What car for us?

Owlish

For our family (us and 2 young kids) we have a 10 year old Nissan X-Trail, and now various reasons we are going to have to get a second car. This is for my husband (photographer) to use. He'll be doing about a 20 minute drive (all inside North London) to and from his studio each day. He also goes into central London with his photo gear once a week or so, so will be paying congestion charge. He has to go on shoots elsewhere in the UK and sometimes needs to take clients in the car, so it needs to be reasonably smart.

We've had VW Golf's in the past and loved the build quality. The car we'll be looking for will probably be about this size in order to accommodate photo gear in boot. Not sure what make / model would be the best to go for given our needs, and if petrol or diesel would be more economical.

Ideally, we'd spend no more than £6,000-8,000 - or less if possible!

We could also think about leasing, but would prefer to keep monthly costs down as much as possible.

Any ideas would be much appreciated. Thank you!

BeenThroughItAll

For that kind of driving, I'd tend to sway towards a petrol vehicle. You don't give any indication of actual miles covered, but if you're not averaging more than 12-14K a year in the car, a modern diesel may not be suitable.


Might be worth looking for a secondhand Prius, Insight, Civic IMA or similar hybrid to reduce CC costs too.

gilbert_and_sullivan

Auris hybrid, possibly at the top of your budget, but you'll get that back in short order due to it's almost unbeatable (except for pure electric) economy in this segment.
In it's element in the driving you describe.

Idiophreak

It's rare that I see a thread asking "what car" and my answer isn't "Honda Jazz"...

Versatile, plenty of space for gear, small and nippy for city driving, tight turning circle. Smart inside, great for kids, decent economy...reasonably comfortable for longer runs...

And you should get a decent one, maybe 3 years old, in your budget.

clayton16749

...and my answer is always Toyota Yaris. Reliable car and the cabin is very spacious. 1.3 petrol 2009 onwards is nippy, economical and cheap to tax as well.

daveyjp

Original B class will do everything and even though its the cheap one it has Merc build quality.

Loads of room in the boot, lots of back seat space for transporting clients, very comfortable on long runs, yet shorter than a Focus and Golf so easy to park in central London.

Find a B180 and it will do all he requires.

jaydeeuk1

Gilbert along the right lines, diesels great on motorways and a roads, around cities and stop start traffic the HSD's come in to their own. Shame the new 2014 yaris hybrid is so expensive, as the auris hybrid will have to pay the congestion charge.

gilbert_and_sullivan

jaydeeuk1 wrote: »

Shame the new 2014 yaris hybrid is so expensive, as the auris hybrid will have to pay the congestion charge.

Yes Yaris would be best, but apparently into congestion zone is only once a week, so better with a petrol or hybrid based car, for when Comrade Johnson's reported Diesel tax grab comes to fruition.

All that city driving is perfect hybrid fodder, and the seamless transmission will make London Hell seem slightly less Hellish.

macman

If you like Golfs, how about a Seat Leon or Skoda Octavia? Same platform and drivetrains, but cheaper.

Owlish

So sorry I didn't come back on this - it has taken us a while to get to making a choice and going for it. We took the petrol rather than diesel advice on board, and are picking up a 1.2 Golf Bluemotion today, so hopefully will be economical. I suspect the comparison will make me weep every time I have to tax / insure / fill up the X-Trail!!

Thanks again