[2023] "Inexpensive" new cars (compact-sized)?

Life Cars & Motorcycles
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Another inexpensive car which I would recommend is the suzuki swift. Had that in Italy, loved that thing. Petrol efficient, smart use of internal space, so convenient yo park and good quality inside for the price.

The only piece which gave me annoyance was the transmission (made by fiat…), but now they changed it with the new version, also mine was a manual transmission with stick shift and diesel engine (yeah, we love diesel in Europe, 1300 cc diesel 90 bhp).

Suzuki is such an undervalued constructor, but I really like their no fluff approach and reliability.

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Yes. German cars are certainly reliable, especially when you take into consideration their engine power. Can Japanese cars last a long time? Yes (at least nowadays), but any engine is going to last a long time if it barely does anything.

I get annoyed when people say Japanese cars are “reliable” when what they really mean is they can run for a long time. I wonder how “reliable” their Japanese cars are when they require fast acceleration, or near-instant braking at 65mph to avoid a collision, or when they need the extra engine power to quickly pass someone on the freeway while already going 75mph, or when they need to turn sharp corners without slowing down, or when they need precise steering to quickly swerve.

Is McDonald’s “reliable”? Sure, it fills your belly for a long time. Can you rely on McDonald’s to provide a healthy, delicious, and nutritional meal? Not very reliable when it comes to that, are they?

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Are these cars compact-sized?? They look to big to call it compact in a normal country.

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Most people drive their cars, relatively sensibly, on the streets. Given that, a high powered, high performance car is more understressed and is closer to barely doing anything, undercutting the argument you seem to be making.

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A high performance car is constantly doing its thing. It doesn’t just “turn on” when you need it. When you’re just driving around (especially on a winding, hilly road) in a VW vs. a Honda, you can very clearly feel the difference in power, precision, steering, acceleration, braking, and control.

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Eh, overstated (and subjective and not exactly universally agreed on), especially when talking about VW (vs other German brands, but then you’re talking different classes of vehicles (other than low end Audis))

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I wonder if the differences would be smaller in a study that compared a Japanese car vs. German car with similar engine sizes/outputs. Wouldn’t such a comparison be more fair?

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Even my ex-girlfriend who knows nothing about cars could immediately tell the difference from between her Honda Fit and my VW Jetta within 30 seconds of driving my Jetta for the first time.

I think her exact words were “I didn’t realize until this moment that I’ve been driving toy cars my whole life.”

It was an intentional choice not to compare a Honda to a BMW.

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Different class of Car Honda FIT= VW Polo, I feel FIT is better, though Taiwan Polo’s are not as nice as Euro ones as here has Auto Trans (I do not like). The post here he mentioned was looking at the VW POLO which almost same class as a FIT.

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There is very little noticeable difference between driving a Polo and a Jetta. The class difference is mostly in the shape of the car.

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You’re comparing two different classes of cars. The VW is certainly going to feel different, but unless you had a gli, I bet a lot of people would think the fit is a more fun car (with the stick) - I’d fall into that category.

I’m not knocking VW - VWs have a lot going for it. For the class of car, interiors have traditionally been a notch above (Mazda is pretty awesome now though). Some of the cars are funnish (but oversold). As I said, we’ve bought a Jetta, Golf R, and GTI now. I daily the GTI now… which is why I roll my eyes everytime talks about the GTI as some sort of awesome handling, high performing vehicle; it’s fun - for a cheap, sportyish car built on a economy car platform. Gotta keep some perspective.

All that said, back to maintenance costs, where we started with this VW discussion - again,.we’ve had 3 modern platform VWs… which is why I chuckle at the claim from someone that drove a Jetta for 50k, getting rid of it before it needs any more maintenance than oil changes, that maintenance costs are comparable. :wink:

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The OP is shopping for a new car, and didn’t specify how long they plan to keep it around, but if they keep it around for 7-8 years (which someone said earlier is the average, apparently) they will barely need any more maintenance than I did. Especially if the first 5 years are covered by VW.

Post 100k-mile maintenance costs are not very relevant to this discussion.

You’re not selling it enough! Come on! :joy:

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Ah, the optimism of a inexperienced VW owner! Both cars I replaced turbos on were before 100k. The fuel pump.explosion was before 100k. The MQB platform water pump leaks like a mofo (let’s just say I didn’t have to look up the price I quoted for the housing earlier) some starting under 50k (mine started around 60 or 70k, but I sucked it up for a couple more years, periodically adding coolant before doing the replacement last year). I like these cars enough to keep buying them (currently looking at another Golf R in fact), but if someone wants an inexpensive trouble free car, they should.just get a Japanese (or Korean now!) car. This is backed up by anecdotes (of seemingly the majority of non novice VW owners) and plenty of surveys.

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Never had that problem with mine

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That’s surprising. I sold my Jetta at 92k miles, and the only major work I had done were tire replacements.

Good thing I didn’t keep it around for another 8k.

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Back in Italy in the family had many cars (my dad drives a lot for work), had 2 BMWs 3 series touring. Riddled with issues, especially with the electric system.

