Any opinions on this?

I'm expecting to do 50 miles/day commute weekdays for maybe a few
months, then moving so maybe 10 or 20 miles/day after that. Some long
journeys on weekends. Reliability and overall economy are the top
priotities.

At the moment, I'm thinking about 3 door Toyota Yaris 1.0 (probably
2002) or Nissan Micra (2003 model).

What should I get?

I'm leaning towards the Nissan (2003 model) since they seem to go for
500 or 1000 quid cheaper, presumably because of slightly better looks
/ name and the top reliability reputation of the Yaris. Seems the
Micra isn't far behind in terms of reliability. I won't get a
pre-2003 Micra: too ugly :-)

Also wondering if 1.0 litre Yaris isn't a bit underpowered even for a
small car. On the other hand presumably the smaller engine translates
into higher fuel efficiency. And on balance I think the Yaris is
probably a bit less ugly, but there's not a lot in it ;-)

Anything else in the same category I should be looking at?


John

"John J. Lee" <jjl (AT) pobox (DOT) com> wrote

Yaris.

I had a new Micra last year for 2 weeks as a courtesy car. Although it was
reasonably nippy, it had the most unsupportive seats and lightest power
steering I've ever seen. Thus when going round corners you had to hang onto
the steering wheel to prevent yourself from sliding over onto the passenger
seat whilst simultaneously try to keep the steering wheel in the same
position. I was glad to get my old Polo back (which isn't exactly renowned
for its handling).

If you are obese and like driving slowly round corners then you'll love it.

Not driven a Yaris, but it can't be any worse can it?

Z

"John J. Lee" <jjl (AT) pobox (DOT) com> wrote

Absolutely yes.

Overall economy? Go for something larger and older then.

Hmm.

The Yaris.

And also because the Micra isn't exactly charming to look at. The Renault
link doesn't help either.

To be honest though, at this age they both ought to be reliable.

They're better looking than the modern "thing."

Well it depends on your perspective. It isn't exactly quick, but for what
it is, it's an unburstable piece of kit. 67 bhp from a 1.0 and it'll
produce all of those horses all day, every day.

That depends though. In day to day use for most people the Yaris 1.3 is
marginally thirstier. You'd not notice it. Unless you spend a lot of time
in traffic - and you're not going to be - the 1.3 is effectively the same as
the 1.0 with fuel *but* is materially quicker. It's not fast, but it isn't
a slouch either.

I'd go for the 1.3. The only reason to get the 1.0 is because you can't
find a 1.3 in the right specification, condition and age...

Pah. When the Micra was designed, Nissan were trying to make it look ugly.
It dropped down the fugly tree hitting every branch.

Lots to avoid.

If you're dead set on something in the same class then I'd have a good long
look at the Honda Jazz. The Jazz has a very spacious interior, funky looks,
two economical petrol engines (equivalent to the Yaris), Honda's reliability
but somewhat detached driving style. Their only weakness? A slightly firm
ride, but no worse than the Yaris in this respect.

I'm trying not to point you towards the Skoda Fabia because personally I
think the interior is awful and it's not attractive *but* it makes sense in
this company. For your economy bias you either want the 1.2 three cylinder
petrol or a diesel. The 1.4 four cylinder petrol is not all that
economical.

You might also want to find a Daihatsu Sirion. They have, erm, unusual
looks, but the three cylinder 1.0 is especially miserly with fuel.

For what it's worth, my own commute is typically 300 miles a week. I poked
around the small car market a lot to replace my Ka. But decided I wanted
cruise control and that meant something larger (I did add cruise to the baby
Ford)... to cut a long story short I saw a pretty blue Saab and bought that
instead. :-P

--
The DervMan
www.dervman.com

"DervMan" <thedervman (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote

small hatchbaks are much of a muchness really. But I don't think the Micra
is that bad, it drives OK apart from overlight steering and is quite nippy
for a 1.2. The new Fiat 500 looks the fucking same and people woo over that
thing.....

