First car advice for commuting (40mi each way) - Budget £10k

ichicc

First post here - hello all

I'll soon be moving to a house where my partner will need to commute to work daily. It'll be c. 40 miles each way, mostly on the motorway (M40) with a couple miles of town driving each side. We have a maximum budget of up to £10k, and want to buy a second-hand automatic.

Neither of us know much about cars, and this will be our first car purchase. Living in London, we've never really had to drive before this. Our key priorities are:

- Safety

- Reliability

- Good value

- An easy & comfortable ride

- Ease of parking

We don't really care much for specific brands and don't need anything flashy or super-powerful. If we could get something that meets our needs at much under £10k, we'd happily settle for the cheaper car.

My partner has said she would like a Toyota Yaris, having driven her parents' one a few times and quite liking it, especially its ease of parking as a smaller car. However, my feeling is that for her kind of mileage and journey type, something slightly bigger might be more appropriate - am I correct?

I know I've read before that Japanese cars tend to be the best bang-for-buck - would they be recommended for our use case? I'd like to defer to the knowledgeable community on these boards for make/model recommendations.

My other question is that given we are buying second hand, what kind of age/mileage would give the best value/reliability proposition?

Also, are there any (non-gimmick) features we should be looking out for to make the driving experience as pleasant as possible? I had parking cameras and cruise control in mind but please let me know if there's anything else!

Many thanks in advance.

AdrianC

It's only 40 miles... Not exactly interstellar road-warrior territory.

ichicc

AdrianC said:

It's only 40 miles... Not exactly interstellar road-warrior territory.

Haha, that is certainly true - I'm sure it's no big deal for most people in these forums! However, for my partner (and myself as well!), the thought of going from never driving at all to c. 20k miles a year and 2-3 hours per day is a rather daunting one! Hence why we're putting a lot of thought into the decision.

Paula_Smith

I would look at less than half that price - there are some low mileage well maintained cars out there - you could do worse than a Yaris, its not a bad size for that sort of distance and they are reliable.

MEM62

I have a daily 45-mile commute each way up and down the M3.  I gave up my company car last year as the taxation was onerous to the point that I was paying more in tax on a company car that it cost me to run my own - even with 90-mile a day commute.  I purchased an E90 BMW 320i.  It is comfortable, a pleasure to drive and is giving me just over 40 mpg.   

daveyjp

18,000 miles a year plus weekend, holiday trips would have me looking for the cheapest newest car I could find.  Wise to consider Japanese.

The Yaris 1.5 will do 50+mpg on motorway trips, is cheap to buy and cheap to service, it will also run and run.  Motorway driving may become tiring.

If Yaris is too small, consider a Suzuki, Baleno as an example. Generally cheaper than Toyota, but just as reliable.

Late1stTimeBuyer

Depending on road types for that mileage I'd be considering diesel. Honda are really good, I've put 100k on my civic with no issues. 

LandyAndy

I would have thought something like this would be a good bet.
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/202006069863201?transmission=Automatic&onesearchad=New&onesearchad=Nearly%20New&onesearchad=Used&sort=relevance&radius=1500&advertising-location=at_cars&model=MAZDA3&postcode=sp53hu&year-to=2020&price-to=8000&price-from=6000&make=MAZDA&page=1

A bit bigger than the Yaris and ideal for the motorway.  My experience of Mazdas is that they are very reliable.

[Deleted User]

Can you charge at home or work? If so an electric car would be ideal for that kind of distance.

What is your commute like? A decent Leaf 24 should cover you if it's not mostly motorway, if it is get a Leaf 30. There is also the Zoe but it's a fair bit smaller.

You will save a fortune in petrol, it's "automatic" (doesn't have gears) and very smooth and easy to drive. If you get a Tekna spec it will have 360 birds-eye-view cameras making it very easy to park.

ichicc

[DELETED USER] said:

Can you charge at home or work? If so an electric car would be ideal for that kind of distance.

What is your commute like? A decent Leaf 24 should cover you if it's not mostly motorway, if it is get a Leaf 30. There is also the Zoe but it's a fair bit smaller.

You will save a fortune in petrol, it's "automatic" (doesn't have gears) and very smooth and easy to drive. If you get a Tekna spec it will have 360 birds-eye-view cameras making it very easy to park.

jeepjunkie said:

40 miles each way, I'd do that in my old EV without batting an eyelid. Prior to covid I was doing anywhere between 50-100 miles each day. If no workplace charging I'm sure there will be on-route chargers. EV saves a mind-boggling amount in fuel etc if you are prepared to make some compromises.

Thanks both. I hadn't really considered EVs prior to this. The neither the house nor her work car park has charging, however I understand it should be fairly cheap and easy to install charging at our home driveway? How viable is the Leaf for c. 80 miles a day of mostly motorway, only charging overnight?

[Deleted User]

ichicc said:

[DELETED USER] said:

Can you charge at home or work? If so an electric car would be ideal for that kind of distance.

What is your commute like? A decent Leaf 24 should cover you if it's not mostly motorway, if it is get a Leaf 30. There is also the Zoe but it's a fair bit smaller.

You will save a fortune in petrol, it's "automatic" (doesn't have gears) and very smooth and easy to drive. If you get a Tekna spec it will have 360 birds-eye-view cameras making it very easy to park.

jeepjunkie said:

40 miles each way, I'd do that in my old EV without batting an eyelid. Prior to covid I was doing anywhere between 50-100 miles each day. If no workplace charging I'm sure there will be on-route chargers. EV saves a mind-boggling amount in fuel etc if you are prepared to make some compromises.

Thanks both. I hadn't really considered EVs prior to this. The neither the house nor her work car park has charging, however I understand it should be fairly cheap and easy to install charging at our home driveway? How viable is the Leaf for c. 80 miles a day of mostly motorway, only charging overnight?

Yeah it's easy to get a charger, or you can actually just use a normal 13A socket (out the window in the summer!).

There are different models of Leaf. The original was the 24kWh. If your journey is mostly motorway it will struggle in winter but if it's slower roads it should be okay as long as the battery is in good condition. The 30kWh model will do it no problem.

There's also a new 40kWh model which you could stretch to and make savings on fuel over a few years.

To check the battery look at the dashboard. There are lots of photos online but basically you want the full 12 bars remaining.