Most economical family car - Which?

Well as I've mentioned in a previous post my current car is useless at doing the day to day motoring required of me, my wife and two small children as it is so thirsty.

It is a great car for long journey and comes into its own fuel wise on the motorway, but in all honesty that is so rare that it is becoming ridiculous keeping it.

It already cost well over ?200 per year tax and diesel is stupid, next year tax on it will be about ?425 ish (I think), so I would have to have a really good reason to keep it, which I don't

So what car should I be looking at, the current car is a 98 BMW 525TDS Se, if that helps.

I don't have a great deal to put towards it either.

Most of the mileage is town or A road stuff and the car is used for a 16 mile round trip Mon-Fri.

[Gazza77]

Originally Posted by krhall

Well as I've mentioned in a previous post my current car is useless at doing the day to day motoring required of me, my wife and two small children as it is so thirsty.

It is a great car for long journey and comes into its own fuel wise on the motorway, but in all honesty that is so rare that it is becoming ridiculous keeping it.

It already cost well over ?200 per year tax and diesel is stupid, next year tax on it will be about ?425 ish (I think), so I would have to have a really good reason to keep it, which I don't

So what car should I be looking at, the current car is a 98 BMW 525TDS Se, if that helps.

I don't have a great deal to put towards it either.

Most of the mileage is town or A road stuff and the car is used for a 16 mile round trip Mon-Fri.

IIRC tax on the BMW won't be that high due to it being registered before the 2001 change to emissions based charges. Should be around ?180-?190 a year, with a small incremental increase next year.

Got a budget? That might help with suggestions...

No it is already over ?200 per year.........?225 if I remember.

As for budget I'm not too sure - maybe ?6k max.

[Gazza77]

Originally Posted by krhall

No it is already over ?200 per year.........?225 if I remember.

As for budget I'm not too sure - maybe ?6k max.

You've been robbed by the DVLA then - should only cost ?185 to tax.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring...le/DG_10012524

Is that ?6k plus yours, or ?6k total?

6k total....

Can I claim that extra back?

[Gazza77]

Originally Posted by krhall

6k total....

Can I claim that extra back?

I can't see why not, but then I can't see how you can have paid too much in the first place. All I can suggest is contacting the DVLA directly.

As for car suggestions, for a ?6k budget and wanting fuel economy, I'd look at the generic Focus/Astra/Gold market. All of them should fit you and two small kids, will be fairly cheap to buy & run and should be in fairly plentiful supply to make sure you have a few to choose from.

My bad, for some reason I thought we paid ?225 last year, perhaps that's what mrs.H told me she paid!!!!

Your costs are the same. Still it must go as I don't do enough motorway miles to justify it!

I have a mate selling a Picasso 2.0 deisel, 2002 model.
One owner from new, full Citroen service history, under 40k on the clock....?3500.

Dull as ditchwater, but a good family car at a decent price. Or get a Modeo estate. My N reg 1.8 TD modeo estate (in white....alltogether now...GHOSTBUSTERS!), get me 450 - 475 miles per tank, and thats mainly around town.

My wife had a picasso once and couldn't stop crashing it! Great car for the kids crap though!

Originally Posted by krhall

My wife had a picasso once and couldn't stop crashing it! Great car for the kids crap though!

Our main family car is a Picasso. They are built to a budget, for sure. On the other hand, I think they do what they do well. We have the 1.6 petrol, which is a little thirsty. She won't let me have an L200 though.