Car suggestions for my wife - small petrol hatchback?

[JQ]

My wife has always owned the family car - diesel people carrier. However, her miles have reduced significantly and I'm contemplating buying a sensible family car. As such we've never really looked at this car segment and I'm slightly lost on what the best options are. My immediate thought was a Skoda Fabia - but they seem very boring and devoid of toys, Peugeot and Citroen seem to have some quite interesting options but I have no idea if they're any good. Her requirements would be:

Circa £6,500
5 door
Reasonable sized boot (Citroen C1 is out) as she carries some equipment
Petrol
Interesting
Lots of toys - Her Citroen C4 Grand Picasso has keyless entry, reversing camera, sat nav, climate, DAB, phone connection, etc. A replacement car not having these may be an issue
Reliable - she keeps her cars a long time, her current car was bought new 7 years ago.
Age and miles irrelevant to a degree as the car won't get hammered, will get looked after and we'd buy based on condition.

Any suggestions?

[A500leroy]

This has clio written all over it.

[bristolracer]

Shop around
Just got the wife an Aygo (too small in your case but) 4years interest free credit and 2k scrappage from Toyota,5 year warranty, didn't seem much sense buying used.
Plenty of deals on new metal out there

[FiF]

You can get into a new shape C3 within budget.

Personally been surprised by daughter's C3, seats look a bit spartan but surprisingly comfortable. Goes better than expected, biggest complaint I have is that the rear suspension is a bit crashy on the more aggressive speed bumps.

Has Android auto etc, sadly too much is controlled through a touch screen, but what isn't these days. In terms of getting kit in, when she started WFH on the day she left managed to get most of her office kit in it, including a bleeding great office chair.

[JQ]

bristolracer said:

Shop around
Just got the wife an Aygo (too small in your case but) 4years interest free credit and 2k scrappage from Toyota,5 year warranty, didn't seem much sense buying used.
Plenty of deals on new metal out there

That's a bad plan - every extra penny spent on her new car is a penny less to spend on my new car.

[DoubleD]

JQ said:

bristolracer said:

Shop around
Just got the wife an Aygo (too small in your case but) 4years interest free credit and 2k scrappage from Toyota,5 year warranty, didn't seem much sense buying used.
Plenty of deals on new metal out there

That's a bad plan - every extra penny spent on her new car is a penny less to spend on my new car.

I like your style!

[ZX10R NIN]

I know you really don't want to go over budget but this DS5 is a good pick, haggle hard & you may just have to spend a little more than 6.5k but on the plus side if you have to borrow it, it has a few ponies to make things more interesting.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202005249...

Megane GT Line

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202007091...

308 Feline

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202007081...

Allure this is a good price.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202001296...

[ChrisH72]

Used superminis like the fiesta are often worse value than small family hatches.

If she really wants supermini size and likes decent equipment levels then the French stuff is tempting. At that money I quite like the 208 GT line puretech 110. Or you could look at an ecoboost Fiesta titanium.

[G_Morto]

Mazda 2 or Suzuki swift would meet all of the criteria pretty much.

Much more reliable than the Fiesta and some of the French cars.

[Belle427]

Honda jazz.

[JQ]

ZX10R NIN said:

I know you really don't want to go over budget but this DS5 is a good pick, haggle hard & you may just have to spend a little more than 6.5k but on the plus side if you have to borrow it, it has a few ponies to make things more interesting.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202005249...

Megane GT Line

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202007091...

308 Feline

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202007081...

Allure this is a good price.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202001296...

That DS5 looks absolutely perfect, thank you.

[mikeyr]

If she likes her C4 but want to go down a size then the Cactus can be bought for your budget. We leased one and think it's the Flair version that had reversing camera, cruise, dab, Bluetooth, etc. They are not without their quirks (annoying touch screen!) but if you like the airbumps go for a bright colour, if not... and they are Marmite... then go dark and they aren't that noticeable, e.g.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/124244409420

Anecdotally ours had no issues at all but we only 'owned' for 18 months. Not sure what overall reliability is like but that's what the internet is for!