Advice on car for Student

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dotdan

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Would appreciate some advice on buying a car for my son who got his license yesterday (Yay)

My main concern is finding a good and honest second hand dealer that is not selling dodgy cars. Autotrader and the rest are filled with dealers that really just look dodge and the reviews are equally poor. Have heard quite a lot of stories about Webuycars and the likes as well. Weelee seems good?

Located in Gauteng, so any recommendations.

Currently looking at a budget of around 100-120K max, needs to be financed. So far narrowed it down to perhaps the following cars: Picanto, i10, Ford figo. All around the 2016/2017 range. Any advice on similar cars would be appreciated.

Don't think it is a good idea to get a Polo. My fear is that they are still too naive and stupid to notice what is happening around them and I don't want him in a bad situation.
 
Ford Figo with the wet belt?Costly to replace if needed to.
 
Congrats! All good options to be honest. Stay away from the JHB central car dealers - i suggest buying from one of the franchise dealer, that way you also get protected by CPA (6 month warranty on the car). I'd be wary of WBC or Weelee at that price point.
 
You can't go wrong with an i10 or a Picanto.

Dealers aren't going to be carrying stock that is close to 10-years old (2016/17 models), so you are going to have to look at second-hand dealers.
 
dotdan said:
Would appreciate some advice on buying a car for my son who got his license yesterday (Yay)

My main concern is finding a good and honest second hand dealer that is not selling dodgy cars. Autotrader and the rest are filled with dealers that really just look dodge and the reviews are equally poor. Have heard quite a lot of stories about Webuycars and the likes as well. Weelee seems good?

Located in Gauteng, so any recommendations.

Currently looking at a budget of around 100-120K max, needs to be financed. So far narrowed it down to perhaps the following cars: Picanto, i10, Ford figo. All around the 2016/2017 range. Any advice on similar cars would be appreciated.

Don't think it is a good idea to get a Polo. My fear is that they are still too naive and stupid to notice what is happening around them and I don't want him in a bad situation.
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I10 is a tin can, not the safest car in an accident, my wife wrote her one off a few years, got side swiped by Corrola that skipped the stop street, Corrola minimal damage, i10 was finished, whole front end was pretty much non existent.

I currently have a 2014 Figo TDCI, bulletproof engines, very plain and boring but super light on fuel and decently built, decent power, drives way better than the petrol variant in my opinion.
 
Very easy to get an accident-rebuild or one from a shady dealer and no support.

But still some good options, just had a look on Autotrader for some legit ones :
2004 Honda Jazz 1.4 Auto with 138000km at a Honda dealer with full service history for R100k
2010 i10 with 95000km at a Hyundai dealer with full service history for R110k
2016 Picanto with 117000km at a Kia dealer but no service history for R110k
2013 Figo 1.4 with 84000km at a Honda dealer but partial service history (1 owner) for R110k
 
On dealers, go to the OEM dealers, they get trade ins now and then, you should be able to pick up something in your price range with the peace of mind that you are not dealing with dodgy people.

But generally dealers in the North of Joburg are not dodgy, stay away from the CBD and the more East you go, the dodgier it becomes.
 
On the models, stay away from the Figo, it's a Ford. An acquaintance of mine has the recent one before it was discontinued, it's rubbish, leaks water through the taillight, the rubber trim on the windows is just perishing away, paint is fading and being a Ford it's not really reliable either. The first Gen Figo that was based on the Fiesta is a much better car than what is supposed to be an upgrade.

Stick with Japanese/ Korean models, don't forget the Mazda 2.
 
Yes Polo is by far the best small car you can buy. But I will also not buy it because of theft/highjack risk.
R100k with finance is a bit of a problem. Cash you can get older better cars like a Golf/Jetta V.
As for dealers, read the Google reviews. If anything looks fishy, run.
VW Up is also very nice student car. Unfortunately they going for a bit higher than your budget. If you get one in your budget, be careful and check it out properly.
 
2017 Kia Picanto 1.2 Smart spec will do you just fine and has all the fancy stuff a young person wants like CarPlay etc.

I did a review of them and a few others way back when somewhere on this forum if you can find it.

Did over a 100,000km perfectly happy kilometres in ours.

Don’t bother with anything other than the Smart spec, especially since you are buying second hand.
 
Figo TDCI is good. Certainly will be a challenge to speed in those, but nippy enough in town. Hated driving them around the country as company pool cars though, but the Vitz are worse.

If you don't mind a bit of mechanical work, a cheap 2nd gen Merc A-class (the box) manual petrol: order boot lock and drivers door lock modules off AliExpress and replace the front wishbones and drop-links to stop thunks and you are good to go with a big, safe and decently powerful car that can fit a crew and not that heavy on fuel for a "big" car. Very easy to drive. Very low chance of hijacking risk as well.
 
repitah said:
Figo TDCI is good. Certainly will be a challenge to speed in those, but nippy enough in town. Hated driving them around the country as company pool cars though, but the Vitz are worse.

If you don't mind a bit of mechanical work, a cheap 2nd gen Merc A-class (the box) manual petrol: order boot lock and drivers door lock modules off AliExpress and replace the front wishbones and drop-links to stop thunks and you are good to go with a big, safe and decently powerful car that can fit a crew and not that heavy on fuel for a "big" car. Very easy to drive. Very low chance of hijacking risk as well.
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Well I was looking at those A class Mercs as you can find decent ones for very cheap. Cash, you will struggle to get them financed. But a mechanic said stay away. Starter problem, remove engine and gearbox, alternator problem, remove engine and gearbox to fix.
There is a reason you can get them so cheap, very expensive to fix anything. Same with older BMW's, you can get them cheap too.
 
Also are you sure you can finance a car over 5 years old?
 
Nissan almera or kia Rio seem good options.
 
TheChamp said:
On dealers, go to the OEM dealers, they get trade ins now and then, you should be able to pick up something in your price range with the peace of mind that you are not dealing with dodgy people.

But generally dealers in the North of Joburg are not dodgy, stay away from the CBD and the more East you go, the dodgier it becomes.
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I've just purchased a "new" (approved pre-owned) car from a dealer and went to a number of other dealers hunting.

They will take old cars as trade-ins but are not likely to put them on their floor. I personally never saw anything older than a 2021/2022 model while trawling dealerships in Midrand and Woodmead and I was shopping in the ''budget'' range (200-250k). One Bidvest McCarthy dealership straight told me I won't even find anything in that price range on their used car floor. They'll take your old car but sell it off to second-hand dealers they work with. The dealer I bought my car from told me to rather take my car to WBC/Weelee or sell it privately. Aside from getting more for it that way, the salesman told me they don't have much interest in handling old cars. This was also the same dealer chain I had bought my old car from (2010 Corsa bought from Wiliams Hunt, and I purchased my new car from Williams Hunt as well), so they didn't even want an old car from their own stable.

There are exceptions here, and usually when it comes to premium brands, but if you are hunting for a near 10-year-old budget car, I don't see many dealers carrying them.
 
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