What's the best car to replace two elderly hatchbacks?
Dear Alex,
My 14-year-old Mazda 3 and my wife's 22-year-old Toyota Corolla are both approaching 140,000 miles and we will soon need to replace them. Learning to operate modern touchscreen controls seems like unnecessary stress – likewise having to switch off a load of driver aids before setting off. We don't want an EV, nor a hybrid, while I've had bad experiences with diesels. Which more recent cars without too much complexity should we consider?
– RJ
Dear RJ,
Unfortunately, I think you're going to have to put up with a certain amount of learning if you want to update to something more recent. Most modern cars – even those a few years old – have a touchscreen of some sort through which at least some of the functions, usually the satellite navigation and radio, are controlled.
The same goes for advanced driver assistance systems, abbreviated to ADAS; by July 2022, lane keeping assist was mandatory and in preparation for this most manufacturers were installing it on their latest models by 2020. You'll want to avoid anything built after 2024, when speed limit warnings also became mandatory.
I propose aiming for a car in which deactivation of these systems is simple and which relies less on a touchscreen. As it happens, the current Mazda 3 fits the bill.
While an early example of the latest model will have lane departure warnings, you can easily turn them by pressing and holding one button for a few seconds each time you start the car.
Simple climate controls make the interior easy to understand, while the screen is controlled by a rotary dial rather than being touch-sensitive, which makes it easier to scroll through the menus.
Most 3s are mild hybrids – yes, sorry, the H word, but mild hybrids are barely any more complex than pure petrol cars, so still worth considering. £15,000 is more than enough to get you into a low-mileage, service-historied Sport Lux from 2020 or so.
If that's a little too steep, how about a Kia Ceed? The latest Ceed may be a little dull but it's also comfortable, competent and very reasonably priced. The 1.0-litre T-GDI 3 I found, from 2019 and with 44,000 miles and a full history, is yours for just shy of £12,000 – and it should still have a year's worth of the original warranty left.
This Ceed has a touchscreen, but it's fairly easy to use thanks to physical shortcut keys and a proper climate control panel – and the lane keeping assist can also be turned off with one long button press.
But if neither of these is quite simple enough, how about a Dacia? A Sandero is about as simple as it gets if you want a car that's only a few years old, although I suspect it might be too small for your needs.
I also found a 2020 Duster 1.0 TCe Comfort with 37,000 miles and a full history for £10,209. Dusters of this age famously lack most modern driver assistance functions. Granted, you will have to contend with a touchscreen – but it is a very basic system that's easy to get to grips with.
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