2 Renaults, decent cars, but the Scenic diesel of my mum sounded more like a lorry than a car, but no issue.

1 Peugeot (the 807, which shared engine and carframe with the Fiat and Citroen), had a very major issue with the engine.

Then, we bought a Honda CRV, my dad’s life changed. He bought 2 in a row after 200k+ km on each (both diesel engines) and now on a Suzuki Across (just a Toyota Rav4 plugin Hybrid rebadged, a trick to stay within EU emission regulations for models sold, Suzuki had none and paid Toyota to sell theirs, Toyota in change got access to the Indian network of Suzuki, which is humungous). This is to say Japanese cars are just so reliable, keep going far, require very little maintenance, give very good quality for the price and u don’t need to pay for every single thing since even the basic model has a lot of accessories.

I don’t get at all this argument, it actually logically works against your thesis. Japanese engines are just more efficient since they give a decent power with smaller displacement, so their are used more to the fullest possible and they rarely break.

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Where did you drive the Polo, here in Taiwan? I have driven more in Baltics and i thought big difference there, maybe Euro models are different

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78

Paging @sulavaca from Autocheckers to provide his expert opinion on this topic.

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79

If you have Yaris and Fit on that list, there are a few models in the same class that you didn’t list.

Ford Fiesta, Mitsubishi Colt Plus, and Nissan Livina.

If price is your main concern, you should probably take Mitsubishi Colt Plus into your consideration.

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As you request my liege. :wink:

I’m a little confused with the question to begin with. What are we looking for exactly and in which order of priority?

I could write an essay, but I prefer shorthand, unless someone wishes to discuss over the phone, which makes my life and thumbs a lot less challenged.

VW, in short and specifically in Taiwan (climate/usage related) are absolute crap in terms of reliability, when compared to most competitors.
Don’t get me wrong. If you bring me your VW for repairs then I’m super happy. I don’t need many VW customers in order to float my business. If you look at my history and profiles however, you’ll find I have sold two, over the course of several decades. One, my 1973 Beetle restoration and the second was my wife’s dream, New Beetle 2002, which after a year, I confiscated and sold on, just so I didn’t have to spend my weekends fixing the design disaster which it was.
Actually, let’s just take all the European brands and throw them in the trash when it comes to reliability and dependability in Taiwan. It just makes the conversation shorter. I can go into nuance and reasoning, specifics and hair-splitting, but does anyone really care?

So rather than spend an evening dissing brands, let’s just do the short list of recommendations. I put all aesthetics and most ergonomics aside, as I leave those to the individual buyer’s perspective.

New cars

Honda Fit, Toyota Yaris, Toyota Vios

All superbly reliable/dependable cars. Good fuel economy. Strong residuals. Ease of maintenance, island wide. Available components. Strong market demand when reselling.

Toyota Carolla Cross
Same as above. Slight sacrifice on road holding and steering performance, due to it being based on the Corolla, which rides a lot lower.

Hyundai Venue (Only mentioning as it was brought up).
I’ve yet to have a full opinion on this. These models are in far fewer numbers and so typically suffer greater residual losses than Toyota/Nissan/Honda models, as the market demand is far less. Hyundai parts can be very expensive, hard to find, require longer lead order times. Aren’t as easy to service island wide. They typically aren’t nearly as reliable as Toyota, based upon previous models up until this point, with the exception of a few older models. Recent Hyundais have been suffering serious issues with engines and transmissions. This is something I’m actually, this evening trying to learn more about, specifically regarding this model, as I’m potentially interested in purchasing one, given only if it is unlikely to be a catastrophic choice. Nonetheless, I shall only purchase it as a personal vehicle.

All this new car stuff aside for a moment.
There is no more cost effective way of owning a car than owning an older car with known dependability. Cost wise, we’re not even in the same ballpark. I can buy a circa 2000 Sentra for a few tens of thousands of NT and fully expect it to cost very little in maintenance costs when compared to a modern vehicle which is out of warranty. Couple that to the depreciation cost of a brand new vehicle and we’re not even having a conversation about economics any more.

If one wishes to furnish themselves with a new vehicle, then go for that. If one is cemented in the economics of ownership however, then all new vehicles must not be considered.
The most reliable vehicles I know of, as of this time I’m typing will be circa 2005 and I’ll gladly pit them against any brand and any model vehicle coming off the shelf today. This is something I find very difficult to convince any young buyer today, as on the surface it seems to make no sense.
Put simply, the most modern vehicles are forced to incorporate technologies, plastics and rubbers, wiring shrowds etc which conform to government imposed standards, regarding efficiency and environmental impacts etc.
Without going into a long form discussion, these present requirements and demands result in vehicles which have a larger environmental impact and far worse economics for the owner of such, modern vehicles.

I’m going back to my whisky now. I didn’t even check for typos.

Oh, BTW, pretty much any vehicle is easily retroffited with an Android device which also offers apple car play, front and rear dash cam, reverse parking view and more. I’m often pulling out brand new stereos and replacing them with aftermarket units with greater functionality.

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