Advise on new car purchase

[Damien]

Hi there,

We are about to buy a new family car and would love some advise, the goal is to be as trouble free as possible, for as long as possible.

We live on a tropical island in the south pacific, we get really high humidity here and being an island, lots of salt to boot.

The car market here is mainly french imports or European brands, we do however have Toyota and KIA, of which the locals are telling me they are the least troublesome of all the available brands because they are “tropicalised”, as they explain it, their electronics and sensors and such are less prone to fail in this climate and its apparently a well known fact locally. Can anyone confirm if this is a thing?

So we’ve decided to buy new as the second hand market here is pretty much the same as new and the spare parts market is a nightmare with a huge government tax on all parts. We’ve checked the local dealers and come up with 2 new cars around the same price and within our budget.

Option 1:
Renault Clio 5 2021 Supermini | 1L 66hp 3 cylinder | Full options | Manual 5 speed | Petrol | 5 year warranty and 5 year revisions included | It has a classic timing belt, not a chain. | Tons of features and security such as parking cameras, front and rear sensors etc. More info here: https://www.automobile-catalog.com/make/renault/clio_5gen/clio_5_1_hatchback/2021.html

Option 2:
Kia Sonet 2021 Compact SUV | 1.5L 100hp 4 cylinder | Full options | Manual 6 speed | Petrol | 3 year warranty, revisions not included | It has a chain timing belt | Lots more space in this one, but a lot less electronics too, which is perfectly fine as its not the goal. More info here: https://www.zigwheels.com/newcars/Kia/sonet

We live about 30 minutes out of town and have about 3km road to our property that is dirt and can get riddled with potholes when its not maintained, lots of dust or mud here. The main roads in the area besides the highway are not well maintained and and the cars can also take a beating from vibrations over time.

Both dealers assure me both cars will be fine in these conditions. As they would.

We are leaning towards the Kia, in hopes the suspension can handle the roads better and keep us out of the garage for repairs. But we also want to keep as much resale value as possible because we may just buy a Toyota Hilux or something similar in a year or two to be more of a permanent solution long term, they also cost about $10k to $15k more, hence the wait.

Does anyone have any experience with either of these brands or any technical advise for the conditions we are in?

Thanks to any and all advise 🙂

Topic

[Alex Mckenzie]

Which car did you end up buying?

[Author]

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