Buy an ibiza, drive it, enjoy it, and don't think about the day that might never happen. Not every single ibiza that roll off the end of the production line goes tits up, you have a 3 year warranty anyway if buying from new, and you can also extend that if your so paranoid about electric mirrors not folding.
Ibiza Reliability
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Buy an ibiza, drive it, enjoy it, and don't think about the day that might never happen. Not every single ibiza that roll off the end of the production line goes tits up, you have a 3 year warranty anyway if buying from new, and you can also extend that if your so paranoid about electric mirrors not folding.
I've owned various different Ibiza for nearly 20 years now. In that time I've only had 1 warranty repair.
I have not yet decided, and to be honest the Ibiza is not excluded yet even though reliability is something important for me.
My first choice at the moment is Kia Rio - Better Interior with artificial leather seats and a bit nicer plastics (especially since the Alcantara option is not available on the Ibiza now), more reliable and with 7 years warranty. Its main con is the weak engine and the 4 gear automatic gearbox which make it perform significantly worst compared to the 115bhp Ibiza.
The other cars I am considering are the Ford Fiesta and the Citroen C3.
Just had a C3 for a week. Roomy but didn't feel refined like any similar VW group product would. Tinny sounding and weak 3 cylinder petrol.
Cheap interior, particularly cheap plastic switches and air vents. Illogical minor control layout compared with VW.
Not in the same league as a SEAT or SKODA product (except the incredibly cheap and nasty Mii / Citigo / Up! of course)
Cheap interior, particularly cheap plastic switches and air vents. Illogical minor control layout compared with VW.
Not in the same league as a SEAT or SKODA product (except the incredibly cheap and nasty Mii / Citigo / Up! of course)
Was it the new (2017) C3? I didn't test drive it but its interior seemed to be a bit better than the Ibiza.
Yeah it was a 2018 model - the new shape C3. As stated, the inside quality is not a patch on even cheap VAG cars like the Rapid/Toledo or Ibiza Mk5.
I guess it depends on which exact trims you are comparing and also this is a subjective matter of opinion.
In my view the Ibiza comes last among the earlier mentioned cars when it comes to interior quality.
The "Luxe" pack on the Ibiza that gives you Leather/Alcantara Seats, and leather on the dashboard, looks (from the images) like a significant upgrade that could make the Ibiza better than the competitors. Without this upgrade the cloth seats of the Ibiza and its general interior look cheap imo. (the cloth seats of the FR are a step up, but still not as good)
The Polo has the nicest dashboard in this segment, nicer standard cloth seats which are on par with the competition but the plastics on the doors still look cheap and are not any better than other cars in this category.
The only thing that I found VAG cars in this category to be clearly better is the performance, especially when comparing cars with automatic gearbox. Also their new 8" infotainment screen seems to be the best, although the implementation on the Polo, which places the screen higher, is significantly better than the lower position in the Ibiza.
We’ve just come back from Greece, and the car Avis provided was an almost brand new C3. We did 650 KM over 10 days in it, so perhaps the following will be of interest!
First, it takes a very different approach from the German / VAG models. It doesn’t pretend to look sporty, it doesn’t pretend to drive sportily and it doesn’t feel sporty. But, it rides very well indeed, and for just pottering around in comfort is a much better car than a Polo or an Ibiza. The ride is brilliantly resolved, better than the Polo and Ibiza, and, on 65 profile 15” wheels dealt with the shocking state of a Greek roads (almost as bad as ours in places...) far better than anything from VAG. It’s engine (3 cylinders, petrol, but power output unknown though, I suspect, was the lowest powered one available - 70PS?) was terrible though. Not for its lack of power; that could be addressed by spending more money. No, it’s very noisy and not at all smooth. It wanted to ‘surge’ slightly on light throttle, and dint want to rev much. The 115PS 3 cylinder engine in the Ibiza is light years ahead.
