Moving from a 2012 Fiat 500 to a 2011 Fiat Qubo

Kintarō Hattori

Chaps,

Just wanted to get some advice if I could. My colleague and I both have 2012 Fiat 500s with the same mileage. He was getting a service done in his local Fiat dealer and spotted a 2011 Fiat Qubo and was potentially interested in getting that. The dealer said he could trade-in his 500 and give them €2000 towards the Qubo. He didn't go for it in the end but I'm thinking I might as I'm a new dad.
My questions is this, it looks like a month later the Qubo is still on their forecourt and well let's be honest it's not the most desirable car whereas the 500 would be a lot quicker to shift for them. My own car has 127,000 km on the clock and was recently serviced, had front disks and pads replaced and rear shocks replaced. It also had a known problem (the wiring loom going into the rear boot space) fixed. The Qubo I'm looking at has 98,000 km on the clock.

Do you think I could go much lower than the €2000 they want?

https://www.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/fiat-qubo-1-3-16v-multijet-dynamic/14832070

road_high

Isn't the Qubo just a tiny van with seats put in. None of the style and appeal of the 500 and will be worth far less in years to come. Sounds like a bizzare move to me.

Explosive_Cornflake

I'd think so. Go in lower and see what they say. Everything you've said is correct.

Eit: that is one ugly car for 8k.

Kintarō Hattori

road_high wrote: »

Isn't the Qubo just a tiny van with seats put in. None of the style and appeal of the 500 and will be worth far less in years to come. Sounds like a bizzare move to me.

I'm a new dad so it'll be handy for me putting a car seat in and taking it out. I also like the idea of plenty of boot space for a pram/buggy. Plus I also like quirky vehicles and I'm not too worried about future values. I know many will find the Qubo ugly but I like how it looks.

colm_mcm

The 500 is the only model fiat has that sells. The thought of paying money to go for a model that is a harder sell for the garage and is a year older doesn't make sense to me.

road_high

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

I'm a new dad so it'll be handy for me putting a car seat in and taking it out. I also like the idea of plenty of boot space for a pram/buggy. Plus I also like quirky vehicles and I'm not too worried about future values. I know many will find the Qubo ugly but I like how it looks.

There's better options out there...other posters will be better placed to specify which though. Even a 500L if you want to stick with Fiat. The "deal" on offer looks very poor to me- pay 2k to change to an older, far less popular van based car. Your 500 is a sought after car with a very good sub premium image.

bmwguy

That's disgusting. Its like postman pats van. Trade the 500 alright, but for something decent. That will drive like a van too.
If you have a 500 I am going to assume you know something about a stylish car.

Kintarō Hattori

colm_mcm wrote: »

The 500 is the only model fiat has that sells. The thought of paying money to go for a model that is a harder sell for the garage and is a year older doesn't make sense to me.

The 500 is great, a really fun little car but a 3 door car just isn't practical now. I like the practicality of the Qubo, especially that you can fold all the rear seats and gain an enormous amount of spacel.

road_high wrote: »

There's better options out there...other posters will be better placed to specify which though. Even a 500L if you want to stick with Fiat. The "deal" on offer looks very poor to me- pay 2k to change to an older, far less popular van based car. Your 500 is a sought after car with a very good sub premium image.

Thing is I don't want to spend much so something like the 500L would be out of the question. Indeed 'the deal' would be poor which is why I asked about it here. There's no way I'd give over 2k for a model that doesn't sell and is a year older.

bmwguy wrote: »

That's disgusting. Its like postman pats van. Trade the 500 alright, but for something decent. That will drive like a van too.
If you have a 500 I am going to assume you know something about a stylish car.

Ah each to their own. I thought the Multipla wasn't ugly and it's the same for the Qubo. I like it's quirkiness. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not Fiat mad but getting into something like a Focus or a Corolla just wouldn't have the same appeal. I like something a little unusual. If I ever need a good driving experience I can just hop into the missus E90.

colm_mcm

I'd be looking for a straight swap at the least.

road_high

I doubt an early 500 L would be much beyond the 8k for the Qubo- shop
around, this is s terrible deal in my opinion

kerten

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

The 500 is great, a really fun little car but a 3 door car just isn't practical now. I like the practicality of the Qubo, especially that you can fold all the rear seats and gain an enormous amount of spacel.



