Hello,
I'm currently deciding what car to buy, and have narrowed my likes and dislikes down to either a 1.5SE Almera, or a 1.4SE Ibiza. My budget's £7-8k, and I need something that's reliable but worthy of motorway journeys as well as city driving.
I currently own a 7yr old Honda Civic, and a 2000 Fiat Punto. The former is wonderfully reliable, but expensive to insure for us (25 and 22), the latter is a bag of nails and we've had more problems than I care to list, but it's going after just over a year in our possession.
So, we're downsizing to one car between the two of us and the above two pretty much cover what we want.
Can anyone suggest any others to consider? Anything I should be wary of?
What would you choose?
TIA
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Hello Girlydriver.
All this IMHO of course...
I would buy an Ibiza 1.2 SX. Currently Seat are giving a free upgrade from the S to SX, which means front fog lights, alloys and climate control. £8300 otr. 3 yr warranty etc... What Car car of the year 2003 (IIRC). Not sure the 1.4 offers anything much over the 1.2 12v.
IMHO I can't see how an Almera can compete. Depreciation will be pretty awful aswell as they are not popular cars.
I would also consider a Skoda Fabia, although I would avoid th 54BHP 1.2. They are also currently offering an alloy wheel, air con offer on the Fabia but this may be restricted to the 54BHP engine
Good luck with your choice either way.
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Almera is more of a Seat Leon size than Ibiza (which is Seat's equivalent to Micra), so for starters by choosing Almera you'll get much more space. In 1.5 SE you will also get much better safety features, parking sensors, automatic climate control and onboard computer with nice, big dashboard LCD display. Almera will be the modern car out of two. No Ibiza model currently in production will come close to what Almera SE has to offer for the money.
On the other hand, Ibiza will be nippier, and will have street credit which Almera is completely lacking...
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IMHO I can't see how an Almera can compete. Depreciation will be pretty awful aswell as they are not popular cars.
Are you sure? The Almera is so heavily-discounted that I wonder if actual depreciation will be that bad.
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Yeah, depreciation is very similar, around 3,000 in 3 years from new bought from broker for both cars.
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Although I suppose it should be a big factor when buying new/almost new, I'm not too worried about depreciation. It happens on every car, and there's not that much you can really do about it. I plan to keep the motor for 3-5 years anyway.
Skoda Fabias don't interest me, I see them for an older generation, hence me thinking along the lines of the Ibiza.
The Almera's not much bigger than my current 3dr Civic (97 plate), and that's about as big as I would go.
I'm really struggling at the moment to find anything else to consider - I suppose I should be grateful that I have such a short shortlist!
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The discounted Almeras as advertised on this site are an all time bargain.
Neither car has much street cred but IMO the Almera stands head and shoulders above the Ibiza.
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Almera is a good all-round car and certainly better on a motorway than a 'buzz-box' Ibiza. It is also likely to prove more reliable than the Ibiza.
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Despite some criticism the Almera is much underrated but the Ibiza does have more modern styling; the Almera dates back to the middle 1990s.
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How about a nearly new SEAT Leon. Golf sized, very comfy, new ones come in at under £10k, so a nearly new must be down to £8k if you hunt round......
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Despite some criticism the Almera is much underrated but the Ibiza does have more modern styling; the Almera dates back to the middle 1990s.
Newer Almera was launched in 2000 with new bodyshell and substantial changes to engine, transmission and suspension. Its not really the same car as the '95 model.
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I don't agree with your buzz-box statement. The 1.2 12v loan car I had was excellent on the motorway at 85mph. It was also well equipped, modern styled and I think it is an excellent car for the money, particulary with the current upgrade SEAT are offering.
However as someone has pointed out, the offer in this weeks special deals for a Nissan Almera 1.5 SE 5dr (£8288 save £3112) is pretty stunning for a 5-door car in the next size category up. Being a Nissan, it will be ultra reliable aswell. So certainly a sound buy at that price and GirlyDriver has pointed out that she'll keep it for 3 to 5 yrs.
