"Nice" City car, with cruise control, 6k?

[actuar90]

So, I have a "nice" car at the moment, being a Clio 2006 197. Unfortunately I live really in the city center so 90% of my driving is through traffic and with work and life I rarely, if ever, get to drive for fun. Hence I'm looking to get a newer car, smaller engine, cut down on maintenance, tax, insurance etc. And get something that can handle the traffic a bit better and I won't be as worried about the possibility of car park dings. I do a long motorway trip about once every 3/4 weeks so would like something with cruise control for that. I don't want to increase the budget much above what I'll get for the Clio, say a budget of 6k.

I do like having the back seats for storage but don't need anything much bigger. I'm still a petrol head at heart so would still like something a little fun if at all possible. I don't do a huge amount of mileage maybe 10k a year, made up 3-4 30 minute each way trips per week and a long motorway journey once a month, so I don't necessarily need a diesel either. The Clio is actually the newest car I've owned so if going newer I would like a few more toys like Bluetooth etc.

So far I've been thinking an 11/12 Fiesta Zetec S as I like the looks and obviously a good city car but very few have cruise control or a VW Scirocco, again like the looks but my budget will only get me an older plate one. Seat Ibiza is an option but the interior doesn't seem great.

Any other suggestions?

[davek_964]

I suspect that cruise will be rare on most cars that are targeted at city driving.
Have you looked at retrofit? Might not be that expensive, and means you can focus on finding a decent car of the type you like without restricting the available pool.

[actuar90]

Yes its definitely an option, although retrofitting it seems to prohibitively expensive versus the value of the car near where I am

[nunpuncher]

Have you had cruise control before?

I've had it on quite a few cars now and it's pretty much useless on our motorways as there's constantly traffic merging, folk changing lanes and the usual idiots who look like they've never been on a motorway so constantly speed up/brake speed up/brake.

Adaptive cruise control on the other hand is amazing. Set the max speed, the distance you want to keep from other cars then put your feet up and just steer. I very much doubt you'll get anything with that for your budget. So therefor I would just ignore crappy standard cruise control and buy something that ticks every other box.

[actuar90]

Yes, I have it (basic cc) at the moment and thankfully the times I travel I usually avoid traffic and can leave the cruise control on non-stop for at least 2 out of the 3-4 hours each way. (btw I'm not in the UK so our motorway traffic might be quite different to yours)

I think if cruise control isn't available on the cars I'm looking at I'll end up doing without it rather than upping budget or retro fitting