Used cars ranked by practicality: Budget Hatchbacks
Used cars ranked by practicality: Budget Hatchbacks
By Martin Pretorius
Budget hatchbacks often serve as an entry point to car ownership for young or first-time drivers, and they’re expected to be both frugal, durable and affordable, but practical enough for a camping trip or a visit to faraway family.
For these buyers, practicality takes on an even more-important role, because it determines the car’s usefulness when going about its various tasks. We’ve taken a look at 10 used budget hatchbacks listed here on AutoTrader (all available for R100 000 or less), and ranked them from the least to the most practical. For the purpose of this exercise, we’ve used luggage space (with at least four seats in use) as the yardstick. The cars on this list are however widely divergent in size, so we’ll be sure to mention it if any car has a notable advantage in its total utility space (with the seats folded down) or rear seat room. Luggage volumes are as claimed by the manufacturers.
This is a tiny, tiny car – less than 3.5 metres long and less than 1.5 metres wide. So it’s only logical that there won’t be much room left for luggage, once you’ve packed four average-sized people, some wheels, and a drivetrain into it. These oldies are surprisingly long-lived in the used-car market, and work well enough as cheap, bargain basement transport. However, with a cargo volume of only 145 litres, you won’t take much along with you.
Growing (slightly) bigger in its third generation, the last Sparks were actually quite easy to live with. Many of them came with airbags as well, but with only 170 litres behind the tailgate, you’d better pack light.
The latest Kia Picanto is an accomplished little car, but budget-savvy buyers may still want to consider a second-generation model instead. If you find an upper-trim one, you’ll have some modern conveniences to go with the useable front cabin space. Rear-seat passengers won’t be as content, however, and 200 litres of cargo space is good for only two overnight bags – at a push.
The Suzuki Swift (the previous generation one) has finally dropped into this price bracket, and offers a nice “big(ger) car” feel behind the wheel. Its cabin space also alludes to its larger size, but it comes at the cost of luggage room: there’s only 211 litres available back there, so it’s not really a practical option for family use...
In its heyday, the Atos was a direct competitor to the Spark Lite and its predecessors, but it was packaged quite a bit smarter. The load volume of 219 litres reflects this. Yet again, absolute bargain-basement transport in this day and age, but they are hardy and inexpensive to maintain, and super light on fuel, too.
Spiritual successor to the Atos, and built upon the first-generation Picanto’s platform, the i10 was on sale until very recently. There’s some more evidence of Hyundai’s packaging genius, as they managed to squeeze more luggage room – 225 litres – out of the same platform.
This modern city car ticks all the right boxes: the safety aspects are properly covered, it’s reasonably civilized to use, and its luggage-carrying ability is actually larger than the old Swift managed, at 235 litres. Older examples are now starting to slot into this price bracket, but because the Celerio hasn’t changed much through the years, they should be just about as good as newer ones.
The Etios sort of comes from half a class higher, and it’s a bit larger and heavier than the others on this list as well. Most of that extra space went into creating a spacious interior, but that came at the expense of cargo volume: at 251 litres, the Etios actually has less luggage space than the top-2 cars on this list, one of which is much, much smaller. The Etios does score some points back when the seats are folded, however, thanks to its roomy cabin.
Datsun’s Indian challenger packs a decent 265 litres into its boot, and because it’s about the size of the Etios, it has decent cabin space (apart from that bench seat) as well a good load volume when you fold the rear seats. In this price bracket, you won’t find the updated Go’s nicer interior and added safety features, unfortunately.
And here’s the biggest surprise of them all: even though the Kwid is only about the size of the Chevy Spark, it can handle the most luggage: it can gobble up an amazing 300 litres and offer four (cramped) seats, and swallow more than 1100 litres with the paper-thin rear seats folded. Object lessons in space efficiency don’t come much more eloquent than this.