Recommend an automatic

blindside88

Hey guys,

Looking for a steer on another car. I recently changed my car to an automatic e class thanks to some excellent advise from the knowledgeable users here and I’m very happy with it.

The only downside to changing it is now my wife also wants to change to an automatic but not as big a car as mine.

She’s currently driving a 151 focus titanium and likes the drive of the car but it’s manual.

She’d like something the same size or maybe a bit bigger to accommodate a baby in the near future.

Criteria:
Ideally not a saloon
Cruise Control is a must
Ideally diesel (I’m pushing for an electric but she’s not keen)
Ideally 2016 or above
Ideally €16000 or less

I know the VAG cars have a good reputation for automatics but I have very little experience of the various makes and models in automatic.

What would you suggest?

bazz26

VAG are the only ones that would offer traditional dual clutch automatics in that size of car. Most of the others offer CVT boxes which simulate automatic gear changes but the whine from them takes a bit of getting use to.

Seat Leon:
https://www.carsireland.ie/detail.php?ad_id=1472971&r=s.php%3Fm%5B%5D%3D78%26o%5B%5D%3D673%26f%3D2%26t%3D2%26yn%3D2016%26yx%3D2017%26pp%3D50%26g%3D0

Skoda Octavia:
https://www.carsireland.ie/detail.php?ad_id=2472207&r=s.php%3Fm%5B%5D%3D80%26o%5B%5D%3D682%26f%3D2%26t%3D2%26yn%3D2017%26yx%3D2017%26pp%3D50%26g%3D0

blindside88

bazz26 wrote: »

VAG are the only ones that would offer traditional dual clutch automatics in that size of car. Most of the others offer CVT boxes which simulate automatic gear changes but the whine from them takes a bit of getting use to.

Seat Leon:
https://www.carsireland.ie/detail.php?ad_id=1472971&r=s.php%3Fm%5B%5D%3D78%26o%5B%5D%3D673%26f%3D2%26t%3D2%26yn%3D2016%26yx%3D2017%26pp%3D50%26g%3D0

Skoda Octavia:
https://www.carsireland.ie/detail.php?ad_id=2472207&r=s.php%3Fm%5B%5D%3D80%26o%5B%5D%3D682%26f%3D2%26t%3D2%26yn%3D2017%26yx%3D2017%26pp%3D50%26g%3D0

Thanks for that, I was thinking along the lines for an octavia alright. That one you’ve linked seems to have decent spec

Green farmer

blindside88 wrote: »

Hey guys,



She’d like something the same size or maybe a bit bigger to accommodate a baby in the near future.

Criteria:
Ideally not a saloon
Cruise Control is a must
Ideally diesel (I’m pushing for an electric but she’s not keen)
Ideally 2016 or above
Ideally €16000 or less

I know the VAG cars have a good reputation for automatics but I have very little experience of the various makes and models in automatic.

What would you suggest?

How about a citroen grand picasso ? Youd get a 16 reg auto for that money. Hard to beat for family life and kids. They changed to a 6 speed outsourced automatic at that stage. Meant to be much better then the 5 speed it replaced. A similar vw would set you back alot more money.

Darc19

Bmw 116

Extremely economical - 60+mpg in true driving

Nippy

Comfortable

blindside88

Green farmer wrote: »

How about a citroen grand picasso ? Youd get a 16 reg auto for that money. Hard to beat for family life and kids. They changed to a 6 speed outsourced automatic at that stage. Meant to be much better then the 5 speed it replaced. A similar vw would set you back alot more money.

Are those auto boxes good to drive? I like the look of the grand Picasso

blindside88

Darc19 wrote: »

Bmw 116

Extremely economical - 60+mpg in true driving

Nippy

Comfortable

When I was changing my own car earlier in the year I was warned off auto 5 series by my mechanic due to reliability issues. I assume the 1 series uses different engines and gear box combos than the 3 and 5 series. I’ll give them a look

Green farmer

blindside88 wrote: »

Are those auto boxes good to drive? I like the look of the grand Picasso

I only ever test drove the automatic one, but it felt fine. We had a previous generation manual one. The Eat6 was outsourced, I think from a well established auto company form Asia or something, that make reliable units.They've
since moved again to a 8 speed that's meant to be very slick.

kerten

IMHO most reliable automatic gearboxes are the torque convertor types. Most of the Opel, bmw, mercedes, peugeot, citroen models have still them.

