Cheapest Car to run and own

[Osmoliver]

The title says it all I think. What's the cheapest shed you can buy and run?

The downside of interesting and high performance sheds is that both insurance and tax can be quite costly and if anything does go wrong parts may be hard to come by or at a premium.

I'm currently looking for the cheapest car I can buy and run for primarily city centre driving with at least 4 doors and will more than likely end up using it for autotesting too.

So far, I'm thinking a Toyota Aygo/Citroen C1/Peugeot 107 is hard to beat. £20 road tax for the year, one of the lowest insurance groups, very good fuel consumption and parts appear to be very cheap.

I'm also thinking that having a low performance runabout will make driving weekend cars more of an event.

What's everyone else's thoughts?

[Pica-Pica]

The conventional view is ‘the one you already own’.

[Osmoliver]

Pica-Pica said:

The conventional view is ‘the one you already own’.

I'd agree in the majority of cases. For me personally, I only have 2 seater cars at the moment and 4+ seats would be a welcome change.

How about we imagine you don't already own a car and want to buy a car and run it as cheaply as possible?

[designforlife]

mx5s can be run on a shoestring if you can find a non-rusty one.

even engines and gearboxes cost relative pennies (£200ish and about £90 respectively).

I had one 6 years and it was generally very reliable and i did a good 10k miles a year, there isn't really anything expensive that goes wrong barring rust.

[Osmoliver]

designforlife said:

mx5s can be run on a shoestring if you can find a non-rusty one.

even engines and gearboxes cost relative pennies (£200ish and about £90 respectively).

I had one 6 years and it was generally very reliable and i did a good 10k miles a year, there isn't really anything expensive that goes wrong barring rust.

You're right about that, I currently own one! I've got an NA 1.6l and insurance is pretty damn cheap, but the road tax is now £255 a year. You've also hit the nail on the head about rust, mine is in need of some attention.

They are fantastic cars and I would recommend any car enthusiast to own one at some point. I'm just looking for something a little more practical now to run on the same shoestring budget.

[Pica-Pica]

Osmoliver said:

Pica-Pica said:

The conventional view is ‘the one you already own’.

I'd agree in the majority of cases. For me personally, I only have 2 seater cars at the moment and 4+ seats would be a welcome change.

How about we imagine you don't already own a car and want to buy a car and run it as cheaply as possible?

In that case, and if it is short town journeys, then I would consider an UP! or a Fabia. The Fabia would seat four comfortably, and be capable of motorway runs too. For a start look at cars shorter than 4 metres. A Fiesta would perhaps be more fun out of town, but not as efficient, spacewise, as some others. The problem with smaller cars, is getting the features you really want without ‘packages’ that bundle in things you don’t want.
It largely depends if you want a work-a-day car or something a bit more left field.
So I would limit a search to,
Under 4 metres
5 speed manual
Petrol under 1.2 litre

[designforlife]

I would suggest an old CJ mitsubishi colt then, parts are similarly cheap to mazda, the rear chassis legs can be a bit prone to rust, but other than that they are solid little cars.

And the best bit is you can usually pick a decent one up for £600-800.

I think they're quite a good looking 90s jap hatch, I had the coupe version and loved it.

[Osmoliver]

Pica-Pica said:

In that case, and if it is short town journeys, then I would consider an UP! or a Fabia. The Fabia would seat four comfortably, and be capable of motorway runs too. For a start look at cars shorter than 4 metres. A Fiesta would perhaps be more fun out of town, but not as efficient, spacewise, as some others. The problem with smaller cars, is getting the features you really want without ‘packages’ that bundle in things you don’t want.
It largely depends if you want a work-a-day car or something a bit more left field.
So I would limit a search to,
Under 4 metres
5 speed manual
Petrol under 1.2 litre

The cheapest UP! on pistonheads is over £4k, so it's not particularly cheap to buy. A friend had one and they are great little town/city cars. The Fabia is a very good shout, there's a lot of choice around £500. Completely agree about the features comment, I think it's just something I'm going to have to accept.

designforlife said:

I would suggest an old CJ mitsubishi colt then, parts are similarly cheap to mazda, the rear chassis legs can be a bit prone to rust, but other than that they are solid little cars.

And the best bit is you can usually pick a decent one up for £600-800.

I think they're quite a good looking 90s jap hatch, I had the coupe version and loved it.

The old CJ Mitsubishi Colt does look like a cool car, very 90s retro. Sadly, they only made it in a 3 door though.

[designforlife]

okay how about a mitsubishi lancer estate? I was looking at these as a daily, very cheap and dead reliable.

Bit unusual too

https://www.gumtree.com/p/mitsubishi/mitsubishi-la...

[kieranblenk]

A 5 door K11 Micra would probably be cheap to run, alternatively a Chevrolet Matiz 0.8 is only £30 car tax but isn't a particularly nice car.

Other options I'd suggest are:
Suzuki Alto
Kia Picanto
Daihatsu Charade

All should be pretty reliable and cheap to keep going.

[davek_964]

Ironically, the cheapest car I own and run is actually the most expensive / valuable. I've been lucky enough that in the 5 years I've owned it, it's appreciated significantly - enough so that if I sold it tomorrow, it would have paid for itself - including tax and insurance.

Of course, prices might crash tomorrow - but if you get it right (or are lucky, which was my case) you can have some cars which are definitely not cheap to buy, but are great fun to drive and can be essentially free to own.

[joshcowin]

I own a mk1 Skoda Fabia Vrs (diesel)

Cheap to buy, good on fuel, reliable, parts are plentiful, buy a tidy example and you should be fine!

We have put 60k miles on ours with nothing but routine servicing and tyres

I recon its been cheaper to run than the fiesta I had before it whilst being a better car!

[Mo28]

Something small and Japanese, Like a Toyota Yaris or Honda Jazz