It’s true that the Nissan Qashqai has had a couple of safety recalls, but they didn’t affect 2025 models, so you should be okay there. But it’s worth mentioning that the Kia Seltos from the same era has also had its share of recalls and problems, including an engine glitch that saw a lot of examples needing new engines (which Kia did its best to put right). Again, though, by the time 2025 had rolled around, the problems were largely a thing of the past. Or should be.

Some Nissan owners have complained about failures of the brand’s CVT transmissions. But the reality is that these are both very new vehicles and, provided they’ve been serviced properly to this point, will also have a lot of factory warranty remaining.

Which means it really comes down to which of the two offers the space and features you need and which one you prefer to drive (which means checking things like the rear vision and anything else that is likely to annoy you). Take both for a decent test run, check the service record and go from there.

Both the Toyota and Kia have good reputations for quality and durability, while the Chery is more of an unknown quantity in Australia. The important thing to remember is that the cars you’ve short-listed are all near-new vehicles, so they’ll have plenty of factory warranty left to run.

The best way to avoid clear coat peeling is to buy a car in a solid, rather than metallic, colour, which doesn’t generally have the same peeling problems. That said, modern paint technology is much better than ever before, so this is less of a problem than it once was. Protecting a car’s interior means parking it out of the sun in the hotter months. Although, again, the durability of interior plastics has come a long, long way in recent years.

If you’re going to keep the car for a few years and then trade it in on a new car, retained value is more important than any of your other concerns. And in that sense, the Toyota traditionally moves to the front of the pack.

Australian Consumer Law is pretty specific when it comes to this stuff. It’s the carmaker’s responsibility to return the vehicle to a drivable, safe state (which it isn’t if the seat moves on its own) at no cost to you if the problem is a genuine warranty claim (which it sounds like it might be). But you do have the responsibility to give a reasonable time frame and opportunity for this to happen.

If the car can’t be fixed, then you may have a case against the dealer that supplied the car and possibly the manufacturer as well. Either way, if a fix can’t be found, you may be entitled to a repair, replacement or refund if the car fails to meet the terms of the ACCC’s Consumer Guarantees legislation.