Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr Rich
I think the Fiesta is a good suggestion. I also like Clios but some say too girly for Scoobs.
I have been very happy with my 1.4 Seat Ibiza. It is an SE so has all the big car stuff like proper climate control and a smart interior layout. 3 door as well so a nice look, well I think so. Not especially sporty to drive though despite a 'sports' suspension (yeah right...) which makes it feel lively if not twitchy, the engine though is rather sluggish. Cheap main dealer servicing, some parts warranted 5 years most other parts not too bad. Bought as a town car and commuter and does that well, easy to park in city streets, fine on motorway.
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+1 on the Ibiza, my wife has a 5 year old 1.2. It's a 3 pot engine with a pretty short ratio gearbox so much more peppy than anything else we test drove with a 1.2. Had it since new and it has not once missed a beat! The only problem we've had with it is the washer fluid tube to the back wiper pops off the washer bottle a the first sign of frost. You need to use a good quality anifreeze in the fluid in winter. Spec is good too as already said, even on our base model you get aircon, CD, elec windows, etc and it looks good as even the base model has colour coded bumpers and stuff. Interior rattles a lot but its a cheap car with fairly sporty suspension and a hard plastic interior, what do you expect? Ignore it and don't let it bother you and it's no problem.
It's a Polo with a different body on it, the floorplan is identical. When new and we unwrapped the floor mats they were in VW packaging badged up as "Volkswagen Polo" and had Seat Ibiza and Skoda Fabia underneath in tiny writing. All the components under the bonnet, engine mounts, belts, etc are all badged VAG.
Six years ago I had a Ford Focus TDCI Ghia (old shape) for three years and 60K miles as well and it only missed a beat once when the electronics went daft because a wee cable from the ECU that tells the alternator how much juice it needs to generate snapped. So the alternator was not charging properly and the ECU went under voltage. The drivers arm rest had a habit of breaking too and getting stuck in the up position.
Compared to my BMW 3 series that caused me nothing but trouble for three years, then the turbo collapsed and the engine blew (8300 damage one week out of warranty), boths cars have been great, especially the Ibiza, I don't think you can fault VW group's small cars. I've now gone back to Ford with a Mondeo TDCI and so far very happy too.
I'm even considering giving the Mondeo to my wife and using the Ibiza for 30K miles a year for work, my son will soon need to sit in the back with a forward facing child seat (now in a rear facing seat in the front) and the Ibiza is 3 door, so the 5 door Mondeo would be more practical for my wife. The fact I'm prepared to drive he Ibiza for that mileage when used to a Mondeo says something about it.