I much prefer the Ibiza as a car but can't deny the Almera at that price!!
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Girlydriver,
You mention your Honda is expensive to insure - is this the sole reason you are planning to replace it?
Spending thousands to save a few hundred sounds a bit of a drastic measure, particularly if you are happy with the car anyway.
I'm sure you have considered this already. Sorry if this sounds condescending, it's not meant to be.
Ed.
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Lovely point, it made me chuckle!
No, the Honda being expensive to insure isn't the sole reason to replace my car. At the moment the other half and I have two cars, and we want to consolidate into one - the Honda is expensive to insure for the both of us, is nearing the end of it's time with me (too many miles for my liking), and replacement parts are getting harder to source - and are expensive. The Punto is a bag of nails that needs ridding of before it costs us any more money.
General consensus points me to the Almera, which appears to be a more respected car, yet incredibly dull. I don't mind not being seen on the road, that's fine. I'm not after a car that is fun and a joy to drive, I'll eventually buy an old Mini for times like that! ;-)
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Why not get a newer Honda then? I think you will find that the Civics built in Swindon are not as expensive to insure as the ones made in Japan.
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...I think you will find that the Civics built in Swindon are not as expensive to insure as the ones made in Japan.
They certainly don't seem all that bad - mine (1.6 Inspire S) is group 7 or so. Don't actually know what the exact premium is because I changed cars part-way through the policy year.
Also, having myself changed to the Civic from a facelifted Punto Multijet, you would likely find it a great deal more comfortable and much less troublesome than your current Punto.
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The Ibiza ranges between group 3 for the 1.2 i think, through to just group 7 for the TDI130Sport, before you reach the ridiculously expensive to insure Cupra versions.
The 1.2 will be very underpowered though, you'll want a 1.4 probably to get you 0-60 in around 13 seconds
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The Almera looks too much like the new Astra for my liking.
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Absolutely no doubt about the answer to this one!
The Almera , all the way.
Advantages of this fantastic car
1)Supremely reliable-
To quote from warrantydirects website
"Nissan's hugely underrated Almera is the most reliable small family car on the road.
The Japanese model, which was first seen back in Autumn 1995, has a staggering Index rating (calculated as cost of repair vs number of visits to the garage) of just 4.35. This compares to the small family segment average of 55.9 and 95.95 for the car market as a whole."
Even the venerable Golf has a reliability rating of 63!(Here the lower the number the more reliable the car)
2)Low Insurance groupings
3)Virtually unburstable engines
4)Ugly and inconspicuous-which is an advantage, you can leave it on a shady side alley in East London for 3 weeks and no one would have even thought of pinching it!
5)Driveability-Watch the face of the driver of the car behind you fall agape in wonder as you negotiate tight corners and roundabouts without breaking stride and most importantly without skidding all over.If most other small cars try cornering at the same speed, expect to find it stuck on the side of the nearest lamp post/building.
6)Comfortable on the motorway at whatever speeds youd care to drive at, yet small enough to park without difficulty.
7)Good allround visibility unlike the astras/corollas/whatever.
8)Chain cam engines-No risks of the timing belt, giving up on you and destroying half the engine with it!
These were some of the reasons why I bought the Almera.
And 15000 miles and 9 months later, I havent regretted it for a moment!
Ive been to the garage once-to replace the oil after 10k miles!
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The Almera looks too much like the new Astra for my liking.
Finaly someone said it! It bothers me since I saw first pictures of the new Astra. It's such a shameless knock off of Almera -entire side profile, roof, lines, only slightly revised rear clusters... It's almost as evident as Insignia's lawsuit deserving similarity to Chrysler Crossfire.
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OK Enough opinions!
Its time GirlyDriver goes to drive both of these cars and hopefully lets us know what she thought of both cars.
Over to you Girlydriver
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