Is there a good time of year to buy a car?

Kim_13

In general, March - then each year when you pay VED you are getting it at the old prices before the price goes up in April. 

Beyond that, it depends what you want. If you want a new EV, then buy one now so that it is registered on or before 31st March. If registered on 1/4/25 when EVs lose their exemption from the expensive car supplement, it’ll end up costing £420 a year to tax in years 2-6 (£10 + £410 for being over £40k list when new) instead of getting a year for free and then £195 standard rate. I imagine most EVs with a decent range trigger the supplement, as some average family ICEs are now over the limit. There are currently no separate thresholds for EVs, Hybrids and ICEs to reflect the fact that Hybrids cost more to buy than ICEs for an equivalent car and Electric more than Hybrids (it is list price that matters, not what you might pay having got a discount from the dealer.)

If you want a Hybrid, get one registered no later than 31/3/17 if you can - these are taxed based on emissions for their lifetime so likely to be cheaper than the £180 payable currently for a 1/4/17 onwards registration. From April, this will be £195 (removal of the £10 hybrid discount and £5 for the inflation based increase.)

If you want a new hybrid, it’s still likely cheaper to buy now - first year tax rates are having a 1 put in front of them on 1 April, whereas a car with 75g/km or less emissions currently has a first year rate of £30 maximum. Any car with an emissions figure of 76g/km or more will have its first year rate doubled - and emissions have gone the wrong way since the flat rate system came in.

An ex-demo will immediately be on the standard rate if you buy it, so make sure you know what that is. If the car is high emission, it saves you money, but if it’s lower and above the £40k threshold, it will cost you more as the dealer has already had the cheaper emission only based tax.

WindfallWendy

Thanks everyone!!! 
After all that, it's my husband who is going to buy the car now and I'm just going to take his off his hands and chuck mine over to We Buy Any Car (I'll be lucky/grateful for £500, as I have a dashboard warning light for airbags and it's a very basic Seat Mii, 12 years old so probably not very desirable on the second hand market).

Husband made the decision to buy as he wanted to trade his car in whilst it was still worth something (I'm willing to buy his off him as I know it's full history), and he has been looking at bigger vehicles for months so he is more than ready to make a purchase!