Small automatic car recommendations.

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It's early days as Mrs WW is only just starting lessons to get her UK licence but as I tend to move very slooooowly I thought I'd like to start thinking about a car for her now to be in a good place to buy one sometime next year.

It's need to be an auto and she said "small." I know she likes Smart cars and similar looking things so that vague description could be a good starting point :D Other than that possibly a used car as she is careful with our money :D

So, has anyone owned a small auto they can recommend and is there anything to particularly look out for or avoid?
 
Don't get an R series Mini auto, the box is pants. The F series, which is 2014 or later, is fine. I drive an auto Mini (mines a Clubman but the running gear is basically the same) and it's been the best car I've ever had. So good I've kept it 5 years which is about 3 years longer than anything else!!

The Toyota Yaris is a nice car if you like small but not cramped, although I've only ever been a co-pilot in one. I doubt you would go far wrong with any of the smaller VAG group cars (VW/Audi/Seat/Skoda).
 
At the beginning of this year I was looking for a small automatic car too. Originally I had hoped to buy one with a torque converter style transmission but this proved to be very difficult to source. Most small automatics seem to rely upon Dual Clutch (DCT) transmissions, some of which have had reliability issues reported.

By chance I came across a new Honda Jazz e:HEV hybrid which is probably best described as an electric motor-driven car with a 1.5 atkinson cycle petrol generator that can also be used instead or alongside the electric motors.

The latest Jazz hybrid drives like an EV, with no gearbox or gear changes; it can deliver 70+ MPG. It is easy to drive, especially in urban traffic. We ordered one in January, picked it up in March & my wife & I love it.....
 
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Mrs T has a Hyundai i10 auto she is on her second, nothing wrong with the first but the dealer offered her a very good deal on a new one.
She loves it ,had it 5 years and its never missed a beat.
It's worth looking at the Toyota Hybrids -they all use the CVT gearbox( I have a 6 year old Auris (16 Reg) and its never missed a beat ).
I am not sure if the Yaris Hybrid was available when I bought mine but it was just before the VED rules changed so mine has £0 VED.
 
We got 2 Toyota auris and one Corolla in the family ,, all give 60-70 mpg and are petrol hybrids .. just wish I could afford one ,highly recommended cars
 
Toyota Leaf/Renault Zoe (but not the old Zoe, which was utter garbage).

Otherwise try to get something a bit scuffed so she won't worry about the odd scarpe in the first year. It's very freeing to drive an old nail of a car with no real value.
 
Toyota Aygo, great little cars, I taught Em to drive in one had it a few years.
Yaris is tad bigger and can be had as a hybrid depending on budget.
Suzuki do good little cars, I had a Swift Sport, Jimny and now a Vitara S, none let me down. Normal swifts are nice run arounds. I wouldn't recommend a Jimny though, they need advance written notice to stop :LOL: (I used it greenlaning)

Vitaras are smaller than they look and are a nice driving car, I have a 1.4 Boosterjet 4x4 (fancy word for turbo).

As Toni said above, a cheaper run around for getting back into the swing of things.
 
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We have a Yaris and had a Corolla before that.
No doubt our next car will also be a Toyota too
 
If she does like your car, you may be better looking for a replacement yourself, as you'll wake up one day to find she's swapped your keys and using your car ;) :LOL:
 
Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll Google them over the coming days.

She left her XTrail in Thailand, obviously :D and I thought she'd warm to the Evoque as that's partly why I bought it but now she says she wants something small. Oh well. Oh, and she's recently mentioned Mini's but added a question, "Why are they so expensive" so they could be in then swiftly out :D but you never know.

The Getz has been a good car and an ex of mine had an i10 and there's a dealer within walking distance so that could be a possibility, as could the Toyota Aygo and some of the others. I'll get Googling :D
 
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If you have a driveway, would an EV be an option? IME, the smaller autos are so slow off the line that they verge on dangerous but EVs are surprisingly swift. Although the automatic manual gearboxes in the Clio, A Class and Smart sounded a good idea, they always seemed to be in the wrong ratio and would decide to change at just the wrong moment - with a bigger engine, they might have got away with it but with small motors...
 
@Nod has a point on the small autos, (I've only ever had manual cars), the new Toyota hybrids use an E-CVT box which is very good, but EV suggestion, if you have the means is a good call.
 