The orginal yaris is fine, but the new one (especially the sewing machine
3-cyl) is bloated and drove a lot worse than the new micra IMO....

"john" <jsmith1456 (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote


More to the point, cars are all pretty much similar these days.

Something unusual is often deemed to be "wrong" too.

--
The DervMan
www.dervman.com

John J. Lee <jjl (AT) pobox (DOT) com> wrote:

Definnitely not the Renault Clio with a Nissan badge....
--
SteveH 'You're not a real petrolhead unless you've owned an Alfa Romeo'
www.italiancar.co.uk - Honda VFR800 - Hongdou GY200 - Alfa 75 TSpark
Alfa 156 TSpark - B6 Passat 2.0TDI SE - COSOC KOTL
BOTAFOT #87 - BOTAFOF #18 - MRO # - UKRMSBC #7 - Apostle #2 - YTC #

"Zimmy" <x@y.z> writes:
[...]
Having driven a 15-year-old Fiesta (with power windscreen wipers ;-)
for three years, admittedly with very light usage, I'm doubting I'll
even notice bad power steering!

Is this power steering thing something that's going to trouble me on 30
min drives on relatively small country roads? Or longer drives? When
people said "power steering" in the past, I always just thought
"parking".

I can see how nasty seats might get painful (literally) for commuting,
though, so thanks for the warning...


John

steve (AT) italiancar (DOT) co.uk (SteveH) writes:

Nissan Platina, right?

Hmm, I hadn't realised Renault and Nissan were connected these
days... from the reliability ratings I presume the Micra didn't come
from the cheese-eating camp, and the Platina/Clio did :-)


John

John J. Lee (jjl (AT) pobox (DOT) com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were
saying :

No, Micra...

Where've you BEEN...?

Nissan's been 40-45% owned by Renault since '99, while Nissan owns 15% of
Renault.

"DervMan" <thedervman (AT) gmail (DOT) com> writes:

Interesting. So what sort of thing, at what age, hits the sweet spot
for economy at tolerable reliability over 3-5 years?

One problem is that I'm clueless with car maintenance. Not just an
issue after buying it -- it seems a lot easier to buy a 4-5 year old
car with reasonable confidence than it is to get an eight year old
one. Maybe I can get a carhead friend / friend-of-friend to check
it...

Also, aren't I going to lose out a fair bit on reliability with a 5-10
year old car? I'm not sure what to expect, learned to drive late,
only been driving three years and didn't need to use that old banger
much. Now I'm going to be commuting by car, I actually care about
reliability.

I also wonder what will happen over the next five years with petrol
prices, road pricing, environmental taxes etc. OK, probably not much,
Gordon Brown has too many votes to lose there still :-)

[...]
I'm trying to think 3-5 years ahead too.


Not to my eyes, I really hate the old ones with the headlights further
forward. It's not that I love the new ones -- they're just tolerable!
The very latest ones are certainly even stranger, I read somebody
describe them as looking "amazed" which seems to fit :-)))


I'm coming from the "enough power to get out of the way of idiots"
perspective. I suppose that's a bit of a "how long is a piece of
string" question though -- depends what the idiots are driving ;-)


They seem to be more expensive than the 1.0s. Was I misled by the
small sample I looked at on autotrader?


Actually having seen a Yaris "in the metal" parked today, I take back
what I said about it being ugly (not beautiful, but not ugly). I've
yet to notice a 2003 Micra on the road, there must be lots out
there...


:-)

[...]
This definitely fits in the ugly category :-) I guess I could suffer
that, and I don't really care about the interior.

No disrespect to your nickname, but a family member with a lung
problem keeps the disadvantages of diesels high up in my mind (except
maybe the very newest ones, perhaps they're cleaner I don't know). So
I guess it would be 1.2 petrol.


<cue "Postman Pat" theme>

Hmm...


Thanks for all the comments, lots to think about!


John