Dual clutch ones are fuel efficient and fast but they are not the most reliable(search for dsg and powershift failures). Go for 2.0 tdi engines in vag group and ford models as they come with more reliable version of dual clutch

CVT is not for everyone especially mated with a small engines.

blindside88

kerten wrote: »

IMHO most reliable automatic gearboxes are the torque convertor types. Most of the Opel, bmw, mercedes, peugeot, citroen models have still them.

Dual clutch ones are fuel efficient and fast but they are not the most reliable(search for dsg and powershift failures). Go for 2.0 tdi engines in vag group and ford models as they come with more reliable version of dual clutch

CVT is not for everyone especially mated with a small engines.

Thanks for the info. I’ll have a look into that

Darc19

blindside88 wrote: »

When I was changing my own car earlier in the year I was warned off auto 5 series by my mechanic due to reliability issues. I assume the 1 series uses different engines and gear box combos than the 3 and 5 series. I’ll give them a look

5 series 2010-2014 had issues, but nothing to do with the auto gearbox.

Herself has a 116 auto and loves it. Besides servicing, never was in a garage and is about 130k km (7 years)

Osamabumdipper

blindside88 wrote: »

When I was changing my own car earlier in the year I was warned off auto 5 series by my mechanic due to reliability issues. I assume the 1 series uses different engines and gear box combos than the 3 and 5 series. I’ll give them a look

BMW auto box's are some of the best.

bazz26

BMW uses a ZF gearbox which are one of the best in the business. Just remember that the 1 Series doesn't have a huge amount of room on the inside due to being rwd. Would feel tiny in comparison to an Octavia.

Osamabumdipper

Darc19 wrote: »

5 series 2010-2014 had issues, but nothing to do with the auto gearbox.

Herself has a 116 auto and loves it. Besides servicing, never was in a garage and is about 130k km (7 years)

Most of problems with f10 are due to poor servicing interval. Great bloody car to own.

Shefwedfan

What the issue with electric? Especially as you have second car?

blindside88

Shefwedfan wrote: »

What the issue with electric? Especially as you have second car?

I’ve no issues with electric but she’s not convinced with. It being able to go anywhere at the drop of a hat in an emergency even though it would be best for her mileage. The only problem I would have are the frankly ugly looks of electric cars within the budget. I don’t think the leaf started to look decent until 2018 and don’t like the look of the Ioniq at all.

Shefwedfan

blindside88 wrote: »

I’ve no issues with electric but she’s not convinced with. It being able to go anywhere at the drop of a hat in an emergency even though it would be best for her mileage. The only problem I would have are the frankly ugly looks of electric cars within the budget. I don’t think the leaf started to look decent until 2018 and don’t like the look of the Ioniq at all.

eGolf? Rare but gen 1 should be in budget

blindside88

Shefwedfan wrote: »

eGolf? Rare but gen 1 should be in budget

That could be an option for me alright, she’d still take some convincing I feel.

Shefwedfan

blindside88 wrote: »

That could be an option for me alright, she’d still take some convincing I feel.

If you have two cars it is perfect. Go eGolf because
1 Doesnt look like an electric car
2 It is a great car to drive


I bought one and my wife thought I was completely nuts. Now I only got her to test drive the Leaf and that was the mistake. Two to three days later and the race in morning was who to grab the eGolf. What sort of distance does she do daily?

blindside88

Shefwedfan wrote: »

If you have two cars it is perfect. Go eGolf because
1 Doesnt look like an electric car
2 It is a great car to drive


I bought one and my wife thought I was completely nuts. Now I only got her to test drive the Leaf and that was the mistake. Two to three days later and the race in morning was who to grab the eGolf. What sort of distance does she do daily?

She does about 60-70 miles a day so electric would be ideal if I can convince her.

Shefwedfan

blindside88 wrote: »

She does about 60-70 miles a day so electric would be ideal if I can convince her.

That’s about 110km which you will do in a Gen 1 but with very little to spare, so really need Gen 2 and your up 20k+

Ioniq would be only one or the Leaf 2

blindside88

If she went electric I could justify going to €20k plus but she’d want to be very happy with the car. Couldn’t justify spending that only for her to want to change a year later. It’ll probably be the end of the year before we change

Shefwedfan

blindside88 wrote: »

If she went electric I could justify going to €20k plus but she’d want to be very happy with the car. Couldn’t justify spending that only for her to want to change a year later. It’ll probably be the end of the year before we change

Test drive an eGolf, really they are a huge step up from the others in market in that price range. They have come down massively in price as well

Have a chat with Phil in electric autos, he can tell you what you can get from UK and get it for you in budget. But test drive first.

