Small, Fun, Modern Cars

[FB.]

I have an (oldish) Mx5. It takes a handbag, rucksack and possibly a spare pair of shoes...I absolutely adore it, have had it for 10 years and it's been problem free other than needing a new roof when the vinyl cracked (and I knifed it to get in when I locked the key inside...)

They are a lot of fun to drive, even older ones which may not have quite all their horses under the bonnet anymore.

Convertibles are nice (my wife's father has two old, rather tatty convertibles - a hobby of his) but we don't much like the sun (or the rain) and we'd be worried about someone damaging the roof either to steal the car contents or just plain vandalism.

[FB.]

My MIL used to have a Honda Civic....it was really responsive, reliable, good mileage and fun to drive.
I spotted this report/rating of the 2016 version...

Honda Civic Prices, Reviews and Pictures | U.S. News Best Cars

looks good.

A few years ago we liked the previous model Honda Jazz (not so keen on the styling or price tag of the latest model) and felt the staff at the local Honda dealership actually cared, but the Civic is bigger than we need.

Jazz/Fiesta/Polo is the absolute largest we would need (they're all smaller than Civic/Focus/Golf).

[Deano's "Diggin It"]

Audi TT

16 yrs old.

Nice to drive
Nice to be in
not particularly big ( but not small)

Just utterly adore it!

Very quick too! The only thing that don't pass very well is a petrol station!

I love those Audi TTs but they are pricey, they hold their value too.

I really wanted a golf when I first started to drive

Had a Golf for years! German technology ya can't beat! Lovely car, never an ounce of bother, and hold their value too, after nearly 5 years of motering until I wanted to upgrade, think I lost £900 in depreciation! (Did buy it trade though, as I have a few contacts in the business!)

FB! Toyota Yaris!
Brothers wife n niece have one, and swear by em for running around town, come with a lot of quirky "Add-on's" too at no extra cost!

[PyreneesPlot]

We've just bought a Renault Captur, a tall Clio, and the smallest thing that we could still tow a trailer and two motorbikes. It is quite fun and nifty, but the Fiat 500L (large? long?) was great fun even with four adults and a stroppy teenager.

[FB.]

We've just bought a Renault Captur, a tall Clio, and the smallest thing that we could still tow a trailer and two motorbikes. It is quite fun and nifty, but the Fiat 500L (large? long?) was great fun even with four adults and a stroppy teenager.

My wife likes the Captur but she doesn't want diesel and she doesn't want a small turbo-petrol engine. It's also bigger than she needs.

A couple of years ago she had decided that a Fiat 500 would replace her Polo, but then came the rumours of the post-2013 engines being too weak, followed by Watchdog showing the more recent petrol models unable to climb hills without stalling or risking burning out the clutch.
That completely killed her interest in the Fiat 500.

[bearded bloke]

I see you have a Zafira (as do I, mine's 150bhp diesel ) Mrs.BB has Tigra B 1.4 twin top which she loves to bits

[WendyC]

I have a Skoda, nobody takes any interest in it

Its a Skoda Fabia Estate, 8 years old and, so far (touches head) its been great. Haven't washed it for months either, Nicos

We're on our 4th Skoda, had two Fabias and two Octavias. Octavia is too big for your needs but the Fabias are great cars. The Skoda range are all very driver friendly cars, built well and well designed. How many cars have a strap to enable the vertically challenged amongst us to reach up to close the boot? If you want even smaller there's the Citigo. Not driven one and they seem not so good value as the Fabia.
I have had the misfortune to have two Nissan courtesy cars recently. Truly awful. The Juke is the worst designed car I have ever been in, like an inverse Tardis. The Note was slightly less bad but both have huge turning circles and completely gutless performance. Can you tell how much I hated them.

[FB.]

I see you have a Zafira (as do I, mine's 150bhp diesel ) Mrs.BB has Tigra B 1.4 twin top which she loves to bits

Yes, we have a 1.8 petrol Zafira; we opted for petrol because it often makes short journeys which aren't ideal for diesels.
My own car is a diesel Astra; the unusual Bi-Turbo 195HP variant.

We're fairly fond of Vauxhalls because of their adaptability to people of different shapes and sizes (wife is fairly short, I'm fairly tall), and because Vauxhall aren't posh or badge-snob cars, and because we get on fairly well with the folk at our local Vauxhall dealership (Murketts).
Adam and Viva are on the shortlist.

[Philthy]

The current crop of Fiesta's make good town cars I think, not too big, a cinch to drive, handle very well, and they look pretty sharp too. Parkers gave the model a very positive review.
Anything from Toyota would offer excellent reliability, past or present. Yaris is a good suggestion. Personally I think the rest of the current range fails on looks.
A friend of mine drives an MR2 MK3 Roadster with hard top roof, so it unclips if you want but doesn't leak or be vulnerable the same as a fold down soft top. The range was discontinued in '07 but definitely worth looking into. A pristine example with low mileage (20-40 thousand) would be around £5-6 thousand. They're small, stylish, can really shift when you want to, and won't break the bank. It's main draw back is anyone over 6' would seriously struggle to drive it - I'm 6' 3" and this is the only reason I haven't looked for one myself!

I drive a Kia Cee'd, which is in the same bracket as Golf, Astra, and Focus. Kia seems to be an up and coming brand. In tests the Cee'd doesn't drive quite as well as it's rivals but is still a decent all rounder, and a lot more affordable. The fuel economy is the biggest let down though (claimed vs reality, and no lead foot either), so I'd pay special attention to the MPG if you decide to test drive any Kia models.

[Containergardener]

Love our Citroen c3 , like our mini van. C1 good for nipping about for smaller. Had a Ka too, great for working in the town.

[SaraJH]

Smart car, hubby got one a few years ago and I thought that I would hate it but I loved it!

He now has a Fiat 500 Arbarth, even more fun but much more expensive!

[FB.]

After visits to numerous different car dealerships and several test drives, the final decision looks like it will be:

Vauxhall Viva.

Our experience of test-driving the Viva was quite different to the unenthusiastic reviews by so-called experts. Maybe Vauxhall don't pay enough advertising revenue to certain publications to 'buy' a glowing review.

Maybe it's not particularly fun by some people's definition (i.e. not sporty), but we found the fun cars had too many issues that we didn't like, ranging from difficult (and often downright undignified) to get into when parked next to another car, to awkward gearboxes or jerky engines, or awkward dash/controls layouts, limited seat adjustment, difficult to get certain useful options (e.g. heated seats/steering wheel) without having to buy the very top trim level (very expensive, also including many other expensive 'toys' we didn't want) and many more grumbles that would make them annoying to live with.

The fact the Viva is also modestly priced is a bonus, since price was not the primary concern.

Here are many of the other really small cars we rejected:

Citroen C1
Fiat 500
Ford Ka
Hyundai i10
Kia Picanto
Peugeot 108
Renault Twingo
Seat Mii
Skoda Citigo
Suzuki Alto
Toyota Aygo
Vauxhall Adam
Volkswagen Up

[Nicos]

Yey!
Bet you are chuffed you've finally decided

....and now, of course, the difficult bit.....

What colour?

[FB.]

Yey!
Bet you are chuffed you've finally decided

....and now, of course, the difficult bit.....

What colour?

Looks like the wife prefers:
1. Metallic pale pastel-blue.
2. Metallic medium pastel-blue.
3. Silver.

I thought I should report back because the internet is annoyingly littered with topics where someone asks a question or advice but never returns to say what the outcome was.