New (or used) car - £26k budget

Can the 208 and Puma (crossover) be compared?

What are 2nd car prices in Malta like?

I think you need to provide a lot more detail in terms of the type of car and driving that you do else you'll just get wide and varied suggestions.

Me personally, I'd never buy a new car, what's the point of taking the initial depreciation hit on it but that all depends on the state of the car market where you live.
 
IAmATeaf said:
Can the 208 and Puma (crossover) be compared?

What are 2nd car prices in Malta like?

I think you need to provide a lot more detail in terms of the type of car and driving that you do else you'll just get wide and varied suggestions.

Me personally, I'd never buy a new car, what's the point of taking the initial depreciation hit on it but that all depends on the state of the car market where you live.
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Those are fair points. Let me give some more context.

I currently own a 2006 Ford Focus - bought new in Malta; it's spacious and fairly comfortable for what it is but it obviously lacks some features that nowadays are just standard; and also lacks power (75bhp for such a heavy car).

I'm not an avid car enthusiast so I'm not after something that has some kind of specific kind of drive, or some specific gearbox if that makes sense. I like something that looks nice (that's subjective admittedly), drives well and also comfortable inside (spacious, which is why I didn't like the Peugeot 208 in the end). I'd also prefer manual transmission and something with a bit more oomf than my current Focus (which I'm sure that's not hard to find). Driving in Malta as you can imagine is very hectic and filled with stop/starts; especially when you're in towns.

I looked at the Puma because a) I had good experiences with Ford b) liked how it looks c) good feature set for the price d) fairly good power/emissions/cost to run e) good reviews so far. I'm not someone that buys and replaces cars every few years; I like something that'll last for a while.

One of the reasons I'm considering new is the additional peace of mind that comes with it; but I also understand that's probably just my (wrong) mindset.

The 2nd hand car prices in Malta are a bit of a mixed bag. Some Maltese dealers tend to have a higher markup on 2nd hand cars when compared to UK dealers; even when you include the registration tax.

Apologies for the long post - I hope that gives a bit more context though.
 
Edward D'Amato said:
Are these kind of cars practical for every day use?
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I'll let others answer that. The reason I suggested it was because you said you didn't want an MX-5 or Abarth 124 Spider because they were convertible. These are similar style cars but they're not convertible. There are quite a few GT86 owners here, I'll let them answer.
 
Edward D'Amato said:
Yeah we do have some government schemes that help out with costs. Not sure what 2nd hand electric/PHEV are out there worth looking for though...
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I would have thought any EV with more than 100 miles range would be more than enough unless you regularly take your car over to the continent and do long trips. Id probably avoid though if you don’t have a suitable place to charge it at home.

e-Golf, Renault Zoe, BMW i3 and the Nissan Leaf are all very popular. Personally I’d be looking at the first 3 over the Leaf. You’ll be looking at a slightly older car for the money but all have plenty of poke, are within your price range used and all do well in depreciation here in the U.K.

£26k might even get you a brand new Zoe if there are decent incentives available.

PHEV would need more thought, it will do very well on fuel for lots of short trips but the additional cost of the car may outweigh the any fuel savings. A lot would depend on local fuel prices and government policy. Plenty of options out there from all the usual makes including the plug in Prius, Golf GTE, Outlander, BMW 330e.
 
A step up from the UK then.

Around my area they just seem to pile a mound of tarmac over potholes now. So it goes from a hole to an equally dangerous hump.
 
As mentioned electric seems good option given you don't have to worry about long-distance travel and access to charging stations etc. My initial thought was oh I wonder what their charging network is like over there, but then I realised it's that small that worst case scenario you just drive back to your house and charge it there, unless you are a salesman or something constantly driving around (tbh, I was surprised your annual mileage hits 10k). This is assuming you don't have power cuts in Malta but I imagine even if you did the need to travel around would be reduced anyway.t.
 
Yeah to me this screams electric car, i'm assuming by 10,000 a year you mean KM so around 6,000 miles? even then that seems a lot for such a small island.

But that'll only work if you have somewhere to charge it, do you have a driveway or dedicated parking spot you could get a charger installed?
 
Yeah sorry 10k = km. And actually that was based when I wasn't working from home (I work from home pre-covid) so it might be even less now. I do have my own garage so in theory I could charge it there.

I'm taking a closer look to the Golf GTE...
 
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