If the ID.3 comes out the price will drop again on eGolfso you could be lucky

blindside88

Any other suggestions of what I should be looking at (away from electrics) within the original criteria?

Shefwedfan

blindside88 wrote: »

Any other suggestions of what I should be looking at (away from electrics) within the original criteria?

Only 1 baba? If so any car will do it once you go 2/3/4 it’s starts a struggle....what about a crossover if baba in mind? A lot easier to get in/out

blindside88

Shefwedfan wrote: »

Only 1 baba? If so any car will do it once you go 2/3/4 it’s starts a struggle....what about a crossover if baba in mind? A lot easier to get in/out

A crossover would be ideal really, just not familiar with what’s decent in automatic as we both would have always driven manuals up to this point.

Shefwedfan

blindside88 wrote: »

A crossover would be ideal really, just not familiar with what’s decent in automatic as we both would have always driven manuals up to this point.

Have you tested a CVT gearbox at any stage? Some people like and some dont

blindside88

Shefwedfan wrote: »

Have you tested a CVT gearbox at any stage? Some people like and some dont

No I don’t believe I had. When I was buying my own I drove an A6 and an E class and fell in love with the Merc so didn’t drive anything else

Shefwedfan

I test drove a lot of standard Crossover back in the day. The best by a distance was the Tiguan but I do like a VW, I ended up buying a cheaper Qashqai but should have went Tiguan. Don’t get me wrong the Qashqai was perfect but just the interior on the Tiguan and drive was bette

The market is awash with Crossovers but I wouldn’t go for the Compact one just because of plan for kids.

Selection is limited, had a quick look and not many tuguan around, only 1 Kuga. So you might end up with Qashqai.

Mars A7X

Skoda Fabia would be a good look at if wanting a smaller car. They are pretty good from my own personal experience.

GavMan

bazz26 wrote: »

VAG are the only ones that would offer traditional dual clutch automatics in that size of car. Most of the others offer CVT boxes which simulate automatic gear changes but the whine from them takes a bit of getting use to.

Renault's EDC autobox is dual clutch.

galwaytt

Mégane with EDC gearbox (same as DSG/S-tronic in VAG cars). Well specc'd, and bucket load cheaper than a VAG of same age.

We just sold ours after nigh-on 4.5 years, and never any trouble in 160k kms. Ours was a GT Line Tourer (estate).

galwaytt

Shefwedfan wrote: »

Have you tested a CVT gearbox at any stage? Some people like and some dont

The VAG ones - Multitronic - are shockingly awful - and not unknown to give issues either...........

blindside88

galwaytt wrote: »

Mégane with EDC gearbox (same as DSG/S-tronic in VAG cars). Well specc'd, and bucket load cheaper than a VAG of same age.

We just sold ours after nigh-on 4.5 years, and never any trouble in 160k kms. Ours was a GT Line Tourer (estate).

Just had a quick browse on DoneDeal. There’s a few Kadjars in usher as well which she’s a fan of. Guess I’ll get her to test drive a few cars and see what she thinks

GavMan

Has a diesel Megane GrandCoupe with the EDC box and in fairness it was a peach

blindside88

Was looking back over this thread for the past number of days as Mrs Blindside has been back onto me about changing her car to an automatic again. Again I tried to make the case for an electric but she was having none of it. We left the house this morning to test drive a Toyota CHR and a Nissan Leaf..... Ending up buying a 2018 Mercedes B Class. She’s happy so I’m happy. Thanks everyone for the input

Buddy Bubs

blindside88 wrote: »

Was looking back over this thread for the past number of days as Mrs Blindside has been back onto me about changing her car to an automatic again. Again I tried to make the case for an electric but she was having none of it. We left the house this morning to test drive a Toyota CHR and a Nissan Leaf..... Ending up buying a 2018 Mercedes B Class. She’s happy so I’m happy. Thanks everyone for the input

She'll never look back from auto. My last 5 or 6 cars were all auto and I had a loan of a bmw 330i manual this week and I absolutely hated it. I've driven plenty of manuals since but mainly vans so pretty different but I was surprised how much I disliked the manual car. Good luck with the B class.

blindside88

Buddy Bubs wrote: »

She'll never look back from auto. My last 5 or 6 cars were all auto and I had a loan of a bmw 330i manual this week and I absolutely hated it. I've driven plenty of manuals since but mainly vans so pretty different but I was surprised how much I disliked the manual car. Good luck with the B class.

I’m the same as that, I bought an auto e class last year and don’t ever see myself going back to manual unless it’s something fun for the weekends.