Thing is I don't want to spend much so something like the 500L would be out of the question. Indeed 'the deal' would be poor which is why I asked about it here. There's no way I'd give over 2k for a model that doesn't sell and is a year older.



Ah each to their own. I thought the Multipla wasn't ugly and it's the same for the Qubo. I like it's quirkiness. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not Fiat mad but getting into something like a Focus or a Corolla just wouldn't have the same appeal. I like something a little unusual. If I ever need a good driving experience I can just hop into the missus E90.

It is a van(with seats and additional windows) with little space (for a van) you are thinking of buying. If you are ok with all the disadvantages of driving a van designed for commercial purposes and like Fiats, at least look at a Fiat Doblo as it has better suspension, interior quality and more space.

I would look for a small or normal MPV depending on how many kids you have. Wife drives a 06 Nissan Note with single kid we have and it is pretty practical and spacious thing. Does kid stuff much better than my focus mk2.

mossy50

what about a fiat doblo a good few in cars Ireland 2011 doblo there for 8500

Kintarō Hattori

kerten wrote: »

It is a van(with seats and additional windows) with little space (for a van) you are thinking of buying. If you are ok with all the disadvantages of driving a van designed for commercial purposes and like Fiats, at least look at a Fiat Doblo as it has better suspension, interior quality and more space.

I would look for a small or normal MPV depending on how many kids you have. Wife drives a 06 Nissan Note with single kid we have and it is pretty practical and spacious thing. Does kid stuff much better than my focus mk2.

Thing is I don't need a proper van so something van like that has a bit of space seems like a decent option. The newer shape Doblo is pretty alright but the things is massive. Someone here in work has one and it's like a bus so potentially way to big as I doubt we'll have more than one child..... two at the very max.

I know the Note is probably a fine car but it has little appeal for me personally. Any other recommendations? I quite like the look of the C3 Picasso but I think that generation of Citroen's have a lot of bad press?

Kintarō Hattori

bmwguy wrote: »

That's disgusting. Its like postman pats van. Trade the 500 alright, but for something decent. That will drive like a van too.
If you have a 500 I am going to assume you know something about a stylish car.

Ah I like it, it's funky. I'm open to other suggestions. I like the fact that it's small but spacious and a little unusual. Options like the Nissan Note etc don't have any appeal. Can you suggestions a few alternatives?

Wildcard7

For 8k you'd get a Seat Altea, Skoda Roomster or a dozen other similar models with the same age/mileage, that don't make you want to vomit every time you look at them and that aren't Fiats.

Even if you want that ugly thing, you'd be 10x better off buying it in a straight deal and sell the 500 privately.

colm_mcm

Id imagine it would be a hard yoke to get rid of if you decide to move on to something else.

I can see the appeal alright. They're a cool little yoke in a way.

Kintarō Hattori

So I spoke to the dealer today and they are open to the idea of a straight swap- dependent on the condition of my car.
Now, bare in mind that the Qubo is fairly low mileage and relatively well spec'd (heated mirrors, air conditioning, bluetooth etc) what other recommendations would you have? Oldest I'd go is 2010 and budget is around €7000. I do enough mileage to justify a diesel, 90 km a day on the M1 and M50.

Thanks.

Kintarō Hattori

Any suggestions for something other than the Qubo?

road_high

Of the small Mpv class? Don't Peugeot Citroen do versions of their Partner and Berlingo vans? Bit crude but supposed to be very functional and spacious.
Opel Meriva is a small Corsa based Mpv that would within budget but again the image of a paper bag. Hyundai IX20...

humberklog

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

Any suggestions for something other than the Qubo?

I say this as a mate KH, that yoke is awful.

Would the Skoda Yeti be in your price range? Gets great reviews, I think they're one of the coolest cars on the road.

*Edit* Have you started up the engine and driven it? One just went past me and it's a seriously noisy van for the size of it.

Kintarō Hattori

road_high wrote: »

Of the small Mpv class? Don't Peugeot Citroen do versions of their Partner and Berlingo vans? Bit crude but supposed to be very functional and spacious.
Opel Meriva is a small Corsa based Mpv that would within budget but again the image of a paper bag. Hyundai IX20...

