Hi,

My wife has an automatic-only licence and does about 24,000 miles a year. Until now we've had Petrol 1.6L cars like the Astra, Focus etc. We buy used (2-3 years old) when the car's done about 20,000 miles & px it at 100,000. Our usual budget is around the £7-£8k mark.

All our cars have had conventional 'torque converter' auto boxes and have been fine but they're a dying breed as car companies try & switch to more efficient unconventional designs like computer controlled manuals (Toyota MMT), DSGs (VW DSG & Ford Powershift) & CVTs. Over the last few years it seems that all of these unconventional boxes have had quite severe problems, all of which sound like design faults that no amount of software updates and clutch replacements will ever sort out - the driver's just expected to put up with them when they're really not safe.

Our 2011 Focus (that has a torque converter gearbox and has been faultless) needs replacing soon with another auto capable of reliably (and safely) getting to 100,000 miles but no suitable options spring easily to mind so I thought i'd ask here for ideas.

The car needs to be petrol and I'm quite open to having an unconventional auto IF it behaves safely & predictably and its capable of reliably covering the mileage. Has anyone got any suggestions for a small-ish auto for us to try (maybe even a little smaller than the cars we've had in the past)??

Thanks

Ken

Edited by ken345 on 21/02/2017 at 10:30