Minis are expensive because they're BMWs. Much better designed than VW-AUDI for example.
 
Yes we have a drive and garage.

I have massive reservations about electric and environmental damage and more seems to be coming out about that by the day but what I think doesn't matter one jot in the great scheme of things as the world seems to have decided to ignore the issues and press on with electric regardless so I suppose electric is a possibility but the price and range of them could be an issue as could be away from home charging. It's something that I've only briefly thought of for Mrs WW's car but I suppose anything is possible but at the mo I highly doubt we'll be buying electric.
 
Marc said:
Neighbours have a Suzuki Swift and Vitara and they love both. The Swift could be the ideal by the sound of it.
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Prices start at £15k + :oops: :$ I think I might be out of touch :D

I did test drive a Swift years ago and it was just awful and rattled like a crate of empties. It was by far the worst car I/we looked at at that time but that was years ago and I hope newer ones are better. Just for info my then GF went for a Hyundai i10.

I'll do some reading on the cars mentioned here.
 
Gav-canon said:
That's why they fitted volume control on the radio :exit: :LOL:
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I should try and get over issues I saw years ago.

I once test drive a sportscar with a Ford engine and when I whinged about the relenting unreliability I suffered for years with Fords as company cars the designer berated me and said that the engine he used wasn't even made in same country. His argument sort of fell apart when he wouldn't let me drive another car because it was "sha**ed" with only 40k miles on the clock :ROFLMAO:

I didn't buy one of his cars. The Elan SE I had at the time did well over 100k miles and was still going strong when I sold it.
 
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Marc said:
Is that new?
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I googled the car and ended up at an Autocar review quoting £15-22k.

I'll have to do some research into the possibilities but that does look steep to me.
 
We have a 15 year old CVT Jazz which has yet to let us down and a friend a year younger one that's just needed a new exhaust system as it's first problem. Should \I be looking to need a new car the Jazz would certainly on my list of potentials.
 
velocette said:
We have a 15 year old CVT Jazz which has yet to let us down and a friend a year younger one that's just needed a new exhaust system as it's first problem. Should \I be looking to need a new car the Jazz would certainly on my list of potentials.
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From £20k.

I guess I am out of touch :D

When I/we can make a shortlist I'll look into things more closely but if a new small car is going to cost £15-20k+ I think we might be buying used.

Actually a Jazz might be a bit big, I'm not sure me or the Mrs would see that as a small car but maybe we need to see one to be more sure.
 
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A couple of weeks ago we bought a new Ford Fiesta Auto Mild Hybrid
'Fantastic' is how I would describe it

Much quieter than the previous -- I cannot hear the engine running -- need to look at the rev-counter
Cost about £22K
 
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I got my wife a 2014 Suzuki Swift 1.2 petrol over four years ago and it does mainly local driving yet it's been incredibly reliable and I've only had to replace the battery. Has fun go-kart handling and despite being small the boot is quite deep to make up for length. Tyres last forever as well. It's not got a premium interior but nothing wears out and they are reasonably inexpensive to buy and maintain.
 
Just a word of warning about hybrids... check the statistics of your area with regards to theft of catalytic converters. Thefts from Toyota hybrids in some areas is quite rampant; thieves are blatant, even operating in public and in daylight. Apparently the precious metals in hybrid converters are more valuable.
 
welshwizard645 said:
Just a word of warning about hybrids... check the statistics of your area with regards to theft of catalytic converters. Thefts from Toyota hybrids in some areas is quite rampant; thieves are blatant, even operating in public and in daylight. Apparently the precious metals in hybrid converters are more valuable.
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I suppose that could be a worry so I'll look into it thanks if a hybrid becomes a possibility,

If I sell one or two of our existing cars a new small car might go in the garage, the MX5 and Getz will fit in (only one at a time) my Evoque wont so a car of that smaller size or smaller would fit and that would ease our minds when the car is at home the but when out and about it could I suppose be a worry.
 
welshwizard645 said:
Just a word of warning about hybrids... check the statistics of your area with regards to theft of catalytic converters. Thefts from Toyota hybrids in some areas is quite rampant; thieves are blatant, even operating in public and in daylight. Apparently the precious metals in hybrid converters are more valuable.
Click to expand...
Unlike the Toyota hybrids, I am told the Cat in the latest Honda Jazz hybrid is tucked away high in the engine bay & not at all easy for thieves to get at......
 
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