My wife and I both drive clunkers. I'm not big on cars, my accountant brain defines them as expenses rather than assets.
Hers is a 2013 Nissan Qashqai 1.6 with only 75k on the clock, full service history with the agents and basically brand new tyres.
She now insists on an upgrade. Wish my mother in law warned me .....
I kind of gave in, and an upgrade is on the cards.
Anyway, I would like to get an auto, I think manual gearboxes should be part of a history textbook rather than a current option in a car, especially for city driving.
The car is used for work and back, school and back and weekend getaways. It needs to swallow a few suitcases yet be small enough to comfortably park and manoeuvre around town.
We had a look at the new Qashqai (nope, bland and uninspiring with 1.2T engine - don't like small turbo'd engines), new Kia Sportage, Honda H-RV, Hyundai Creta (my wife don't like the styling), Hyundai Tucson, Hyundai Kona (fugly).
I heard the Mazda CX-5 is a good car though I have not driven it yet and the whole Kuga saga left me with mixed feelings about Ford (I do see a lot of Everests these days). The German models (Q3, X1, GLA, Tiguan etc) are out of my price range. I'm a bit hesitant of the French models, though I think they are good cars with a bad stigma in SA. I dislike the Toyota styling and the new RAV4 looks like something out of a Spongebob Squarepants cartoon (even the wheel wells are square).
Max budget is just over the R400k mark for a demo model, though less is better.
I'm a bit of a Honda fanboy. They last forever and I like the CVT gearbox. The service from Honda in Durbanville is also really good. The H-RV is thus top of the pile for me. I drive a 2015 Ballade (which is probably the best value for money in cars that you can get).
The Kia Sportage is quite nice, even the new 1.6 auto is good (I took it for test drive).
We don't need a sports car, so anything that will do a decent overtake on the highway is fine.
My main concern is resale value and demand if I want to sell again in future.
Any thoughts?
Hers is a 2013 Nissan Qashqai 1.6 with only 75k on the clock, full service history with the agents and basically brand new tyres.
She now insists on an upgrade. Wish my mother in law warned me .....
I kind of gave in, and an upgrade is on the cards.
Anyway, I would like to get an auto, I think manual gearboxes should be part of a history textbook rather than a current option in a car, especially for city driving.
The car is used for work and back, school and back and weekend getaways. It needs to swallow a few suitcases yet be small enough to comfortably park and manoeuvre around town.
We had a look at the new Qashqai (nope, bland and uninspiring with 1.2T engine - don't like small turbo'd engines), new Kia Sportage, Honda H-RV, Hyundai Creta (my wife don't like the styling), Hyundai Tucson, Hyundai Kona (fugly).
I heard the Mazda CX-5 is a good car though I have not driven it yet and the whole Kuga saga left me with mixed feelings about Ford (I do see a lot of Everests these days). The German models (Q3, X1, GLA, Tiguan etc) are out of my price range. I'm a bit hesitant of the French models, though I think they are good cars with a bad stigma in SA. I dislike the Toyota styling and the new RAV4 looks like something out of a Spongebob Squarepants cartoon (even the wheel wells are square).
Max budget is just over the R400k mark for a demo model, though less is better.
I'm a bit of a Honda fanboy. They last forever and I like the CVT gearbox. The service from Honda in Durbanville is also really good. The H-RV is thus top of the pile for me. I drive a 2015 Ballade (which is probably the best value for money in cars that you can get).
The Kia Sportage is quite nice, even the new 1.6 auto is good (I took it for test drive).
We don't need a sports car, so anything that will do a decent overtake on the highway is fine.
My main concern is resale value and demand if I want to sell again in future.
Any thoughts?
