£4k, top spec and good MPG - Possible?

[Sambam]

I'm having to sell my car to raise some cash to move house and should end up with about £4000 spare to buy a replacement.

I am not bothered about performance, I will mainly be using it for city driving so it's a bit of a waste of time having anything big engine wise. I am also used to paying small amounts of insurance living in the country at the moment, I don't want the hike moving to a city will have.

I do however like my Bluetooth, iPod and in-built sat nav not to mention climate control and the like. It goes without saying I'd like something reasonably cheap to run and service after spending a few years running decent cars.

I am a bit out of the loop, is there anything that will return me good MPG round town AND have a top spec?

Many thanks in anticipation.

[big_boz]

My mum now runs my 58 plate Yaris 1.3SR NAV that i bought from new, it cant be worth much more than £4k now with 60k on the clock.

It was a limited edition with a TomTom based built in NAV in the dash which also had USB Ipod control and bluetooth for your phone but manual AC not Climate, low insurance group, 45ish MPG out of town, never used to drop much below high 30's ever though, looks quite smart too with lower than standard suspension and nice alloys.

Bit like this:-

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2012...

not a particularly inspiring Car, but well made and quite a nice little run about for the city.

Edited by big_boz on Tuesday 13th November 15:35

[chalkey]

fiesta titanium will do what your after i recon, sure you can pick one up now for your money

[Sambam]

That's not a bad shout actually, thanks. Our other car is a 306 estate which will be the workhorse, this one will just get me to work cross city as cheaply and realiably as possible. Be nice to have a good spec while doing it I guess.

I've had good cars and I'll have them again, I am just being realistic about my finances for the next couple of years!

[big_boz]

I took the Yaris to Bordeaux once coped pretty well, so decent on long journeys too. Never had a car with so much storage space either....I must be getting old, but i miss all the cubbies and cup holders!

[Locke]

+1 For the Yaris. I have a 08 D4-D and it returns amazing mpg and its a nice place to be.

[Sambam]

I have never owned a Toyota, are they as reliable as they are made out to be? Reasonable service costs? It does tick the boxes I agree.

[chalkey]

my dad used to sell toyotas he raves about the yaris, fiesta has all the spec you wanted above plus the abitily to stream bluetooth aswell which is nice i think no wires and all that

[big_boz]

It has never skipped a beat, and neither did the Aygo that i had for 10 months.

Servicing isn't too bad if you want to go main dealer they do a service plan where you pay for so many services up front but at today's prices to beat inflation etc. The only non service items it has had are tyres and an AC flush.

[ajb85]

Toyota? What about a Camry V6, or Landcruiser?

[furtive]

Don't get too hung up on the gadgets. Just fit one of these headunits and you instantly get iPod integration, bluetooth & hands-free phone

http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/jvc-kdx50bt-jvc-kd...

A buy a TomTom

Stick it all into an MX5 and you've got a reliable, cheap fun car

[big_boz]

furtive said:

Don't get too hung up on the gadgets. Just fit one of these headunits and you instantly get iPod integration, bluetooth & hands-free phone

http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/jvc-kdx50bt-jvc-kd...

Then buy a TomTom

This is a very Valid point.

[Sambam]

It is a fair point but I did forget to stipulate that it needs to accommodate 2 kids as well. Suppose I could put one in the footwell

[big_boz]

Yaris for sure then, the back seats slide back and forth so you can have boat loads of room in the back seat of you are not carrying anything big in the boot

[Sambam]

big_boz said:

Yaris for sure then, the back seats slide back and forth so you can have boat loads of room in the back seat of you are not carrying anything big in the boot

From what's been said, it's looking like the best choice and it's not something I would have thought of in a million years. I was looking at all the French HDI stuff as an option really so glad I bothered to ask the question now.

Thanks for your help and suggestions, much appreciated.

[Mr Gear]

Audi A2?

Something like this then spend the change on a nice aftermarket headunit for bluetooth and MP3 dock

http://classifieds.pistonheads.com/classifieds/use...

You never know, you might actually like it more than big old barges.

[sparkyhx]

skoda superb