advice on car upgrade

myomi

Hi Guys,

My 11 year old corsa has given up the ghost and it's time to look for an upgrade but I'm a bit clueless about cars so just looking for some advice on car spec-what should I be looking for.

Don't use the car for work, I live in the city so would be doing city driving mid-week with much longer journeys at weekends to west Cork and Kerry from Dublin fairly regularly, so I would need a car that would be powerful enough on motorways etc esp hills and that. (i dont think I do more than 10,000-15,000 miles a year)

Im thinking of moving away from 1L cars as a result. My car qualifies for scrappage scheme but I dont think I can afford more than €8,000-10,000- but that leaves me with just getting one of the smaller cars,which are fine but Im not sure how they would fare on motorways. Saw a good deal on new seat ibiza 1.2 for 10,880 or skokda fabia for 9,990 with scheme. Would a 1.2 L car be up for challenge do you think?

Should I go with getting newer smaller car, or an older more powerful car?

Ive seen 1.4 L cars on some of the used car websites but Im wondering would they even be powerful enough for motorways and overtaking comfortably on backroads?

Basically, should I be looking at engine sizes or is there something else I need to consider here?

Going to head to a few garages this week but I doubt they'll let me test drive the ride home to west cork so thanks for any advice

Alanstrainor

Engine size is not the best indicator of power/performance. It all depends on the car in question.

Esel

myomi wrote: »

Should I go with getting newer smaller car, or an older more powerful car?

Ive seen 1.4 L cars on some of the used car websites but Im wondering would they even be powerful enough for motorways and overtaking comfortably on backroads?

Smaller / newer (2008 on) = less fuel consumption and road tax.

Max speed on motorway is 120 km/h (75 mph). Overtaking and hills you can always use a lower gear. Most people never rev their engine anywhere near the limit...

myomi

Thanks for the replies, going off looking at cars today, hopefully will have better idea after seeing a few and talking to salespeople.

colm_mcm

The 1.2 in the Polo/Ibiza/Fabia isn't that nice, it's a 3 cylinder, and isnt that nippy (they're all heavy enough cars)

TestTransmission

colm_mcm wrote: »

The 1.2 in the Polo/Ibiza/Fabia isn't that nice, it's a 3 cylinder, and isnt that nippy (they're all heavy enough cars)

Off topic but your sig is class! :pac::pac: