As you will possibly remember the wife has been a very happy Kia Ceed SW CRDi owner for nearly 5 years. Last October she "inherited" my dads 7 1/2 year old Nissan Micra when he gave up driving. Since then we have been coping with 4 cars in the household reasonably well but space is tight and about to get tighter (loosing a garage and carport in house move) so something had to go.

Selling Caterham is not an option.

Selling Seat Leon was not sensible, only 2 years old, still on service plan and 3 years warraty left and £30 VED.

Ceed is almost 5 years old and has only done 5,500 miles in the last 12 months which is not good for a diesel with a DPF. We have tried to do regular long runs but it is inevitable it will bite us eventually. £110 VED.

Micra is 7 1/2 years old and whilst low mileage (26,000) and in excellent condition its inevitable it will want money spending soon. £130 VED adds to our expenses.

So we decided to sell the Ceed and Micra and buy one car that suits the Mrs requirements, the mother and father can get into OK, is petrol (preferably with a turbo), low VED and has cruise and A/C.

After some scanning of the mags and Web we narrowed it down to the Venga 1.4, Polo 1.2 TSi, the Fabia 1.2 TSi, the Fiesta 1.0 Ecoboost and the Nissan Note DIG-S. Got some broker prices ready for negotiating at which point the Note looked good with some great deals but since we both love the Seat Leon 1.4 TSi we still thought the VAG pairing with the 1.2 TSi were in pole position.

But first we headed to the local Kia showroom to look at the Venga since they had provided great service whilst we had owned the Ceed. Decent enough motor but the front seat was way too high for mum so end of that one. The good thing was the dealer who made us an excellent offer for the Ceed which after a bit of thinking we took. One car gone.

Then we headed off to the VW showroom and tried the Polo. Lovely interior and the space was OK for mum and dad (just). But compared to our 1.4 TSi it was very slow, no noticable turbo boost at all. After the drive the Micra felt quick.

Called at Nissan next and tried a Note with the 1.2 DIG-S engine. Loads of space (perfect for mum and dad), nicely trimmed, very well equipped and it went pretty well but it has to be said with the relatively high gearing there is not much acceleration in 5th gear, easily solved, use one of the others. £0 VED and £199 3 year service plan made the Mrs happy as did the fact they were doing "loyaty" deals for existing Nissan owners. Made the Micra feel old and slow.

Off to Skoda. Despite all the press remarks about space it definitely nore difficult to get into and out of the back than the Polo, the Mrs could not reach the hatch handle without jumping into the air and grabbing it and the interior looked like it had been made form left over wheelie bins (we looked at the SE). Did not bother driving it.

Off to Ford and the Fiesta. Rear space was way too tight and problems with the rear hatch for the Mrs again. The front seats were hard to the point of being uncomfortable but that was only in the showroom, may have been OK on the road. This was the Titanium model. Ignored by salesmen so we left without driving.

Back to Nissan. Double checked that Mrs could close rear hatck OK and asked for some figures, promised that we would get call next day.

Rang us back and the figures were surprising, less than brokers but problem was they could not find a car in the colour and spec we wanted and to get the deal cars have to be registered before end of June. Looked and found an Acenta Premium but wanted another £900 which since the basic Acenta had all we needed I was not prepared to pay. After some phone calls we agreed at £400 extra (including free service plan) which since it has climate and a sliding rear bench both of which either the Ceed or Micra had and we like we found acceptable. Forget other items like auto lights and wipers, sat nav, fog lights etc all which we can live without.

So in the end we got the Acenta Premium for less than the best broker deal for the basic Acenta but it did take some negotiation.

Should be with us next week, just got to sell the Micra.