Another What Small Car Thread... with a slick gearbox?

[Mr_Yogi]

I’m looking for a small car for commuting for the other half, value around £5000, but the gearbox must be positive.

At the moment she drives an Aygo but the box has real problems going into 1st sometimes. At which point it will only go into 1st by releasing the clutch in neutral and the re-engaging the clutch and slotting it forcefully into 1st. This can happen changing from any of the other gears including reverse. As she's only just passed her test and isn't the most confident of drivers yet this absolutely pettrifies her, especially turning right across busy roads, only to find she's in 3rd not 1st. She's not happy with double declutching yet and doesn't see why she should have to, considering all the other cars she's driven haven't needed to.

So we're considering something a little larger than the Aygo, such as; 2005/6 Polo/ Ibiza/ Fiesta/ Fabia/ Corsa/ Yaris/ Jazz with a TDi diesel engine or 1.4/1.3 petrol.

Anyone have any experience of these or anything else that migh do the trick? Do any of these have particularly good gearboxes, my old 206 diesel could be a bit vague and notchy, but my old E36 BMW 3 series had wonderfully positive shift.

[kiethton]

There are two fiesta's i use regularly, one a 1.4 '54' plate and the other a 1.25 '55' plate and both have good gearboxes

[briSk]

I have always found ford gearboxes to be fairly precise. so that gives you fiesta and mazda 2...

modern PSA (all psa??) woolly-as.
5spd MINIs are pance too (psa 'box??).

you'd have thought the **Jazz** would be really good but i don;t know for a fact. (plus jazzes are always quite dear secondhand compared to alternatives).
i wonder what recent micras are like?

[Matt_N]

Have you checked the clutch hydraulic system or gear linkage bushes?

Maybe a worn linkage bush or slave cylinder is at fault?

[briSk]

btw that sounds a bit odd on the aygo. i mean ti know i am unconvinced by psa 'boxes but whatever is used in the aygo didn;t feel too bad to me (is it psa or toyota??).

have you had it looked at?

edited to say beaten to it twice!

Edited by briSk on Wednesday 30th June 13:36

[Mr_Yogi]

kiethton said:

There are two fiesta's i use regularly, one a 1.4 '54' plate and the other a 1.25 '55' plate and both have good gearboxes

That sounds promising as her instructor had a Fiesta. They must be quite robust as it must take quite a pasting from all the learners.

[Mr_Yogi]

briSk said:

btw that sounds a bit odd on the aygo. i mean ti know i am unconvinced by psa 'boxes but whatever is used in the aygo didn;t feel too bad to me (is it psa or toyota??).

have you had it looked at?

edited to say beaten to it twice!

Edited by briSk on Wednesday 30th June 13:36

Yeah it's been into the garage a couple of times, but they can never experience the problem, or find anything wrong. To be honest it only started since it had it's clutch replaced, and then I only occasionally found myself in 3rd instead of 1st at traffic lights (maybe a handful of times over the course of a few months)

But it's something I never did before. However it's been getting more prevalent, and in the hot weather and after a few (just past your test) hill starts/ stop start city driving it seems to be happening more often, so I'll get them to look at it again anyway. Another thing I've noticed is 1st gear appears to have moved more to the left (along with all the other gear positions) so maybe they will fine something wrong with it

[RicksAlfas]

Really really daft question, and no offence intended, but is the clutch pedal going all the way to the floor? There's quite a few cars where you can't just slot it into first as easily as third or fifth and they need the clutch against the bulkhead and a very deliberate action to do it. But it does stop you going from fourth to first instead of third

[nsmith1180]

briSk said:

i wonder what recent micras are like?

Horible.

[Mr_Yogi]

RicksAlfas said:

Really really daft question, and no offence intended, but is the clutch pedal going all the way to the floor? There's quite a few cars where you can't just slot it into first as easily as third or fifth and they need the clutch against the bulkhead and a very deliberate action to do it. But it does stop you going from fourth to first instead of third

Yeah clutch to the floor, in fact the other day when I got to work and parking, I shunted back and forth a few times and after reversing it refused to go into first (it had been fine up until this point). I tried slotting it into 2nd and the forward into first but it found 3rd again. I tried wiggling the stick in neutral then forcefully placing it into 1st, but no that was 3rd again. Because I was in the work car park and was not holding up any other cars I tried for about 40 seconds with the clutch fully depressed to see if it was possible to get the car into first without double de-clutching, and it would not find 1st. So I put it in neutral released the clutch, then engaged the clutch and it went straight into 1st

I can see it's going to be near impossible for the garage to experience this behaviour

[kiethton]

Mr_Yogi said:

kiethton said:

There are two fiesta's i use regularly, one a 1.4 '54' plate and the other a 1.25 '55' plate and both have good gearboxes

That sounds promising as her instructor had a Fiesta. They must be quite robust as it must take quite a pasting from all the learners.

The 1.4 is my mum's driving instructor car so i can guarantee it does take some abuse.

[andy665]

I believe Autocar reckon the Hyundai i10 has one of the sweetest gearchanges of any car they have ever driven

[RobM77]

I find the OP's gearbox issues interesting. My girlfriend (who's just passed her test) has a 2007 Yaris and it's a lovely car to drive, but does exactly the same thing with 1st gear occassionally.