Help!!

Alderbrook

I am in the process of purchasing a car for between €3-5k and I can't decide on what to buy.....

I am looking for feedback/reviews on;


* reliabilty

* fuel economy

* comfort

for the following cars;

2004 Mazda3 (new model) saloon 1.4 and 1.6L petrol

2005 Ford Focus 1.4 and 1.6 saloon petrol

2004 Toyota Corolla Saloon 1.4L petrol

2004 Renault Megane saloon 1.4L petrol

Any other cars that you could recommend that may be similar...would be great...

Thanks

reverenddave

personally the corolla hands down
cheap and easy to fix you'll get 200,000 miles outta the engine easily
my last corolla had 255,000
and i know a local taxi driver who's driving around in a 95 corolla with 380,000miles(ish)

renault have always had seriously bad electrical problems which are really expensive to sort
(from personal experience)

focus are ford thats bad enough you'll be fixing it every second week
(also from personal experience):)

not sure bout the mazda havent heard anything bad bout them but i do know the parts aren't cheap

EPM

Mazda and ford are essentially the same car. Think the Mazda 1.6 is different to te normal 1.6 focus though. Open to correction. I'd chose the focus or 3 above the rest but the corolla should be equally if not more trouble free. The days of unreliable fords are well and truely gone. The Megane has some well documented issues a search here will show up. You can be lucky or unlucky with one. Decent cars if you find a good one but I wouldn't risk it when the others are proven to be more reliable

bazz26

Mazda 3 saloon wasn't available in 1.4 litre, hatchback was though.

I'd go for a 1.6 litre Focus out of that bunch, minimum Zetec spec. Ghia has more toys but more common in saloon form than hatchback. 1.4 litre Focus is under powered, not great on juice and base LX model is very average.

Ardennes1944

in fairness how are mazda 3 and focus the same car? choose the corolla or the 3

johnos1984

Deutschlandfürimmer7 wrote: »

in fairness how are mazda 3 and focus the same car? choose the corolla or the 3

Same engine and chassis

bazz26

The Mazda 3, Ford Focus and Volvo S40 all share the same platform and some engines. Mazda 3 petrol engines are not shared with the Focus however.

colm_mcm

COrolla. Does what you want best.

Not the cheapest or best equipped but utterly reliable. Sold rakes of them and never had an unhappy customer.

Toyota bashing is fashionable these days, but that generation corolla can't be faulted with regards running costs, and the 1.4 is as lively as a lot of 1.6 cars in that class.

Alderbrook

thanks for all the replies guys. I really appreciate it. Looks like the corolla wins hands down!!!

bazz26

Honda Civic saloon is worth a look at too. Not as modern as the others on the list but they are uber reliable:

http://www.driving.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carID=201034199279184