Economical Car

cyclonebri1

jemz0001 wrote: »

I thought this forum was meant to be helpful!

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It's also intended to help save money and buying brand spanking new cars every few years will not acheive that. I totally agree with the others. The advice given, apart from the "stupid" comment has been polite and genuine, accept it or ignore it but don't decry peoples opinions.

I actually don't understand your post as you have listed in post#1 just about every option you could consider, and as you've inferred it's your choice ;)

no_more_cards_for_me

OP As Cyclonebri 1 said buying a new car will not save you money. Whilst a more economic car might give you weekly savings the total cost including finance / loss of interest will outweigh any savings fuel can provide. Do a proper cost benefit analysis and it will become evident.

For example I use a 120k, 11 year old car. It owes me nothing on finance, depreciation doesn't bother me because it will last to at least 200k. Road tax £260 and 28 mpg. Whilst it would be nice to have a newer car, the savings factoring in finance are minimal and insufficient to justify the expense.

Buying a new car might put a different number on the piece of plastic on the front (nicely put Hammyman) but you are unlikely to save mpg sufficent to offset costs. A Nissan Leaf is £25k !

Doesn't the Note have a warrenty and a fairly good record of reliability.

jemz0001

To be honest, we do not like driving cars which are older...

we like to keep aour cars younger than 4 years. We at this stage will get a trade in value of £3.5k plus and we bought this can at £5.5k and have had it over 2 years, so if we trade in now we can put a few grand to it and get a newer car.

The reason I posed the question was:

WE ARE GOING TO CHANGE THE CAR, we want to change to a more economical car, so i am asking for advice on here, as as has already been mentioned, published MPG figures are not always what people find on the road.

Again thanks to those who have posted useful comments!

michaels

Only thing I would say is that smaller cars are inherently less safe in a major accident - on the motorway I feel more comfortable in something of golf/focus/astra size or larger - obviously costs more to buy and the extra weight means it can't be as economical but I am sure you can find 60mpg+ cars in this size and if you buy 1 year old your saving on depreciation will more than outweigh the extra fuel cost.

Having said all that my brother in law who is a bit of a petrol head loves his alfa romeo mito twin-air

jaydeeuk1

michaels wrote: »

Only thing I would say is that smaller cars are inherently less safe in a major accident

I'll be safer in my Toyota IQ than a lot of bigger cars out there!

photome

michaels wrote: »

Only thing I would say is that smaller cars are inherently less safe in a major accident - on the motorway I feel more comfortable in something of golf/focus/astra size or larger - obviously costs more to buy and the extra weight means it can't be as economical but I am sure you can find 60mpg+ cars in this size and if you buy 1 year old your saving on depreciation will more than outweigh the extra fuel cost.

Having said all that my brother in law who is a bit of a petrol head loves his alfa romeo mito twin-air

Sorry but thats rubbish, check out the ncap safety figures, one of the safest cars on the road is the Smart car

wobbley

photome wrote: »

Sorry but thats rubbish, check out the ncap safety figures, one of the safest cars on the road is the Smart car

If you really think that's true then, you need to get out more! You'd be safer in a cardboard box atop a jet powered skateboard than you would in a smartcarp. NCAP tests are at set speeds and angles which designers are aware of. In the real world accidents are not so well regulated and supervised.
Michaels statement about smaller cars not being as safe is generally true, of course there are some exceptions though. The budget end motors like Hyundai and Proton do tend to have less side protection than cars like VWs and Fords. I base my opinions not on someone else's tests but on what I see stripping these cars down myself as part of my job.

Kilty_2

photome wrote: »

Sorry but thats rubbish, check out the ncap safety figures, one of the safest cars on the road is the Smart car

What do you think would win between the Laguna II I used to have (5 star car and the size of a tank) versus a 5 star small car?

Tip - its not the small car :rotfl:

photome

Kilty wrote: »

What do you think would win between the Laguna II I used to have (5 star car and the size of a tank) versus a 5 star small car?

Tip - its not the small car :rotfl:

What does win mean ? I am talking about driver safety. You picked one example there are many examples where the 5 star small car would "beat" the 3 or 4 star large car. That was my point

cyclonebri1

photome wrote: »

What does win mean ? I am talking about driver safety. You picked one example there are many examples where the 5 star small car would "beat" the 3 or 4 star large car. That was my point

I think Kilty meant put them head to head (literally), as in a head on collision and see which driver fairs best:eek:

Also consider getting rear ended by a juggernaut in a smartcar sized car, not for me. There are many mid sized cars that give greater comfort and safety for not much more expence, and in this case where the op can afford to drive a newish car he can probably afford the extra slight fuel cost.;)