$10k hatch, 2005 or newer - options?

Yip.

I sold it a couple of weeks ago. A 07 1.9 diesel.

I thought it was a fantastic hatch with oodles of hill smoothing torque. It is true what jazz says the 1.9 mjet turbo is a brilliant motor. It was fully awake by 1500 rpm and could hold decent power through to 4.5k. With the traction control off the fronts were on death row.

The rest of the car was pretty good too with many well thought out touches that you just don't get with jap cars. If you have the wipers on and go into reverse gear then the rear wiper comes on automatically. The cabin was comfy but could do with some soft plastics.

There were a few things 'Italian' about it. The front suspension made a few noises and the rear outside door handles were troublesome but over all I'm a little sad I sold it and bought a honda edix. Needed the room.

Get in while you can because in November this year the rules change and you won't be able to get a car out of japan older than 2007, that means what's here is here and the prices are going to go ballistic. There will be no more cheap cars. What's here is here.and the prices will rise accordingly.we have 6 months supply on the deck so if you are considering a car, now si the time to get because you will pay thousands more next year.

I wash surprised how easily it sold. Took less than a week and I bad people lining up to. buy it. Did I mention the motor!

Sounds like you are bitter cause your overpriced vehicles aren't selling.

Since the Grande has been bought up.

I have not had any decent experience with them as yet. The pricing was too close to the MK5 Golf until now for me to take them seriously. However the price gap is moving.

From memory the lady in question here had to have an auto!
That means the new version of the selespeed in things Fiat that new. Its supposed to be much better but I am still apprehensive of a single clutch automated manual. That said, no experience with the new version yet so this might be out of turn.

Bear in mind too that the 1.9 Diesel will be the pick of the engines. The other engines are good but the 1.9 is the prize as it has notably more power for negligible extra fuel usage compared to the 1.3 Diesel. The petrol is still a good contender though and very cheap to run as well.

In 6 speed manual with 1.9 I would definitely have one. For the budget and assuming the requirement is automatic you may be pushing your luck to find one and even then I am a bit hmmm on the transmission for city use.

Just an observation in general, its a pity there is a 2005 cutoff, it puts her into a bracket that includes some pretty tinny bottom of the barrel stuff for the money. If she would consider 2-3 years older there are much better cars available for the money.

For my money. assuming the need is automatic I would be going German not Italian, although I am a bit tempted to suggest the Panda if one came up cheap.

Really though. I think she is crazy on two counts. (not meaning to be nasty here and I appreciate this is not your call Papa) In looking at the likes of the Swift she is just paying big money to finance a car that is really no better (and in a lot of ways worse) than a 2002ish Punto CVT that would not cost much more than her deposit. But again, I appreciate your position Pap's so thats the last I will say of it.

i agree.
a new zealand new fiesta is a great car. (remember it was car of the year in many different countries over punto.getz echo etc etc) i got my mum one and she loves how it drives on the open road.not like the other golf carts that pretend to be cars.

the new shape mazda 2's are out of your budget really. the only ones that will just scrape in are the imported base model ones.why bother. no point getting a car for its styling if all its styling features(spoilers, nice sized wheels etc ) are gone!

Just had a look at the past 3 months auctions in Japan and I could not find even 1 new shaepe Demio I could land for under 11k, out of over 500!. Not including accident damaged ones. Sometimes with newer vehicles it's cheaper to buy NZ new second hand. I was looking for a CX7 in Japan for my wife and found I could buy one here, higher spec for around 5k less than it would cost me to land one, this is going back a couple of years now.

Funny, I thought the Audi would have been right up her ally.
Anyhow, good luck with it all. Just remember, luckily you don't have to drive it and if she does buy something you don't recommend at least you can say "I told you so" if anything goes wrong!

That one is the cheapest on here by a fair margin though - I doubt you'll do much cheaper at all even on a lesser import

the Mazda2 , like the demio before it, is one of the most reliable small cars made by human beings

the new Fiesta is based on the same platform btw, just has a slight edge in power

How about a Mazda Verisa!