I presume 1.4 venga petrol to be reliable ( not yet started to look into yet )

If a BIG NO to diesels what of the kia 1.6 gdi petrol

again thanks for the help

The 1.6 petrol is thirstier for not much benefit.

I had a 1.4 5 speed venga. the Hyundai ix20 is the same mechanically.

I have had zero problems with any of my KIA cars.

ORB when you say not much benefit , in terms of what . reliability or woeful fuel economy.

John F that was my thoughts but from my limited brain function I presume more to do with the added bits these days like dpf, egr etc although how is a car that cant deal with the above driving conditions allowed on sale, I understand stop start town driving clogging up but not the above , however these issues seem to be a common theme no matter where you look and I suppose theres no smoke without fire.

but the research goes on . thanks for the continued help. greatly appreciated

You are not going to find anyone on the forum recommending you buy a second hand diesel of this kind of age for the usage you describe.

Why not? Having done only 30K, surely it must have oodles of miles left in it, unless this particular engine is known for problems....is it? The usage described seems ideal, a fair amount of fast roads - or what passes for fast these days of slow motion. Seems odd to remember that over 30yrs ago one could set the cruise control for 80-85 and proceed relatively unimpeded for long distances, keeping half an eye out for 'jam sandwiches'.

Because it has only done 30k.

Roughly 2250 miles per annum for the last four years, that could be ripe for the emissions equipment related problems mentioned in the OP's other thread.

As the OP's described usage comes to maybe 10k tops per annum, diesel is not really necessary. Any fuel savings will be wiped out and then some, should something go wrong with the engine.

As I said earlier, the OP is under no obligation to follow advice given, and TBH, I didn't think anyone else would be in favour of the OP going for a diesel of that age unless the risk was deemed necessary for towing or covering a lot of miles.

Real MPG figures on this website show the diesel (Kia) Soul does 47mpg against the 1.6GDI's 44.5MPG. Using those figures, over 10k miles at todays average prices means the diesel would save £44 over the course of a year compared to the petrol.

You are not going to find anyone on the forum recommending you buy a second hand diesel of this kind of age for the usage you describe.

Why not? Having done only 30K, surely it must have oodles of miles left in it, unless this particular engine is known for problems....is it? The usage described seems ideal, a fair amount of fast roads - or what passes for fast these days of slow motion. Seems odd to remember that over 30yrs ago one could set the cruise control for 80-85 and proceed relatively unimpeded for long distances, keeping half an eye out for 'jam sandwiches'.

Because it very much depends upon the usage pattern of said diesel-engined vehicle (we're talking about those with DPFs), as if it was used predominantly for short journeys from cold, it'll likely have a clogged DPF and perhaps fuel dilution/overfilling issues as a result, with the previous owner getting rid of it precisely because they've experienced such problems, or at the very least offloading it as problems start to appear.

It then means the new owner - who likely has no idea of this (anyone selling it won't be advertising this fact, will they?) and may soon find they have inherited someone else's problem, especially if their own driving pattern is similar.

This is very different to pre-DPF non-common rail diesel engined cars, which were highly reliable and long-lived, as well as being fuel efficient.

If the prospective owner personally knows and trust the previous one - who owned the car from new and used it as it was designed for (predominantly high mileage), then fine, but otherwise it often can be a big gamble, especially as the financial consequences of certain failures can be steep.