My first car - newbie what shall I go for....

BOWFER

tr7phil said:

Herzlos said:

Yeah, I feel too many people look at the road tax as a big selling point, but it's almost irrelevant on most cars compared to the other costs. There's also no guarantee that it'll stay low, as the Government need to raise revenues.

Just look at the total overall cost. It's not worth paying £1000 more for a car to save £100 a year on road tax, because you probably won't keep the car long enough to recoup the difference.
If you are looking at 2 cars at the same price, then it might be a factor, though.

At the £2500 range, I'd be buying purely on condition.

My son's Alfa Mito is free road tax and the average fuel economy on it is worse than my 2 litre BMW, even when doing exactly the same journeys!  The main factor for him choosing it (apart from liking it) was the fact that he was able to get surprisingly cheap insurance on it.  He's paid £650 for the year with no black box aged 17, Fiestas and Corsas were coming in at approximately twice that.

Depending where you are, that's cheap.
We were £800 without a black box for a Seat Mii.
The Mito is basically a Punto in a fancy frock, but I like Alfas.