Budget city car and selling existing car advice.

[Jimbo Mahoney]

Hi all,

I'd like advice on two things:

1) Best (i.e. cheapest to run and maintain) small / medium car as follows:

• Ideal budget £3k, but could stretch to £5k.
• 5000 miles per year town driving (i.e. lots of traffic lights!).
• 4 doors.
• I'm thinking Jap hybrid? I like the Honda CRZ, but it's only 2 doors AFAIK.
• Not looking at plug-in (probably none in this price bracket anyway).

2) How to go about buying this car first and waiting to sell my existing one privately:

• I'd like to transfer my no-claims to the new car.
• I assume I declare the old one SORN (to save money on insurance, since I won't be driving them both).
• It will be kept on my driveway, but fire/theft might still be a concern?
• If it's SORN, can I get cheap insurance for it?
• Assume this is no hassle for the buyer?

As always, thanks for your collective wisdom!

 

[paradigm]

I’d ask your existing insurer to temporarily cover both cars, doesn’t typically increase costs by that much (as you can’t drive both at once), it means you can keep it taxed and do test drives whilst selling it also.

 

[xs2man]

1) Surely a £3k hybrid would be pretty leggy by now? Probably more hassle than its worth no? Probably better stretching to £5k if your determined on a Hybrid. But then at £5k, you could be in a mk3 Focus 1.0 Ecoboost or something similar? Or a similar Fiesta if you want something smaller. I assume your thinking hybrid for fuel efficiency?

2) Yes, declare SORN else you will pay tax on it. If it is genuinely off the road, then you won't need to tax it. Although it may be worth keeping it taxed if it's going to be insured anyway, then you can use it no problem, and buyers can test drive it.

While you can get "lay away" insurance for cars, my experience is that it wasn't any cheaper at all. However, your insurer may be able to offer some short term (30 days or so) insurance for a nominal fee on the current car when you transfer the policy over. I've done that a few times.

 

[Jimbo Mahoney]

Thanks guys.

Good idea with regards insurance.

Re: hybrid- was only thinking it might be ideal for city but I did wonder about things like battery quality at this budget, hence asking for advice from the experts in the motor forum.

Would rather spend less on the car and have it reliable, rather than try and squeeze more mpg out of a £5k car. False economy at the low miles I do.

Any other cars I should be looking at?

 

[Uncle_Gravy]

Sounds like a VW Up/Skoda Citigo/Seat Mii (All three are the same car essentially) is the car for you, small economic engines, can be had with 4 doors, and small enough to dart in and out of traffic, all can be had for your budget.

I'd be looking for the 75bhp or 90bhp variants though.