French Options to replace a 2005 corolla

[rastapasta]

Morning All,

I would appreciate some of your input. We are thinking of changing the Wife's 2005 corolla which has been super reliable over the years to something alot newer (ie max 2 years old) and more fuel efficient (but still petrol). In this regard we have been going through the usual options such as Golf, Focus etc. We have been turned off French cars by certain people but they do make some nice cars, the C4, megane or 308 being the options most suitable to us. Sure they have poor reputations but didnt Skoda at one time?? Are they as bad now was they were 20 - 30 odd years ago??.My old man has driven Citroens for donkeys years and he swears by them - any problems he had were always self inflicted. Similarly my mother has had a 205 and a 206 in the past, both cars were without issues.

So what is the thinking here from people who have actually owned these cars or worked on them??

Your Input is much appreciated as always.

[ZX10R NIN]

All cars are reliable these days with no one car being significantly better or worse than another, what you have to do is set yourself a budget which will then decide which car is best for you in terms of spec mileage age & of course a bit of go.

Kia Cee'd GT Line S

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

GT Line

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

Citroen DS4 Prestige

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

Vauxhall Astra Elite Nav again these are as reliable as anything else but represent great VFM.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

As you can see there are numerous options so workout a budget & you can then narrow it down.

[mikeyr]

We had a new Cactus for 18 months, didn't have any issues with it (one recall for sticking bonnet latch) but no actual issues. So as an 'owner', well leased it really but you get the idea, I can say that it was trouble free and nothing rattled or came off during our time with it.

However, that's just anecdotally from me - might be worth looking at the various reliability studies as the Cactus came out very poorly in this one (for example).

https://www.whatcar.com/news/2018-what-car-reliabi...

But then some Citroens come out very low in surveys whereas Peugeot seem to be near the top. Guess what I'm saying is I wouldn't treat 'French' as a deciding factor one way or the other; look at it by manufacturer rather than country.

[tonyb1968]

The 308 is very good for the money, the 1.2 puretech 130 is what you want to look at, well equipped and reasonably priced, though you don't really give a budget to work on? (i've owned one or 2 french cars, a 308, 3008 suv, a couple of RCZ's, several 306's, a 208 etc).

[kurt535]

Buy French and enjoy selling it less than a year later....