Want to get rid of the S reg 406 estate (we also have an 08 plate Mondeo Estate) and have been looking for a £35 tax, high 50s mpg small car.

Test driven 4 small economical cars today, Fiat Panda, Daihatsu Sirion, Kia Picanto and Peugeot 107, all work out similar costs with the deals available (i.e. it will cost us the same to buy and run one of these as we reckon the 406 will cost us for the next 12 months).

So far the best seems to be the Kia, was a bit suprised tbh felt like a much bigger car, the Peugeot felt like a real small tinny car but the other all seemed pretty good too.

Any other suggestions or recommendation?

I like the panda but a bit tight if you are trying to put a bike in the back.

Ours does everything, Euro touring, bike carrier, family trips etc…. . Its a diesel so has a bit more go than the petrols.

Had a Kia Picanto hire car last week, was surprisingly ok but felt like an older car.

If I was going for a really small car it'd be the latest diesel Panda. For slightly larger then the Honda Jazz.

Don't forget Fiat do a 4×4 Panda, the original was a brilliant little car, and a new version, (since '05, I think), would be perfect for the sort of crappy roads and weather we've had this winter.

The 4×4 Panda is really really slow and not so economical and comparibly expensive, so falls out of the running immediately :). The deal that Fiat is offering doesn't include the diesel either, and that is £120 a year tax rather than £35.

Does the tax matter that much? £85 is a drop in the ocean compared to the costs of owning a car!

No the tax doesn't matter that much, but we'd like a car that pollutes as little as possible.

Howabout a diesel C2, i have a petrol vtr, couple of bikes on the roof, boot is big enough for shopping and citroen have now replaced it with the DS3 so a few cheap deals can be done at your dealer, also the diesel one has the £35 tax band.

Puntos are big inside (or our older one was) and quite fun to drive.

Don't they do some sort of eco-Fabia? Mine is a 10yr old diesel but it's brill!

Dont for get the BMW 1 Series 118D 70+ to the gallon. And £35 a year road tax….. 8) 😆

Doesn't need to carry bikes, have a mondeo estate (with towbar mounted rack) for that.

Might check Citroen (didn't bother today because the 107 is the same as the C1), but wasn't the C2 only 3 door?

Seconds for the Fabia. Skodas are such great, undervalued cars.

Fabia Greenline is nearly 5 grand more than the Panda etc, ok it's a bigger car but we don't need a bigger car…

Ok, that's quite a difference in price but Fiats are made of cheese, whereas a Skoda is a VW built in the Czech Republic.

I've owned a Fiat and a later Alfa Romeo and they're definitely built to a price. Engines are good but the rest is so,so….

The bog standard diesel Fabias are pretty 'green', if a car can ever be green. The greenline seems like a marketing exercise to me. A friend has a diesel Fabia and it's been absolutely superb. A really well made car.

No the tax doesn't matter that much, but we'd like a car that pollutes as little as possible.

really? Buy a used one.

..dont buy a second car.

..dont buy a second car.

Ideally yes, however, not practical we both have different start and finish times at work and I have to travel a fair bit, so trying within that to come up with a resonable compromise and with some consideration for the environment. Given that we don't take foreign holidays, plus make a lot of effort to recycle and not waste things in general I think we do ok.

A second-hand car is always an option of course, but given the deals about at the moment financially it doesn't make a lot of sense when looking at some of these cars.

A 4 year old (out of warrenty) Panda 1.2 Dynamic is going to cost around £4000, we'll get sod-all for the 12 year old 406 in this deal, the claimed mph is 6 less than the current model and it kicks out 14gm/km more Carbon.

Can get a brand new one for 6995 with our car thrown in. Which makes my wife happy.

So given we put 60k miles on the 406, let's say we do the same over 6 years with the Panda, that's 97,000 km x 14gm/km = 1352kg of C02 saved.

What I don't know is how many kg of Co2 will be created when making the car… anyone?

If petrol prices stay the same, those extra 6mpg will save us £689, they will probably rise.

So we end up spending a bit over two grand for the priviledge of having a new one, with the warrenty, plus it has a higher resale value (difference in value if between an 53 and a 56 one is about £1500).

Just trying to balance it all up 😕

right, off to look at some Fabia's the morning, the 1.4tdi seems favorite, hope the reviews re it sounding like a bag of spanners in a washing machine are unfounded!

Can highly recommend the Seat Ibiza – same car as the Fabia (and VW Polo) really.

Good for you Nick being open minded regarding the Fabia. You're probably out looking already but just in case….

They are a little noisy at idle but that's nothing to be concerned about. Remember it's a VW lump so it's all good. You don't notice it when you're driving, that's for sure.

If you baulk at the price i'd go for French as they're pretty experienced with diesels and the overall build is better than Italian cars.

Good luck!

the overall build is better than Italian cars.

Well that isn't saying much is it?

😉

Loved the Fabia, but too much car for too much money, we'd have to wait for the facelift model, but the 406 needs a service, mot etc. Second hand diesel ones are hardly cheaper than a new one (which is good in a way), no deals to be had either, tested a 1.2 petrol and it was nice to drive but it was still more expensive than a brand new Panda/107/Aygo etc, and only in high 40mpg (my Mondeo estate beats them easily).

On spec we then went to the Toyota dealership, wife really liked the 107 yesterday (wasn't my favorite, but it's her car), had a go in an Aygo. Seems better (but can't be) than the 107, built in Czech republic (which is apparently a good thing 8)), £2250 off as scrappage for the 406, more economical than the Panda, higher ncap rating, cheaper servicing and insurance, better built, couple of hundred more expensive that's all, deal done, pick it up a week on Monday.

Hopefully I get to buy some bike bits as my reward for being forced to talk to car salesmen all weekend!

You could try one of the new Fiesta diesels. Yes it's a Ford, but I went from Edinburgh to Herne Bay on a tank of fuel. It averaged out at about 73 mpg, which is frickin' amazing.

get a skoda roomster, they are good on juice and we have fitted 4 people and 2 mountain bikes inside. It's the best car we have ever had.

I reckong the Roomster might be a contender when I come to give the Mondeo back (company car, might be replaced by car allowance in 18 months), as it goes we don't need another car capable of doing anything but carrying my wife to work and back and pick up the kids on the way home, which is why we went for the smallest, almost cheapest, most economical car we could find, that my wife liked the look of… 8)

New Audi A1 is out soon…

A bit off the wall but what about a used audi a2. I was looking for a car recently and tried out a few, very nice to drive lots of space inside and very economical.
Looks are a bit quirky but they grow on you. Ended up getting a used A3 as my wife wasn't as keen on the A2 as me.

I had a Hyundai Getz for a month last summer in Aus and was impressed with it, fast enough and cheap. I'd buy one of those.