Can't decide whether to ditch my family car and go without. Anyone done it?

TUS

LittleMissAspie wrote: »

Well I was going to say that I'm sure you can fit 3 kids in the back of a Yaris, but I forgot you need car seats for them these days. Maybe you could leave the buggy at home and carry them when they're tired? I don't know. Apparently the next one up from a Yaris has the same engine but slightly higher emissions so it's the band up from £30 a year and the mpg must be almost as good too. We get 60-70mpg in the Yaris.

It can't be hard to beat 25mpg, my 44 year old Beetle does that...

I doubt a Yaris would be in our price range to be honest. The 25mpg is mainly due to the nature of stop/start driving I have to do around here. If I were dual carriageway cruising I'd be comfortably getting 40-50 from it.

LittleMissAspie

http://www.exchangeandmart.co.uk/used-cars-for-sale/citroen/c4/13607583

£30 tax, good mpg and I think it's in a lower insurance group than your current car.

It would be really useful if you could search these sites by tax and mpg.

TUS

LittleMissAspie wrote: »

http://www.exchangeandmart.co.uk/used-cars-for-sale/citroen/c4/13607583

£30 tax, good mpg and I think it's in a lower insurance group than your current car.

It would be really useful if you could search these sites by tax and mpg.

My current car is worth about £1100 resale I would say. So spending another £1600 on top of that (which I dont have) is out of the question and kind of defeats the point of the exercise.

I appreciate your help, but if I were to change car for something more economical I would need to stick within the budget of what I can sell my current car for. This is where I am struggling :-s

LittleMissAspie

Maybe a diesel version of what you already have then. Maybe start cycling to work now and just use the car for shopping and summer daytrips. You could do that until the insurance runs out and then see if you want to renew it.

Get a letter from your insurance company with your NCB and it should stay valid for 2 years.

buglawton

A modern diesel in winter needs to be running for 20 miles before the particulates filter starts to 'regenerate' i.e. clean itself out. Otherwise it blocks up causing all kinds of mayhem. Why is everyone so hypnotised by diesels for smallish cars that are going to be used as urban runabouts?

Rolandtheroadie

buglawton wrote: »

A modern diesel in winter needs to be running for 20 miles before the particulates filter starts to 'regenerate' i.e. clean itself out. Otherwise it blocks up causing all kinds of mayhem. Why is everyone so hypnotised by diesels for smallish cars that are going to be used as urban runabouts?

Cheap road tax.

pitkin2020

A good small diesel or petrol car will suffice. You really have 2 choices if saving money is the main aim
Sell your car and down size to something with better MPG, tax and insurance or sell the car saving money on fuel, tax and insurance and every week that you have off just hire a car for 2 or 3 days from a cheapie rental place if you need to. You could do that once every 3 months as a treat to get the family out your area for a few days and still be quids in.

buglawton

scotsman4th wrote: »

Cheap road tax.

For urban use, the pollution aspect is becoming quite critical, hence:
Wandsworth Parking permit surcharge to force diesel cars off the roads (The Telegraph recent article)

And with diesel, there's also the cost of the fuel:
Why diesel costs more than petrol in the UK

In many countries, your are taxed by the amount of fuel you burn, not just for owning a vehicle regardless of how much you use it.

pitkin2020

buglawton wrote: »

For urban use, the pollution aspect is becoming quite critical, hence:
Wandsworth Parking permit surcharge to force diesel cars off the roads (The Telegraph recent article)

And with diesel, there's also the cost of the fuel:
Why diesel costs more than petrol in the UK

In many countries, your are taxed by the amount of fuel you burn, not just for owning a vehicle regardless of how much you use it.

Gotta love the logic and contradiction. Diesel cars are generally lower on tax because they have lower carbon emissions compared with petrol, is this just another way to claw that tax difference back??

Rolandtheroadie

buglawton wrote: »

For urban use, the pollution aspect is becoming quite critical, hence:
Wandsworth Parking permit surcharge to force diesel cars off the roads (The Telegraph recent article)

And with diesel, there's also the cost of the fuel:
Why diesel costs more than petrol in the UK

In many countries, your are taxed by the amount of fuel you burn, not just for owning a vehicle regardless of how much you use it.

I dont disagree with you (in that people get hypnotised with small diesels) but part of the the answer to your question is cheap road tax.
People see free or £35 a year and go nuts for it.

In this country we're taxed on both really.