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Hi,

I am attempting to buy my first car. I have been looking for a hatchback, automatic within the 5000-6000 price range, my dream car being a Volkswagon Polo or Golf. However many cars i see for sale in my price range have an engine size of 1400cc and i have been told that this is too small and the car would start having problems when the car got over 100,000ks. I just want a car to drive around town, to work and home mostly. I was wondering if 1400cc is a bad engine size to invest in??

If most of your driving will be around town, I wouldn't be overly concerned about a 1.4 litre engine. However, in this price range, the models you are considering would not be at the top end of our recommendation if reliability and maintenance costs are priorities. While the Polo and Golf are great cars to drive, electronics and automatic transmissions are known to cause concerns as these cars age.
Perhaps Mazda Familia and Nissan Pulsar models would be preferable in this price range. They both enjoy good reputations for reliability and are relatively stylish and pleasant to drive.