Car for a new driver - options

Dina

Grumpy_chap said:

Dina said:

Grumpy_chap said:

This approach will give you low running costs, low depreciation and future-proof you (as it were) against future changes in VED / emissions rules.  Such a car could last a very long time.

Would this hold for a Hybrid also, to a lesser extent? I would want to take the occasional longer journey which I'm not sure an Electric would work with.

A hybrid won't achieve the same low running costs as an EV because you won't benefit from the very favourable VED rates, low cost to fill with energy / fuel, nor will the depreciation be as low.  As for fuel efficiency, I had a hybrid and found it no better than a petrol car, but that is very much dependent upon the type of mileage and you may find that your use profile is better suited (juts not enough information in the thread to say).

With reference to the "occasional longer journey" - how frequently is "occasional" and how far is "longer"?  These are the two factors to impact the significance of range limitations of the EV.

I must admit, I find it hard to answer these questions, having never had a car in the family or even when I was growing up. I imagine the occasions would be in some school holidays, so perhaps 2 or 3 times a year and it could be 150-250 miles away? I'm looking at a Prius which I believe also has zero tax.

Grumpy_chap

Dina said:

I must admit, I find it hard to answer these questions, having never had a car in the family or even when I was growing up. I imagine the occasions would be in some school holidays, so perhaps 2 or 3 times a year and it could be 150-250 miles away? I'm looking at a Prius which I believe also has zero tax.

There are others on here with direct experience of an EV for journeys like you describe - hopefully they will see the thread and comment.  I certainly would not rule out all-EV if there might be 2 or 3 times per year when you'd have to plan a bit more (or could hire a car if it came to it).

Most Prius cars are hybrid just over 100 g/km CO2 so £145 per year.
Some Prius cars are PHEV (plug in hybrid) and <50g/km CO2 so still £145 per year.  Unlikely to be many at the £6k budget.

Ebe_Scrooge

Dina said:

Grumpy_chap said:

Dina said:

Grumpy_chap said:

This approach will give you low running costs, low depreciation and future-proof you (as it were) against future changes in VED / emissions rules.  Such a car could last a very long time.

Would this hold for a Hybrid also, to a lesser extent? I would want to take the occasional longer journey which I'm not sure an Electric would work with.

A hybrid won't achieve the same low running costs as an EV because you won't benefit from the very favourable VED rates, low cost to fill with energy / fuel, nor will the depreciation be as low.  As for fuel efficiency, I had a hybrid and found it no better than a petrol car, but that is very much dependent upon the type of mileage and you may find that your use profile is better suited (juts not enough information in the thread to say).

With reference to the "occasional longer journey" - how frequently is "occasional" and how far is "longer"?  These are the two factors to impact the significance of range limitations of the EV.

  I'm looking at a Prius which I believe also has zero tax.

Don't get too hung up on the tax bracket of a car.  Compared to the overall costs of running a car (purchase, fuel, maintenance, insurance, MOT, repairs, etc.), the tax element is trivially small.  Yes, of course it's nice to fork out £30 or even zero once a year instead of £200-£300 - but in the grand scheme of things it's pretty insignificant.

If an EV suits your budget and your requirements then great - but don't be swayed purely by the annual tax bill.

mgfvvc

The limiting factor on your choices may be the need to carry 3 children. Smaller cars might be a tight squeeze, especially if the kids are in car seats and when they are teenagers. If you are looking at battery electric, a ground up electric design like the Leaf or Zoe should offer more space. Interior width is key for carrying 3 in the back row and teenagers need leg room as well.

Ectophile

Perhaps I should point out that if you were to lease a car for £250/month, then drive 700 miles/year, then the cost of the lease alone would be £4.29 per mile.

That's not including all the other costs of owning a car.

Dina

Ectophile said:

Perhaps I should point out that if you were to lease a car for £250/month, then drive 700 miles/year, then the cost of the lease alone would be £4.29 per mile.

That's not including all the other costs of owning a car.