The one we had was, I think, pretty low spec - think plastic hub caps and black plastic mirrors. But the interior was solid enough, and with a few interesting design ‘features’ like the strap-like grab handles for closing the doors. It also had PSAs infotainment systems that also controls the climate control. Note that climate control was optional on our Ibiza... however, controlling it via a touch screen is a pain and although, like the Polo, the screen is mounted higher, it felt to me to be less intuitively placed than the SEATs. Despite its apparent low spec it had Apple CarPlay, cruise control and a lane departure warning system. If you’ve been to Crete you’ll know that the lane marking are, at best, advisory, so that got a bit irritating after a while...
Now in many ways it’s not a fair comparison - our Ibiza is well specc’d, auto and with pretensions of sportiness. The Citroen was the opposite of all of these things. It was a very likeable car on a Greek Island though, and the standard Apple CarPlay was very useful indeed. But they are very different; I can’t see you liking the Citroen if you like the Polo / Ibiza, and vice versa.
Just my thoughts
First, it takes a very different approach from the German / VAG models. It doesn’t pretend to look sporty, it doesn’t pretend to drive sportily and it doesn’t feel sporty. But, it rides very well indeed, and for just pottering around in comfort is a much better car than a Polo or an Ibiza. The ride is brilliantly resolved, better than the Polo and Ibiza, and, on 65 profile 15” wheels dealt with the shocking state of a Greek roads (almost as bad as ours in places...) far better than anything from VAG. It’s engine (3 cylinders, petrol, but power output unknown though, I suspect, was the lowest powered one available - 70PS?) was terrible though. Not for its lack of power; that could be addressed by spending more money. No, it’s very noisy and not at all smooth. It wanted to ‘surge’ slightly on light throttle, and dint want to rev much. The 115PS 3 cylinder engine in the Ibiza is light years ahead.
The one we had was, I think, pretty low spec - think plastic hub caps and black plastic mirrors. But the interior was solid enough, and with a few interesting design ‘features’ like the strap-like grab handles for closing the doors. It also had PSAs infotainment systems that also controls the climate control. Note that climate control was optional on our Ibiza... however, controlling it via a touch screen is a pain and although, like the Polo, the screen is mounted higher, it felt to me to be less intuitively placed than the SEATs. Despite its apparent low spec it had Apple CarPlay, cruise control and a lane departure warning system. If you’ve been to Crete you’ll know that the lane marking are, at best, advisory, so that got a bit irritating after a while...
Now in many ways it’s not a fair comparison - our Ibiza is well specc’d, auto and with pretensions of sportiness. The Citroen was the opposite of all of these things. It was a very likeable car on a Greek Island though, and the standard Apple CarPlay was very useful indeed. But they are very different; I can’t see you liking the Citroen if you like the Polo / Ibiza, and vice versa.
Just my thoughts
Thanks for the very useful comparison Peter. I am planning to test drive the C3 tomorrow, but I will certainly not be doing anywhere near 650 KM with it!
If you had the 5 speed manual with a petrol engine, then you probably had the naturally aspirated 82bhp engine which indeed seems very slow on paper, as it does 0-100KM in 14.6 seconds. The automatic comes with 110bhp turbo engine that does 0-100KM in 9.8 seconds, close to the 9.5s of the 115bhp DSG Ibiza.
The infotainment system on the C3 indeed looks a step back from the one on the Ibiza/Polo and having to control the A/C from it is probably annoying... as is the fact that Citroen leaves the fuse box on the left, which eats up half of the glovebox in cars where the steering wheel is on the right.
I can get the automatic C3 for €800 less than Ibiza FR, but at that price the Ibiza is better specked with front parking sensors, electrically folding mirrors, leather steering wheel, darkened back windows, double boot floor and navigation.
Leaving the slow engine that you had in your rental car aside, and assuming you could have the C3 with an engine close to that of the Ibiza, if you were to choose again would you still choose the Ibiza over the C3?
If you had the 5 speed manual with a petrol engine, then you probably had the naturally aspirated 82bhp engine which indeed seems very slow on paper, as it does 0-100KM in 14.6 seconds. The automatic comes with 110bhp turbo engine that does 0-100KM in 9.8 seconds, close to the 9.5s of the 115bhp DSG Ibiza.
