I only considered golf from comments here, having been in one didn't get the hype, don't really consider myself much of a brand snob when it comes to cars! Maybe I'm mistaken but I was under the impression petrol cars can start to get pricey to maintain/really drop off in value as you get towards 100k miles, so I wouldn't want to buy anything near what we were at (81k). Yeah when I looked I thought the ioniq might be a viable option, more range than the leaf, but the higher cost of the car along with needing to install a charger that might only be used for a couple of years before having to pay for another (unless we move to somewhere that happens to have one already!) is a bit of a put off. Heated seats, air con and cruise control (manual is fine) are about all I'm fussed about. But coming from a corsa with a tape player to the nissan was a huge step up, and I went from actively disliking driving to not minding it at all. A couple of the driving safety features started being a bit buggy, getting faults etc (drive lane assist for example) and I just turned them off, didn't really miss them, and if the reversing camera etc all stopped it wouldn't be the end of the world, again was nice to have though. See previous comment about the high mileage, could be wrong though. Also I've no problem getting diesel if it makes sense, I have been doing enough miles I think, although that is probably going to drop down to 2-300 a week probably from 400+ at least whilst the weather is a little nicer.
I've never argued against safety features, especially after the crash last November. Modern bodyshell construction, airbags and seatbelt pretensioners, meant my wife and I got away with seatbelt bruising. Any of the cars I have driven before, would have left us in a bad way. Our current car was given a 5 star Euro NCAP rating.
I don't have enough experience on high mileage engine reliability to comment. My only petrol car (S40 mk1) was written off at around 100k. I've taken 2 diesel to 140k and just over 100k no problem. Hopefully other can comment? I'm not sure what's it like in your area, George, but for ~£6000 you probably can't get ULEZ compliant diesel, if that's a factor you have to consider.
I've got zero worries with my Civic reaching and passing 200k, currently at 175k, my last civic was written off at around 180k. That said, I'd not buy a car with more than 100k on the clock.
Check out more recent Kia's and Hyundai's - the build quality is fairly solid but without paying the brand snobbery piece. Similar story with Skoda/Seat versus VW
I just got rid of my Civic with 107k on the clock. It was starting to squeak and rattle from some other worn out bits but the engine (1.8 petrol VTEC) was still absolutely spot on. It was the cleanest engine bay of any car I've ever had and I'd never cleaned the engine bay!
Had a quick look with my wife this evening, she suggested an 8k budget, and as soon as she saw this she said why not: https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-de...=Nissan&model=Pulsar&radius=40&sort=relevance Just replace what we had with another with lower milage, if you know what you like/works for you etc can definitely see the logic! Also is literally a couple of miles away, so will go at least have a look at the weekend.
Those wheels. I think it was originally diamond-cut but instead of expensive restore, they just turned it into standard alloy look. My wife's Nissan Leaf also has diamond cut wheels but now they are horrendous, so I'm thinking of doing similar. Tekna is top spec, should have all bell and whistles
Yeah I noticed the wheels and whilst I'm not that fussed about looks, I think they look worse in comparison to the defaults so will try to knock some money off. And yeah, tekna is what we previously had so it's in theory a very known quantity and one we were happy with hence why it's tempting.
If you know and like it, why not! The last car fit all your requirements so it seems like an easy and well considered option. As I get on I find that my every-day car needs more stuff - I couldn't live without proper automatic climate for example, I used my mother-in-law's Fiesta the other day and had forgotten how crap it was to have to keep managing temperature and fan speed manually. Currently I've got a big old Range Rover so heated seats, windscreen and steering wheel for winter along with a diesel pre-heater makes for a pretty high spec list of want for a winter car. Then I jump in my track car and want to throw more of it away
