Advice regarding car for my Mum
 

My Mum has a 1.2l 3 cylinder supercharged Nissan Note which she's had from new in mid 2014. It has £0 road tax but over the past year this benefit has started to be reclaimed in repairs!

It had a bill for over £500 to fit a new sensor to do with the variable valve timing, noisy auxillary belts, bushings going on the anti-roll bar and recently the engine light came back on regarding the valve circuit for the supercharger, we've managed to reset this and it's not come back on (yet) but my Mum is really starting to lose faith in the car and she wants to get rid of it..

I've been back home a lot this year (due to working from home) to help her out with it but this won't always be the case. So I'm looking for some advice regarding what might be the best option for my Mum? I've said she might be better off getting a car from a higher quality manufacturer (Volvo perhaps?!) because Nissans aren't what they used to be.

I've considered leasing a car, but these actually seem to work out quite expensive - If you wanted a Honda CR-V for example it works out about £13k+ over the course of 4 years and by that time you're driving a 4 year old car around you own £0 so all that money is down the drain.. Then I was thinking about getting a dealer approved used car with an extended warranty covering practically anything that might go wrong, what option do you think would be best and which cars would be good candidates?

Fundamentally she wants something not that old (max 4 years), that's reliable, petrol / hybrid, enough room in the back to have a large dog crate and has enough power to leisurely overtake. With some kind of "worry free" motoring package. - Max £15k?

Toyota Auris hybrid estate/hatch. Toyota Corolla 1.2 manual estate/hatch.

I have a 2015 Toyota Auris estate and find it great. Auto. £0 road tax as pre April 2017. Bought for 13k in January last year. Got 1 year warranty included and paid £495 for a further 2 years warranty. So 3 years in total. You can extend the warranty until its 10 or 12 years old. Has to be dealer serviced. I have a service plan for 2 years, also includes free MOT test x2 as well as parts I believe.
Hybrid battery also covered if you have a hybrid health check annualy.

I believe if you buy say a 3 year old Toyota, you get the remainder of the 5 year warranty. But check.

Just be aware, Toyota Hybrids and other cars are being targeted by cat thieves. I have fitted an Ebay cat cover for £70.00 Newer cars like Corolla, cats have 85% less precious metals in the cat, so of less value. Yaris Hybrid, cat harder to get at.

James.:thumbs_up:

I sit on both sides of this dilemma, whilst I've just spent over £200 on parts (that I'll fit myself) to keep the V70 going my wife's car is a 2 year old Kia Stonic. The old car, even with the repair bills, is overall much cheaper than the new one with its depreciation but she wants the peace of mind and that's what we are paying for, whilst you mention the £500 bill for your mum's car I sense that the more important factor is that peace of mind for her and thereby for you.

In terms of what vehicle to go for in the newer category it seems most cars are pretty good these days with the Far East manufacturers having come up to match the traditional European marques and most have some sort of extended warranty (Kia automatically carried the warranty and service plan over to us, other manufacturers may charge or have hoops to jump through).
We managed to find the wife's car at a main dealers just under a year old, apparently the guy who bought it changed job so traded it in for an all electric car to use in London, he must have taken a massive hit for the depreciation as we bought it for about £16k compared to £21k for new.

In terms of what to buy/ how to 'buy', I basically took my wife around all of the local dealerships to find the model of car she/we wanted based on its shape and look, and then researched the best options in terms of engine,transmission and trim specs, having got that sorted it was then a search for a nearly new one to buy outright to make the most of our money. If the Note is running well enough for the moment you do have the advantage of being able to wait for a good deal to come along.
Colleagues at work have recently bought cars from Cinch and Cazoo online and been pleased with their cars and the service they received but while they seem to have fair/competitive prices they may not have the cheapest deals.

5 years ago I sourced a Hyundai i10 1.2 petrol Automatic for my Mother in Law - at that time the car was 4 years old and still under the manfr's warranty and 'we' paid £6k with about 16,000 miles on it, one owner.

Apart from yearly MOT's a couple of tyres and oil changes I've not heard a single peep out of her since, that car has been the definition of reliability and furthermore she loves it! done about 50k miles now.

Oops! just re-read the OP and saw about the Dog Crate! - never mind I'm sure you'll get my idea.

Another vote for Hyundai. My Mum has had one for about the last 5 years and I haven't heard her complain about it (and I'm sure she would, if she had issues).
Not sure what model but I don't think it would fit a dog crate, however.

Much as I personally dislike them perhaps a small SUV might suit as they tend to have quite a tall, square boot that I imagine would be better suited to a crate, as opposed to a small hatchback with a sloping boot. Hyundai have the Kona as their smallest SUV.
Or a small estate, like a Skoda Fabia, but this sector seems to be disappearing and replaced by the all-consuming SUV.

I'm not a dog owner so I'm struggling to visualize what sort of size that is TBH, but hopefully that gives food for thought.

Have just reminded myself what the Nissan Note looks like (a small van with windows!) so, perhaps a Honda Jazz.
Honda actually seem to be a genuinely reliable Japanese brand, unlike Nissan in recent years.
My Mum also had one of them a few years ago and loved it. I drove it once and thought it was like a tin can powered by a hair dryer, but each to their own.

Another vote for Honda Jazz.👍

A Toyota Yaris is another suggestion. They're surprisingly roomy considering their size, economical & reliable.

Something like a Toyoyo Auris Estate would be good for the Dog but beware that Hybrids DO NOT like very short local journeys (not long enough to charge the batteries).

Yaris is too small for a dog crate.... look at Suzuki, incredibly reliable and good real world economy. Another option is Skoda Fabia estate - the 1.0 3 cyl engine is also economical but get the highest powered version. But to be honest i would save your money, repair the Nissan and wait a while. Depreciation is the biggest cost of car ownership by far, a bottomless money pit