€10,000 Budget for new car

Stevie Dakota

The mother is looking to replace her old Peugeot 106 for something under the scrappage scheme. Her budget is €10,000 cash plus whatever scrappage discounts she can get. The car must be a hatchback, 5 door and reliable.

What would your advice be?

bazz26

Wasn't the Renault Clio the main example taken under the recent topic of the scrappage scheme thread here as being great value for money?

Berty

5 door Clio is €14,600 excluding delivery and charges. An old 106 will only probably fetch the €1,500 scrappage. The 8990 is including a trade in of 3180 excluding the scrappage or (302) extra Govt Scheme.

Not going to work here unless the budget is much higher.

bazz26

Have a read of this thread:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055766477&highlight=renault+clio&page=2

If I read it correctly you can have a brand new Clio Royale for less than €10k.

BrianD3

Fiat are advertising the Grande Punto 5 door for 9995 and Panda 5 door for 6995. Prices include gov scrappage discount.

colm_mcm

I'd go with the Clio. great value for money.

Drummerboy08

A new Clio can be bought for a little over 10k now. Great value, despite what people think about Renault.

unkel

Clio and Grande Punto for under 10k are great bargains, but if I were OPs mother I'd seriously think about BrianD3's second suggestion of the Panda. A grown up car by all means, it will keep its value a bit better than the others, will be a bit cheaper to run and - crucially - will leave 3k in her pocket. Under 7k for a Panda is incredibly good value for money imho.

DanielI

Or for approximately 10k she could buy a BMW Series 1 2004-2005. They are very safe and quite reliable.

Stevie Dakota

Good suggestions, very reluctant on FIAT thought, been stung badly by the last 2 generations of Punto, 2 low mileage cars both with expensive rear suspension issues and 8V head gasket failures. Are the Grande Punto and Panda still susceptible to these problems?

mickmcgee

despite what people think about Renault.

People are right about Renault. Dont go there

Drummerboy08

mickmcgee wrote: »

People are right about Renault. Dont go there

I think you'll find your wrong there pal. Its an old, old reputation that they have shaken.

Mr Benevolent

Are the Grande Punto and Panda still susceptible to these problems?

No.

bazz26

I think I would choose the Clio over the Panda simply as the Clio is from a class above the Panda, it would be more comfortable, a fresher design and probably be alot more refined on the road. New Ford Ka can be bought for around €8,500 now but there is no 5 door option.

Hard to beat the Clio to be honest on value alone and ignore the comments from the man down the pub. The Clio is as probably the most reliable car Renault produces and is one of the best looking cars in it's class.

BrianD3

I wouldn't have any worries about reliability on the Punto, Clio or Panda. All of them have at least a 3 year warranty and all do well in the ADAC breakdown tables (Pannenstatistik)

The one concern I'd have about the Panda is the design is several years old and it has a 3 star EuroNCAP rating. The passenger compartment was strong in the frontal impact but the rating was dragged down by a mediocre side impact performance.

Maybe consider the Hyundai i20? A new design with a 5 star rating and AFAIK they are being advertised for <10k

copacetic

clio seems the best bet by far, they are pretty reliable and curretly incredible value compared to the other cars in the class. We had one in the family for 10 years with no issues.