I currently have no need to access a car for work.

This is something that may very well change in the near future.

We currently have a 2007 plate Honda Civic diesel as our only car – 40k on the clock.

It is likely that the work requirement will be a minimum of 300 miles a week up to 500 miles.

It is expected that 60% of the fuel cost will need to come from me as it will be a commute rather than business miles.

Now do I take the hit and use our Civic and just put up with the high(ish) costs to maintain it or look to buy a cheaper car?

I get 56MPG on a consistent basis but the running costs are I guess going to be higher than a Citreon C1* for example.

A low mileage C1* can be picked up for about £4k around these parts.

Do I look to go even cheaper into banger territory?

Sadly a lease scheme or similar isn’t available 🙁

Any help and or thoughts would be much appreciated.

* Only used as an example of a car I know to be reliable and economical

the honda will outlast the c1 in terms of build quality esp once the miles start piling on

look after it it will look after you.

a c1 will not be economic when your ringing the neck off it to get it to keep up with traffic.

running 1 good car and changing it when needs be is cheaper than running 2 just to save the civic for best …..

and 56mpg is a good MPG tbh – at a complete guess youd need to double the mpg to make it worth while selling up and moving on – better the devil you know n all that – can always reevaluate the needs when the hondas needing replaced.