The infotainment system on the C3 indeed looks a step back from the one on the Ibiza/Polo and having to control the A/C from it is probably annoying... as is the fact that Citroen leaves the fuse box on the left, which eats up half of the glovebox in cars where the steering wheel is on the right.
I can get the automatic C3 for €800 less than Ibiza FR, but at that price the Ibiza is better specked with front parking sensors, electrically folding mirrors, leather steering wheel, darkened back windows, double boot floor and navigation.
Leaving the slow engine that you had in your rental car aside, and assuming you could have the C3 with an engine close to that of the Ibiza, if you were to choose again would you still choose the Ibiza over the C3?
If I chose again I’d still go for the SEAT. The Citroen was a nice car, but, as with wine drunk on holiday, at home I’m not sure it would have travelled welI. I didn’t actually mind the low power of the Avis one, but the lack of smoothness and the drivetrain shunt was annoying. The dash is actually quite difficult to see in bright sunshine, which might not be a problem in the UK but was a nuisance in Greece. By that I mean the speedo/trip computer etc. The Multimedia system was bright and clear. Not being able to adjust the climate control without going 2 levels down through menus was annoying,
As a comparison we’d driven to LHR in the SEAT (we always use meet and greet parking as my partner is disabled, and I’m not leaving a BMW M235i with their drivers
) and getting back into it at the airport some 6 hours or so after we’d dropped off the Citroen showed the contrast very clearly. You sit lower, the car feels more polished, better, engineered, the engine is much smoother, the driving position suits me better. And in the stop/start traffic that is the M4/M25 at 5pm the Citroen would have grated very quickly. I might have been grateful for the softer ride though!!
The C3 petrol 5 soeed as we rented is too heavy for 70 /82 PS. It won't go up motorway inclines in top gear. Ours couldn't maintain 120kmh (the speed limit) at all on slight rises( with only 2 on board). OK for The Netherlands but not Tenerife (or Cyprus?)
I am not looking at the 82bhp C3, since that would perform even worst than the Kia Rio I tried (100bhp naturally aspirated). I didn't like the performance of the Rio since I had to push the gas petal all the way down, and the result was a lot of roar from the engine but very little in terms of acceleration. I would definitely not go for anything even worst than that, and the only reason I am still considering the Rio with that engine/gearbox is because it is very good in nearly all other aspects. (In some other countries they have the Rio with a turbo petrol engine and 6 gear auto, but unfortunately they don't bring that version of the car in Cyprus)
But the C3 with the turbo 110bhp engine I am considering should be powerful enough, so I am not worried much about that aspect of the car.
I made appointments to test drive the C3 and the Fiesta tomorrow.
But the C3 with the turbo 110bhp engine I am considering should be powerful enough, so I am not worried much about that aspect of the car.
I made appointments to test drive the C3 and the Fiesta tomorrow.
When I was looking at a new car and doing my research everyone raved about the Fiesta, I test drove the Ibiza FR (first choice after the reviews) and then went straight to drive a fiesta.
Personally I found the fiesta less enjoyable to drive than the Ibiza it didn't seem to be as quick or as fun to drive, it was also more expensive despite ford giving me much much more for my old car.
Had my Ibiza since the end of October and absolutely love it, its nippy, big enough for what i need has a great info system and looks really nice.
Personally I found the fiesta less enjoyable to drive than the Ibiza it didn't seem to be as quick or as fun to drive, it was also more expensive despite ford giving me much much more for my old car.
Had my Ibiza since the end of October and absolutely love it, its nippy, big enough for what i need has a great info system and looks really nice.
I wasn't too unhappy with the ability of the Avis one to go up hills - you just had to thrash it. I overtook a Saxo and a Panda on one particularly (think 1 in 4) steep bit
OP is welcome to it IMHO, whining on about VW lack of quality but actually considering a Citroen instead...
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