I am doing my homework at the moment inpreparation for the impending demise of my Mazda 121. Son and heir is learning to drive though and his dad insists I get a car with airbags, preferably 4. I really want a super small car and a manual. Does anyone have any helpful suggestions?
bill-robinson,
Aug 24, 12:32am
bigger is safer
vtecintegra,
Aug 24, 12:40am
Depends on your budget.
Maybe something like a current shape Mazda 2 or previous shape VW Polo
apollo11,
Aug 24, 12:46am
Ford Fiesta or Mazda 2/ Demio. They are both tiny cars. The safest car you can get is the one that has an alert, defensive driver behind the wheel.
msigg,
Aug 24, 1:50am
manual you might have to stick to a euro, maybe an older corolla nz, little polo can be found in manual, or golf. good luck.
sw20,
Aug 24, 2:07am
New VW Polo for $26k or so. Five star car and available in manual. No reliability worries because it’s under warranty. Dump it when the warranty runs out.
kazbanz,
Aug 24, 2:13am
First and most important question.--What is your budget? Second question.are you intending to take the car out of "town"?
lythande1,
Aug 24, 3:26am
Then don't. Small cars aren't safe. Anything with a full chassis will do, and SUVs. Or old solid classics. That last one is from personal experience.
A very incorrect statement. If a late model/new small car such as a vw golf and a ‘big old safe 50s chev’ had a head on crash I’m a damn sight sure I’d pick to be a passenger in the Golf. To think you would be better off in the old car is not only naive it is factually wrong.
They would of course use the GM X frame in their comparison! Very poor comparison. The x frame was discontinued from about 1964 as it was a failure. Noteworthy is that they chose not to use the 57 perimeter frame or another proper frame in their comparison!
freesia,
Aug 24, 4:31am
wow. Thank you to all of you who have taken the time to reply to me.
nice_lady,
Aug 24, 4:33am
As stated several times a budget figure might be of help.
Yeah that was a particularly bad model but the fact is all those old cars were fairly lightly built (for their size) without modern high strength steel and with no real concept of how they'd behave in a crash.
Like for like you're better off in a larger car, but only if both vehicles are constructed similar ways from similar materials.
cattleshed,
Aug 24, 6:26am
I note what you say though my point was the way that these marketing companies look for the worst example and say "look, see how much better our car is". Dishonest. Many fall for this sort of manipulation.
electromic,
Aug 24, 7:40am
Agree, and wish to add. Brakes and tyres at least up to the original fitment quality, particularly on late model cars with stability control, etc.
Airbags, crumple zones, pre-tension seatbelts are only good after you(or someone else) has made an error. Try not to need them rather than depend on them. Car recommendation: Mazda 2 (all budgets), Kia Rio(brand new or almost new budget). The latest base model Rio has lots of safety features not just airbags.
bumfacingdown,
Aug 24, 9:47am
Thanks, good viewing
trade4us2,
Aug 24, 11:29am
Why does he want a manual? Is that just so he can get a licence?
sw20,
Aug 24, 3:06pm
Good skill to have. Especially in the workplace.
You would look like a right numpty when the boss asks you to take the manual work vehicle somewhere and you have to confess you can’t drive manual. May as well hand in your man card right away and call it quits.
kazbanz,
Aug 24, 7:52pm
You would be amazed the number of older manual tradey vans that are traded in on autos because it seems a lot of milenials don't know how to drive manual.
kazbanz,
Aug 24, 8:19pm
It would be helpful if you answered the questions. hard to make suggestions when we have zero idea of budget.
saxman99,
Aug 24, 9:42pm
I teach a lot of teenagers/young adults (music, not driving!) and being a bit of a car nut I talk to some of them about getting their license and what sort of car do they want etc etc and most of them aren't even aware there's more than one kind of transmission. The ones that do know about manual can't understand why anyone would want one "oh, that's way too hard."
The boys (and a very very few girls) that are into cars are the exception of course, and a minority.
Also manual cars are getting hard to find in NZ.
trade4us2,
Aug 24, 10:25pm
My car has all the latest safely features and airbags etc and is 3 metres long and you can buy them for about $5000.
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