Are you saying that leasing a car would be high? I'm afraid I need a frame of reference to know if £4.29 per mile is high. I did find this on nimblefins website:

The cost to drive a car is around 40p per mile, which we calculate by dividing average annual car running costs of £3,049 by average car mileage of 7,600 miles per year. Costs can vary depending on factors like the value of the car, the insurance rate and car fuel efficiency.

If these figures are accurate, this would mean that for my 700 miles it would be £4.36 per mile to own a car. I'm glad you brought this up because I am still considering my original question of whether it is better to lease a car until prices for used cars go down, the problem being that we don't know when this would be.

Herzlos

Do you really mean 700 miles? Because I think we all assumed you meant 7000.

If you're genuinely only doing 13.5 miles per week, then the notion of car ownership is bonkers. Your per mile costs are going to be huge compared to any other method of travel, and it's going to be terrible for the car.

If it's mostly local stuff with the odd long trip, then you'd be better taxis locally and renting a car for the longer trips.

If you do want to get a car anyway, then I'd ignore fuel economy (700 miles is potentially 2 tankfuls a year), tax, etc and just buy something cheap to run until it gets scrapped. If you didn't want a small car, then I'd be suggesting looking for huge petrol engined cars no-one wants anymore because 15mpg is painful if you do a lot of miles.

Grumpy_chap

Dina said:

Ectophile said:

Perhaps I should point out that if you were to lease a car for £250/month, then drive 700 miles/year, then the cost of the lease alone would be £4.29 per mile.

That's not including all the other costs of owning a car.

Are you saying that leasing a car would be high? I'm afraid I need a frame of reference to know if £4.29 per mile is high. I did find this on nimblefins website:

The cost to drive a car is around 40p per mile, which we calculate by dividing average annual car running costs of £3,049 by average car mileage of 7,600 miles per year. Costs can vary depending on factors like the value of the car, the insurance rate and car fuel efficiency.

If these figures are accurate, this would mean that for my 700 miles it would be £4.36 per mile to own a car. I'm glad you brought this up because I am still considering my original question of whether it is better to lease a car until prices for used cars go down, the problem being that we don't know when this would be.

£1 per mile would be high.
Over £4 per mile is very high.

That is total cost to run the car, including depreciation (or finance / lease cost), insurance, maintenance, MOT, VED (car tax), petrol.

Leasing will be a massive expense just money gone.  At least if you buy, after the initial outlay, your costs will be an annual service plus insurance.  You might get that for £1k per year.  Still £1.50 per mile, assuming you really do as few as 700 miles in a year.

Given you said the occasional journeys would be:

Dina said:

perhaps 2 or 3 times a year and it could be 150-250 miles away? I'm looking at a Prius which I believe also has zero tax.

2 times per year, 150 miles away is 600 miles.  (Each round trip is 300 miles.)
3 times per year, 250 miles away is 1,500 miles.  (Each round trip is 500 miles.)

It is actually hard to estimate how many miles you would do in a year when you have no baseline and the only way to get a baseline is to have a car and see what the answer churns out to be at the end of the year.  Catch-22.

Perhaps the best solution is to acquire a £1k runabout and take care in choosing (or ask a trusted family member / friend) so that you get a reliable car and not a wreck.  It is hard at that price-point when you have limited experience and knowledge.  

Dina

Perhaps I do need to get something fairly cheap, if I'm not going to use it too much. As a non-driver, I can think of only odd occasions where it would have been useful to use a car for a journey, but I can imagine that increases once you actually own a car. I don't actually want to use it very often; I'm imagining times when you need to transport something, if time is a consideration or if distance is too far to cycle.

The more I've read about them, the more I've wanted a Prius because of their ease to use, good size for a family, good boot size, low Co2 emissions, because it is a Hybrid and because they seem to depreciate less. However, perhaps they cost too much for how often I'd use it. 

I want to own a car to start with because I've only just passed my test and need to get more practice in to be more confident on the road.

I realise I may not be a typical case!

fatbelly

Herzlos said:

Something like a Fabia would be suitable: https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202112300887220

I like the Fabia estate as a small car with tons of luggage room and good engines