The Peugeot Bipper and the Citroen Berlingo are those companies versions of the Fiat Qubo.... all three are basically the same car.

I'll have a look at the other options you mentioned.

Kintarō Hattori

humberklog wrote: »

I say this as a mate KH, that yoke is awful.

Would the Skoda Yeti be in your price range? Gets great reviews, I think they're one of the coolest cars on the road.

*Edit* Have you started up the engine and driven it? One just went past me and it's a seriously noisy van for the size of it.

Hey HK.... I might get one in price range but it'll be older and with way more KM on it. I don't want to go down in too many years what with insurance being harder to get on older vehicles.
I haven't heard it or tried it yet as the one I linked to is in Carlow. I think I'm destined to get it as I'd never seen one in the flesh and then today saw two in Balbriggan.

colm_mcm

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

The Peugeot Bipper and the Citroen Berlingo are those companies versions of the Fiat Qubo.... all three are basically the same car.

I'll have a look at the other options you mentioned.

Berlingo is bigger, the Nemo is the Citroen version.

road_high

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

The Peugeot Bipper and the Citroen Berlingo are those companies versions of the Fiat Qubo.... all three are basically the same car.

I'll have a look at the other options you mentioned.

Don't think they sell the Peugoet/Citroen passenger versions here ala Qubo here. Doubt they'd sell, more of a Continental thing I'd say.
The Fiat 500L is supposed to be a decent car though I think the styling was a terrible letdown. I'd imagine some early ones must be coming into your price range now, if you want to stick with Fiat.
Skoda Yeti is a good one too. Quirky styling and Skoda reliability and practicality.

Kintarō Hattori

road_high wrote: »

Don't think they sell the Peugoet/Citroen passenger versions here ala Qubo here. Doubt they'd sell, more of a Continental thing I'd say.
The Fiat 500L is supposed to be a decent car though I think the styling was a terrible letdown. I'd imagine some early ones must be coming into your price range now, if you want to stick with Fiat.
Skoda Yeti is a good one too. Quirky styling and Skoda reliability and practicality.

I've had a look alright and the only Yeti is massive mileage so I'm ruling that out. I agree that the styling of the 500L is pretty poor but that's still well outside budget unfortunately.

I wonder then if I should look to the UK:

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201707217603133?onesearchad=Used&sort=price-asc&advertising-location=at_cars&make=SKODA&model=YETI&postcode=ec1a1bb&radius=1500&page=1

Explosive_Cornflake

I would. Sterling is low at the minute, so good value to be found.

colm_mcm

You'd need to sell the 500 here really.

Vote 4 Pedro

If you buy that Fiat you will have to marry it, coz you will never resell it.

What about a Kia Soul :-
Not necessarily one of these but one like it.

https://www.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/kia-soul-tx-1-6-diesel-finance-available/15072294

https://www.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/2014-kia-soul-1-6-crdi-2-auto-bluetooth/15972843

MojoMaker

Baby brain at its finest. You will come to regret this decision.

Kintarō Hattori

colm_mcm wrote: »

You'd need to sell the 500 here really.

That would be the intention alright.

OK so what's handy with the Qubo is it would just be a straight trade with no money needed. Think I could get away with that on a Soul like this:

https://www.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/kia-soul-diesel/15525664

or these:

https://www.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/peugeot-3008-was-8900-now-7900-sx-1-6-hdi-aut/15757204

https://www.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/nissan-note-1-5-dci-90-n-tec-low-mileage-fsh-new/16151744

https://www.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/kia-ceed-estate/15853656

colm_mcm

Not a hope I'd say. 500s are cheaper in the uk too.
Those automatics are supposed to be heavy enough on diesel in the soul.

Kintarō Hattori

colm_mcm wrote: »

Not a hope I'd say. 500s are cheaper in the uk too.
Those automatics are supposed to be heavy enough on diesel in the soul.

Sigh - it's looking more like the Qubo is the only option so.

Edit- Unless you've some suggestions Colm?

Kintarō Hattori

One key point I should have mentioned is that I'm only in the 500 for €3000. That said and done though I think I'll sell it privately and look to buy something on finance....... and not a Qubo.

I do about 90km a day down the M1 and M50 so diesel is an option though I like the less hassle you get with a petrol. Any suggestions around the €10,000 mark?