Looking for car suggestions - low tax and fuel bills

Sesame

Hi,
My Toyota Verso is due to be taxed again soon and to avoid paying another €650 or so tax I'm looking for some ideas on replacing it with something smaller. Main criteria are cheaper tax and a little lighter on fuel consumption.
Its the main family car and usually only for weekend driving but these trips would be quite long.
It needs to have room for a big buggy in the boot and a baby seat. But doesn't need to have the 7 seats I currently have, complete overkill! 5 doors would be handy.
My car is 6 years old so if anyone has any indications of how much I would need to spend trade in wise, that would help. I know there's probably a glut if these monster petrol gulpers on the forecourts these days. I'd like to avoid selling privately, I don't have the inclination or time to arrange places and times to do viewings.
Thanks car people.

hamsterboy

I know you said 5 door but the GF just got a 1.3 diesel Opel Astra Coupe..... they prob have that engine in the 5 door though I'm open to correction.
Amazingly cheap to run, doesn't drive like a traditional diesel
1200km from a tank
Well Specced
BTW it's a 08

HB

Anan1

What kind of annual mileage are you doing? Unless it's huge, I can't see how the savings on fuel would justify the change. Same for the tax - what could you realistically save, a couple of hundred a year? A garage is going to get stuck into you for multiples of that to change.

Sesame

I would guess annually about 10,000 miles. Thanks, you are right about trade price I will need to do some sums to figure out cost/benefit wise of trading if its going to cost me for another year. I haven't looked into cost of taxing smaller cars, think I will start there!

Anan1

Running costs aside, are you happy with what you have? Would there be other benefits to changing?

Sesame

No, its purely a running cost issue.

Anan1

Sesame wrote: »

No, its purely a running cost issue.

What could you reasonably expect to save yearly by changing, in terms of tax and fuel costs?

Sesame

OK, I made a little spreadsheet to work this out. My car does about 40 mpg according to the average on google. Say I compare that with a Ford Fiesta which averages at 50mpg.
At 10,000 per ear the average saving is about €250. On top of a tax difference of about €300 so yearly savings would be €550. But also I need to remember I would hope to have car for a few years which means over 4 years, over €2k saved at current petrol prices.

I'm going to try attaching the spreadsheet I made to work this out, might be useful to someone. Hope it works. Add the details in the yellow fields.

Tea 1000

Sesame wrote: »

OK, I made a little spreadsheet to work this out. My car does about 40 mpg according to the average on google. Say I compare that with a Ford Fiesta which averages at 50mpg.
At 10,000 per ear the average saving is about €250. On top of a tax difference of about €300 so yearly savings would be €550. But also I need to remember I would hope to have car for a few years which means over 4 years, over €2k saved at current petrol prices.

I'm going to try attaching the spreadsheet I made to work this out, might be useful to someone. Hope it works. Add the details in the yellow fields.

If you keep the car for 4 years, and save €2,000, then that means that today if you go and trade in your Verso today and add €2000 to it, and buy something smaller, you'll have a net saving of €0 over 4 years and a smaller car to show for it.
7-seaters always are in reasonable demand, Toyota's are also in reasonable demand, so a Toyota 7-seater will likely depreciate less than any potential car you buy too.

Anan1

Sesame wrote: »

OK, I made a little spreadsheet to work this out. My car does about 40 mpg according to the average on google. Say I compare that with a Ford Fiesta which averages at 50mpg.
At 10,000 per ear the average saving is about €250. On top of a tax difference of about €300 so yearly savings would be €550. But also I need to remember I would hope to have car for a few years which means over 4 years, over €2k saved at current petrol prices.

That sounds reasonable to me. You now need to subtract the cost of changing to get your real saving. By cost of changing I mean the slippage involved in selling one car and buying another, ie sum of the difference between what the Verso is worth and what you get for it and what the new car is worth and what you pay for it. At a guess, i'd call that figure €1000.

TPM

Sesame wrote: »

OK, I made a little spreadsheet to work this out. My car does about 40 mpg according to the average on google. Say I compare that with a Ford Fiesta which averages at 50mpg.
At 10,000 per ear the average saving is about €250. On top of a tax difference of about €300 so yearly savings would be €550. But also I need to remember I would hope to have car for a few years which means over 4 years, over €2k saved at current petrol prices.

I'm going to try attaching the spreadsheet I made to work this out, might be useful to someone. Hope it works. Add the details in the yellow fields.

a verso and fiesta really inst a realistic comparison specially if you are looking for space for a bog buggy. baby seat etc.

Farmer Pudsey

Sesame wrote: »

OK, I made a little spreadsheet to work this out. My car does about 40 mpg according to the average on google. Say I compare that with a Ford Fiesta which averages at 50mpg.
At 10,000 per ear the average saving is about €250. On top of a tax difference of about €300 so yearly savings would be €550. But also I need to remember I would hope to have car for a few years which means over 4 years, over €2k saved at current petrol prices.

I'm going to try attaching the spreadsheet I made to work this out, might be useful to someone. Hope it works. Add the details in the yellow fields.

I be inclined to stick with the verso as I think next year a lot of pre 08 cars especially 2.l diesels will find there car tax reduced

bazz26

Farmer Pudsey wrote: »

I be inclined to stick with the verso as I think next year a lot of pre 08 cars especially 2.l diesels will find there car tax reduced

Your dreaming if you think motor tax will be reduced on any bracket of car. Motor tax is only going in one direction for everyone from now on.

sean1141

the only way you will save money op is to sell the verso and use that money to buy the next car, ie if you sell it for 7000 then only spend 7000 or less on the next car..

you are not doing enough millage in it for higher miles per gallon to make you a big saving.. as for tax who knows what a 08+ will cost after the next few budgets..

imo if you are happy with the car stick with it and look into a few fuel saving messures like replacing the tyres (when they are due) with ones that give better mpg, keep the tyre pressure checked. keep the car serviced on time etc etc