Ford Fusion 1.4 Hatchback 2003

lizzyd66

I might be travelling from Wicklow to Waterford to look at one of these over the weekend. It looks a good size car from the photos, has low mileage (33K miles) and is automatic (on for €8.5K). The car won't be used for commuting just for local trips and maybe two or three long trips over to the UK /Ireland a year (we only put around 5,000 on a year). I have two kids under the age of 7.

We have a VW Polo Saloon so am used to a car with a big boot.
I'm going to try if I can see the manual version at our local Ford garage but hoping for a bit of feedback from someone who might own this car as to whether they think it would be a good match for our familys needs.

We can probably afford up to €14K but as you can see not really car people so a reliable tin can on wheels would meet our needs. More interested in low mileage (under 40K) rather than the year and it has to be automatic. So any other suggestions as to good makes/models in our price range would be good.

alias no.9

If it's something along the same lines of the polo saloon, there's the seat cordoba and skoda fabia saloon which are close cousins of the newer model polo. Other similar size saloons include the kia rio saloon and it's close cousin the hyundai accent saloon. The Chevrolet Aveo fits the bill too. I think that's about it for the small saloons.
Small estates/MPVs along the lines of the fusion include the skoda fabia but this time the estate fiat idea Honda Jazz Mazda 2 Nissan Note Opel Mariva

Overall there's a huge amount of choice so shop around

lizzyd66

Thanks for that - very helpful. I'm after an automatic so will have a look and see if any of the models you mentioned are out there.

colm_mcm

I wouldn't recommend getting another small saloon or a small estate. rear legroom in the Polo saloon is fairly tight, and this is also a problem with the Skoda Fabia and Seat Cordoba, rear seat room will become more of an issue as your kids get older.
I think you should be looking at mini MPV's with air conditioning, a higher roof will make getting kids in and out of child seats a lot easier, and as reliability is also on the wish list, I personally would be looking Japanese,

Atomic Pineapple

parents had a fusion for a year, its a pretty boring run of the mill car, nothing special really, it did its jod, you sit higher up in it than normal cars, its a bit bigger than normal cars but i wouldnt call it a mini mpv but there is plenty of room in it, nothing went wrong with it but they only had it for a year

lizzyd66

Thanks for the advice. I think I'm going to go for the Fusion. It is very low mileage for the year and price and for the use we make of it it would be the difference between paying around €8k and paying €14K for any of the other models I was interested in. It actually has quite a lot of extras like air con, sun roof , cd player alloys etc which will be a big step up from the Polo which had zilch (not even central locking or electric windows) so it will be luxury to us!

eamon234

Missus has a '03 diesel one it's fine - good driving position plenty of boot space. Ok it won't win any rallies anytime soon but who cares and it's definitely better than the Fiesta it's based on. Aircon works fine and the interior is roomy and the front seat folds down to make a little table (handy for the laptop!) Three kids will fit comfortably in the back although my only gripe is that the seat belt fasteners are a bit too far down into the seats (having said that all three rear seat belts are three point) - other advantage (if it's on yours) is the heated front window - great for those frosty mornings.

lizzyd66

Thanks so much eamon234 - sounds on the money for our family.