If you are buying new, the Niro has a 7 year warranty, which can only be a good thing. Even if you don't plan to keep it that long, it will be reassuring to the next owner if the car still has a few years warranty left. You mention a buggy, which presumably means you have a little 'un, in which case, the extra height of the Niro seats will make it easier to get them into and out of the car. Possibly most importantly though, your wife prefers the Niro!

^^ ^^ Very helpful. Real world advice ... ta.

The pair of cars the OP has mentioned, has peaked my interest here, as they are so different from each other. So i have done a little reading on both and discovered some interesting (at least to a nerd like me!) nuggets of info.

The first is regarding the Octavia's weight, or in this case, lack of. Given the size of the Octavia, i find it remarkable that it tips the scales at just 1150kg!. It certainly explains the performance figures being somewhat sprightlier than you might expect from a car that size packing a 1.0 turbo triple, with 60mph coming up in 9.6 seconds (figures from online 'Car' review of 11/5/17). Of course the down side of this is with a full compliment of passengers and luggage, the percentage difference in power to weight ratio is going to be very noticable!. I also must point out, that i really am not a fan of the current Octavia's front end styling!, though obviously this is entirely down to personal opinion.

As for the Niro, i read an Autocar review online (date unknown) and what i found interesting is the difference in Kia's quoted acceleration time for the Niro vs the figures achieved by Autocar. The following is extracted from the review:

Kia’s 0-62mph acceleration claim for the car is 11.5sec, which would be a decent if unremarkable showing from an economy-minded crossover – if it wasn’t a significant underestimation of the Niro’s true potential. In slightly damp conditions, the car’s two-way average 0-60mph time was actually 9.7sec, whereas most of the diesel-powered, sub-100g/km crossovers we’ve tested of late have struggled to go under 12.0sec. Unlike in a Toyota hybrid, it’s possible to hold the Niro in a selected gear at full power (provided you don’t activate the kickdown switch at the bottom of the accelerator pedal), and doing so shows that the car is also surprisingly strong on in-gear acceleration. For example, 30-70mph in fourth gear takes 13.7sec, which is several seconds quicker than direct rivals can manage.

While i understand that the Kia is not a performance car of any stretch of the imagination, it does seem odd that they quote a 0-62 time nearly two seconds slower than the car is actually capable of?

Incidentally, the Kia, in higher '3' spec, weighs in at 1512kg, some 362kg (!) more than the Octavia.