What car should I buy.....

[Sssloou]

Kids mostly left home. I now work from home. DH has the bigger car for use at weekends, longer journeys, holidays.

So I will now be doing very few miles. It will mostly be parked outside and I tend to keep cars to extinction!

Just looking for some inspiration for something fun.....

I’ve been looking at cars quite a bit recently. What’s you budget and are after petrol or electric/hybrid, sports or eg hatchback or suv? Preferred marque?

I was in a similar situation. Childfree, company car ending and I decided not to renew as my jobs changed a little and I need to visit clients quite a bit less (not just due to COVID), DP has a decent estate car that I could use if I needed to. For work, they just get a hire car delivered to my house when I need one.

I bought a Mini and I'm very happy with it. It was under £2k and 11 years old and they are quite expensive for the age - you'd get a better VW Polo, Seat Ibiza etc for the same money, but I love it. It's also fine on the motorway - I've taken it on 100 mile round trips a couple of times and it's absolutely fine. I've had it nearly a year and done about 3000 miles in it, which is the sort of mileage I do these days.

My plan is to run it for a few years and then I hope, after a few years of cheap motoring, there will be some fantastic scrappage scheme for old petrol cars so I can chip it in for a good discount off a new electric one.

I'm a big fan of our Golf GTE. It has a 20 mile range electric but then switches to petrol. In normal electric mode it's great but in GTE mode it is very fun to drive.

I'm just about to sell a Mercedes SLK, because of Sadiq extending the ULEZ zone London. I have the 320 6 speed manual, I've owned it since 2007 and it's been so much fun, I shall be so sad to see it go. I like that it's convertible but with a hard top, as mine is also parked outside on the road - doesn't leak, warm in the winter, no worries of it being slashed. It's so quick and fantastic zipping around with the roof off on days like today - I'll probably buy a newer SLK I love it so much.

I absolutely LOVE this car.....but at £30K new I can’t justify it for my needs.

My other LOVE would be a classic LandRover Defender - again probably costly to buy, polluting, unreliable and expensive to repair.

So you can see that I am all over the place. Maybe it’s because in the past I have had a longish term needs for car purchase that I had to meet so it narrowed the options and made the decisions for me - eg needed a Mum Bus for years to ferry around 4 kids and their mates to all their schools and activities - then bought a fun little Fiat 500 for driving into the city for work.

I somehow feel it wrong to buy a petrol car now to keep long term. But the e version of most cars is ££££ more - maybe it’s a premium for now that I don’t really want to pay. Like PP said I could look shorter term at a cheaper 2nd hand petrol and look at e cars in 3 years time.

I have a golf which I LOVE.
Was about to buy a five series but holding out to see what happens with the diesel rules in Manchester first

electric cars are big bucks and buying a second hand one means a big chance on the battery - the technology is nowhere near ready for second hand electric cars to be a good idea.

£3k will get you something around 10 years old but reliable and serviceable with plenty of time left. If it sits outside most of the time there's no need for more than that.

I have a Mini Cooper and love it, its getting replaced in August for a newer one.

I’ve got a VW T- Coss, had it from new, but now you can get 2nd hand ones. It’s fun to drive, a dream on the Motor way, economical and full of safety features.
I spent a long time researching and test driving different cars, but in the end it is an individual choice.

I am bereft that Alfa have stopped doing my faves - giulieta and mito - and don’t yet have an electric/hybrid of interest.
Mini Countryman hybrid looks good but I have residual annoyance driving a car as a woman called the ‘countryman’. 😂
Looked hard at the Citroen c3 the other day - it’s all over the place in interior styling though. Took forever to configure then had to walk away due to awful dash/seats - like sitting in an 80s bowling alley.
Good luck op.