One For The Road: A cheap car that will be easy to upgrade soon

Stephen Le Roux needs to share a car with his wife that they can part-exchange in a few years for a more family-friendly model. They have £10,000 to spend.

A Car for the Head

Oh yes, and the car must be in Road Tax Band A and be all the usual, which is cheap to run and reliable, obviously. And Stephen points out that it might be helpful if the small car he is after could be the same make as the potential family-sized replacement. Stephen is looking for a new car, although I always feel that buying nearly-new is the best value to avoid the impact of depreciation. So what is the logical choice? I would go for a Ford Ka. A 2011 example from a Ford dealer with 4,000 miles is just £5,900. I know Stephen wants to pay zero tax, but actually £20 or £30 (for the 1.2. or 1.3 engine) with band B or C isn't bad. Then a few years down the line, part-exchange it for a Ford Focus.

A Car for the Heart

As this is part two of our time-travel One for the Road, let's go for zero tax for Stephen. In that case, let's look at the Skoda Citigo 1.0i Greentech 60PS model. This qualifies for Band A with emissions of 96 CO2 g/km. With the introduction of first-year road-tax rates, this means that the road tax will be free, then after the first year it will cost the standard Band A rate. Here is a small car that is incredibly spacious. Stephen and his wife Sara really don't need anything bigger. There is bags of space for shopping and anything they need for work or leisure, provided they don't take up surfing. A 2012 example in SE trim with 10 miles costs £7,979. Then, a few years later, swap for a Skoda Fabia or Octavia.

Looking to buy?

Email James Ruppert at onefortheroad@independent.co.uk, giving your age, address and phone number, details of the type of vehicle in which you are interested, and your budget.