A Ford Focus.

 

ANYTHING but the C4 - they are poor, overly electrical being as they are built by the French who couldn't wire a plug and are just not as good as the Focus.

AND it's an Auto...not a good call.

 

focus

 

Out of them two the corolla should be way more reliable.

 

If it's solely those two criteria only, no interest in vehicle dynamics etc, then Toyota Corolla, nothing will even get close to that for reliabliity and therefore running costs.

 

You could get a pretty good Focus for £6K. That's where my vote would go.

 

The Focus is a good car but looks dull as ditchwater.

Consider a VW Golf Mk5 or the current shape Honda Civic as alternatives.

If you don't the mind clattery nature of a diesel, the 1.9TDi Golf is cheap to run and reliable, otherwise consider any of the petrol Civics, all of which are good on fuel and reliable as clockwork.

The Civic is also the most practical out of all 3 hatchbacks (just have a look at the multiple rear seat folding options, the storage space underneath the boot floor etc).

Both of those cars will also depreciate less than the Focus.

 

Oh come off it, lets be realistic here. He wants a reliable family hatchback for about £6k. The Focus is not 'dull as ditchwater'. It's not visually exciting either but lets face it, nothing in this class is - because thats not the point. He's not buying a sports car he's buying family transport. To dismiss one of the best choices for his budget because you think it looks dull is daft.

Are you going to give him the extra money to get a good example of either of these then? He has £6k to spend! New shape Civics are thousands more than his budget for the first examples on 55 plates. Trade on a 50k miler is £8300 alone!

Which, given they are £16-£22k brand new, means neither of them will be in his budget as they've not depreciated that far yet.

 

PMT again?

 

I'm sure the OP will find this way of addressing the shortcomings of your advice most helpful. Personally, I'll take it as admission that it was worthless

 

The Golf Will not be more reliable than a Honda Civic or a Toyota Corolla, if you're happy with the Corolla, buy that, we have had one from new, its a 2002 D4D, it has done 75k miles with 80% of them being shunted around town, it was one of the first off the production line in Derby, so in theory should have teething problems but it didn't, and absolutely NOTHING has gone wrong on it at all.

Servicing at the dealer is just normal pricing, the only downfall of these is they may be hard to get parts for, but then again you won't need them/

 

I heard that if you take some camomile, it will reduce some of the monthly 'emo' tension. Hormones are a bugger eh!

 

I do love the way you post irrelevent and misleading advice and then attempt to deflect criticism by simply insulting the person who points out, and kindly explains why, it is irrelevent

 

I like how he accuses a MK2 Focus as being as dull as ditchwater and then goes on to recommend a MK5 Golf 1.9 TDI. Yeah, thats a really exciting car.

 

Well exactly, plus the guy is considering a Corolla which IS the most dull car ever - its quite obvious he isn't fussed about being hip and happening, he just wants a decent family car.

Of which a Focus is a worthy candidate. And a Civic is £3000+ out of budget. And all the £6k Mk5 Golfs are rubbish.

 

Lets back this up with some facts maybe?

JD Power Reliability Survey

Ford Focus 79.9% Citroen C4 78.2% Ford is hardly a quantum leap over the nasty french car eh Fox? (Toyota Corolla 84%) So the Corolla wins by a mile, lets see how the Focus compares with the C4 then as it was thrown in out of the blue...

Lets assume comparison with 1.6i Zetec 5 Door, closest match.

combined MPG both 42.2 with the Focus having an edge round town and the citroen owning it on extra urban.

Insurance, 6 for the C4 7 for the Focus (running costs)

Performance 0-60 10.0 for the C4 and 11.9 for the Focus.

Top Speed (nr really) 121 for the C4 and 112 for the Focus

Citroen has better standard equipment, more power and more torque, (read more relaxing to drive) and a better NCAP pedestrian rating (same as Focus on all other NCAP areas).

Focus has 12,500 mile service intervals compared to the C4's 20,000 mile. (running costs)

If the buyer wants something Individual and stylish, the C4 is a good car, at least as good as the equivalent dull Focus.

However, there is no doubt the Corolla will beat both the cars on reliability, Running costs, the Citroen will likely be better than the Ford.

 

Eh? Are you confusing me with someone else, I've made zero comment on the merits of the C4.

4%?

 

You were the first to go way off the 2 cars being mentioned with a Focus, and no foundation for mentioning it over either of the other 2, I thought I would compare your suggestion to the cars mentioned with some facts.