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Not Toyota but opinions and experience required.

AndycruiserguyLomas

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After a long time owning the D4D Yaris which had been unerringly reliable, always passes its MOT and is incredibly cheap to run I'm looking to upgrade to a better car for Maria. She commutes 18 miles each way but she is finding it a little noisy and with a slight problem with her left elbow tiresome constantly changing gear.
What we are looking for is a small , relatively economical and quiet automatic car.
I've, unfortunatly been warned off the newer automatic Yaris with its problematic transmission, the buyer of my V6 Collie had one but sent it back so I'm seeking members experience with small automatics.
I'm swayed massively towards Japanese but will consider others. Diesel would be preferred but would consider petrol.

Your thoughts please.
 
My wife, and me occasionly, drive an automatic A6 Mercedes which so far has been quite reliable, I'm not too keen on it but then I much prefer driving a larger vehicle, but Nicki loves it.
 
I read loads about 30k clutches and the like when my daughter wanted a small car until i had to accept they are all built specifically to last as long as the warranty , so i put my trust in numbers because Fiesta has been the first car forever and a day .
 
The later Yaris auto with the cvt is ok, it was the early autos that had the automated manual that was junk. Little Kias and Hyundais had proper auto boxes.
 
Thanks Dave, It was the latest one with CVT my neighbour had trouble with, and to be truthful a bit above what we want to pay for a commuter car. I guess I've got used to minimal costs with the Yaris. I bought it nearly new when I got divorced for my ex wife so I could keep my 80 series then I bought it off her when she changed for £700 and Marias used it for the past 5 years with only new discs pads and shoes ( 1st set). Its done about 140K and runs exactly the same as the day I bought it.
Might consider the Merc Chas, but if I'm paying in the region of £10-12 id get her an SLK 250 CDi.
I'll start researching the Kia/Hyundai option, that'll be a start, Would consider Mazda/ Honda options too.
 
Have you considered something like a Renault Zoe? For that distance commuting it will be cheap to run. Having said that, they are pricey and not sure I would get a second hand one.
 
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Another vote for the fiesta. The Honda jazz is a very close second, in my opinion as a run around. And the fiat Panda a somewhat further third. Some good deals to be had on the GT 86 if you wanted to stay Toyota :)
 
Skoda Fabia (Diesel) Clare's had one for a few years, £20 a year tax, Excellent fuel economy, And reliability .( so far).... Best small car according to Which is the Ford Fiesta 1.5 tdci... So they Say... Free road tax i think
 
Andy have you and Maria considered a contract car for 3 4 or 5 years with breakdown insurance and maintenance included plus
depreciation might be worth a look and then trawl round the garages and ask for some long term test drives to see whats suitable for your needs
 
Front runner at the moment is the Rav 4 diesel auto. I'm assuming the autobox is a conventional one.
There's some interesting offerings from Hyundai and. Kia TBF.
It will be interesting to see if they have fared better underneath than Cruisers do. For an 02 the Yaris is very good, I bet a lot of Collie/ 120 owners would like theirs to be as rust free.
 
Front runner at the moment is the Rav 4 diesel auto. I'm assuming the autobox is a conventional one.
There's some interesting offerings from Hyundai and. Kia TBF.
It will be interesting to see if they have fared better underneath than Cruisers do. For an 02 the Yaris is very good, I bet a lot of Collie/ 120 owners would like theirs to be as rust free.
nice car the rav, pretty poor figures economy wise with the auto though imo. em has a 2010, shows 26mpg average on the trip computer.
 
Auto Rav's have always been poor. My dad bought my mum one in 02. 2 litre petrol auto. lucky if it saw 20 mpg, very poor but my mum loved it.
Is yours a diesel? if so its not good. The Merc Sprinter Van we have averages 28, loaded to max most of the time, maybe I should look at an equivalent Merc.
 
Bought my daughter a Honda Jazz just before lockdown and it's been ultra reliable, cheap to run.
 
I was able to find a 2002 Corolla and a 2007 fiesta both in mint condition with 40ish k miles keeping both kids happy for must be 6 years now , price wise i could have bought two much newer cars of typical mileage but i couldn't have bought better cars .
 
Auto Rav's have always been poor. My dad bought my mum one in 02. 2 litre petrol auto. lucky if it saw 20 mpg, very poor but my mum loved it.
Is yours a diesel? if so its not good. The Merc Sprinter Van we have averages 28, loaded to max most of the time, maybe I should look at an equivalent Merc.
Most small Mercs have Renault engines and trade on the Merc reputation .... Merc don't build good small cars IMHO .
I would go with KIA or the like with a 7 year warranty .... they are still trying to gain market share so build cars to last while I strongly suspect Toyota , Ford , Merc , Fiat , and the French makers are all so interlinked behind the scenes using each others engines and floor pans that they are all very similar ... Skoda and VAG do seem to make some fair little cars .

Times have changed in the car market and none of the makers want a car to last ...they want to sell lot's of them so if the first owner is happy and it lasts beyond the warranty and he buys another then they have sold another unit and have no care for the second owner and given the time frame for supposed phase out of petrol and diesel vehicles they don't need to make a vehicle last ....

Look underneath a new Landcruiser .... they often have rust on the chassis before it leaves the dealer......Ford a few years ago famously didn't even bother to paint the underneath of some small cars .... look at some of the vehicles being sent for scrappage under various schemes , they are often better built and would have outlasted several times over the vehicles that replaced them.... no wonder the manufacturers and dealers love a good scrappage scheme ;-)
 
For ~4500 miles per year, I'd be inclined to go petrol rather than diesel - I don't think that would be a long enough journey to clean any of the diesel emissions gubbins.

Based on that, I'd be looking at the Koreans for Petrol, or Mazda.
 
Another vote for Honda Jaz. My friend had one for 7 years as a run around and nothing went wrong apart from the clutch at 7 years. Honda said their clutches never failed so replaced it FOC.
 
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