Thinking of upgrading car.

jos_kel

Hi,
I have a 09 Ford Focus which over the last year has started to cost me money in terms of repairs. At weekend it was the last straw, car wouldn’t start, “Engine Malfunction” came up on the dashboard. There has been a history of this.
Garage said engine is fine, some wires at back of dash needed to be soldered etc.
Anyway, my brother lent me his Audi for the day and I loved it.
Thinking of buying possibly a 2016-2017 A3, as new car would just depreciate like crazy in the first year or two.
Is this a wise move in terms of the move towards electric cars?
Should I tough it out for another few years with my Focus.
By the way way, my wife has a 09 Kia Rio and we would have saving to put towards an upgrade. We both live and work in Dublin and use the M50, so don’t know if an automatic and/or hybrid might be worth considering.
Any thoughts welcome.

colm_mcm

Keep in mind the A3 hatch is pretty small. I honestly wouldn’t say it’s any better than a Golf

Sabre Man

If you go through the M50 toll, by switching to a BEV or a PHEV you can get a refund of between 25% and 75% (50% and 25% during peak hours), which may be worth considering if applicable.

I had a Focus which started giving engine problems, so traded it in. Have a small hybrid Lexus CT200 which suits my purposes fine and has great safety features. I believe the Audi 3 is a great car, and they do t that often come up second hand. When my car went in for routine service I was given a hybrid Toyota CH-R which was lovely to drive and essentially like my Lexus based on the Prius with same reliable engine set-up. One thing I particularly like about my car is the effectiveness of the braking in an emergency. At one point when I was closing in too fast on a breaking car in front of me the vehicle deployed its brakes automatically and saved the situation. Fortunately the person behind me hadn’t similarly closed-in and didn’t rear-end me. Modern cars are becoming very good.

jos_kel

On a separate but related note.
09 Ford Focus 1.6 Zetec TDCi just passed NCT.
Garage said it would value it at 1500.
Mileage is 118k miles/190k kilometers.
CBG.ie is valuing such cars at 3-4k.

Am I missing something here?

TIA

bazz26

Sell it privately and you will get more than what the dealer is offering you for it.

Heres Johnny

The a3 saloon is a lovely looking thing but it's small enough. If you're up at that kind of budget and like Audi I'd be looking at a nice A4, just probably means going back 1 more year for same money so a 15/16 instead of a 16/17

colm_mcm

Heres Johnny wrote: »

The a3 saloon is a lovely looking thing but it's small enough. If you're up at that kind of budget and like Audi I'd be looking at a nice A4, just probably means going back 1 more year for same money so a 15/16 instead of a 16/17

100%. Most of them are the gutless 1.6 too.

Heres Johnny

colm_mcm wrote: »

Heres Johnny wrote: »

The a3 saloon is a lovely looking thing but it's small enough. If you're up at that kind of budget and like Audi I'd be looking at a nice A4, just probably means going back 1 more year for same money so a 15/16 instead of a 16/17

100%. Most of them are the gutless 1.6 too.

Is that 1.6 tdi?
Is that gutless even in an a3?

colm_mcm

Well it’s on par with the likes of what the OP has right now.

bazz26

The 1.6 TDi is sufficient in the A3, the 150bhp 2.0 TDI is much sweeter though.

DaveyDave

If you're looking at an A3 I'd also suggest the bigger engine with DSG. The smaller engines are fine as daily drivers but the extra bit of power would be nice.

Not sure how long your commute is but living and working in Dublin you're possibly better off with the petrol? 1.4 litre DSG would be nice.