Kia's have a 7 year warranty.

Also there are the Mazda 2's which fall into this category and worth considering.

We have a 500X so think it's worth mentioning - you get a lot of kit and a good amount of space which comes with a relatively low price. We've had ours for 2 years and so far no issues and good service from our local Fiat dealership. My wife loves it, perfect for city driving with light steering and peppy 1.4T engine.

Having tried both it is worth getting the 1.4 turbo petrol engine over the lower powered sluggish 1.6 N/A petrol - the extra torque and 30 bhp is useful for overtaking, it is a car that weighs c.1350kgs afterall!

500X 1.4T £9000

Only problem with Kia's ( used to work for a main dealer )
Is there cheaply made ! Lots of warranty claims too, so handy to have the 7years you'll 110% need it.

Cheers all. I’ve had a Sportage for nearly 2 years now and can’t fault it. I was torn between that and the (old shape) Volvo XC60 but, for the same money I could either get all the toys and extras or pretty much none of them. I appreciate that a Volvo is a better car, but the Sportage hasn’t missed a beat yet.

Thanks for the suggestions, I’ll probably have a look at the Rio as well as a few other marques. There’s so much choice at this level!

In all fairness I personally think from experience that the sportage is most robust out the pack, picanto I wouldn't bother with far too small even in the five door version, rio isn't a bad shout, it's all Down to preference and personal experiences I guess.

Supposedly hyndi's range have came up trumps also? Might be worth a ponder ?

Financially, if you are doing 2k a year, and you are not buying outright, find a well looked after used car that majors on reliability. I would definitely take a look at the Mazda 2. Looking at the last 10 years MOT-equivalent history from Germany and Austria (what I had available to me) it was nearly faultless. Biggest weakness seemed to be TREs - big deal

Buying new or leasing will cost a lot in depreciation, however giving you the option of some more modern gadgets.

The latest Mazda 2 is a striking looking car in its class but is not the biggest or the absolute best to drive, but not weak in any area. It got our vote as space was not of primary important for us.

The latest Hyundai i20 is cheap but good. The others to look at are obviously the Fiesta and the VW group clones. However, our findings with the Polo, Ibiza, Fabia were that the interiors were so cheap and gloomy looking that we dropped them from our shortlist before getting to drive them.