EV or ICE 6,000 miles and £10k budget

[Centdefender]

Hi,

Looking for advice as I'm going around in circles in terms of what to go for.

Looking for a second car to be used mainly for short trips, 10 miles ISH, mainly to the remain station and some trips to shops etc. we have a SUV for getting all the kids etc in and they will only go in this second car sparingly.

Torn between either a Dacia spring, seen brand new for about 9.5k or something a little more interesting.

Needs to fit four people, be cheap to run, tax and maintenance, so something reliable is ideal.

Any help you can provide would be great.

[andrewpandrew]

Honda e.

[P675]

If you have the budget and space for a home charger, EV could work for you. If you never need to use the car to go on holiday or any long journeys, the Spring could work for you.

For example if I drove 450 miles to Inverness in a Dacia Spring it would take 14 hours, 5 of those hours are charging because the DC charge rate is quite slow (34kw). Compared to a Tesla Model 3 that would only need under an hour of charging.

Edited by P675 on Tuesday 18th November 08:59

[sagarich]

andrewpandrew said:

Honda e.

I was thinking this, but wonder if there’s a lot of tech waiting to rear a large bill when it goes wrong? I do love the idea of one though.

[FourGears]

You've answered your own question.

Dacia Spring would be ideal for yout short journeys.

[Dave Hedgehog]

kia niro with a little bit of haggling and 2 years kia warranty left, a lot more kit and lot higher quality

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202511077...

[_Hoppers]

£10k will get you something with an aluminum chassis and a carbon fiber shell, which will be more spritley than a Dacia Spring and a Honda e

Edited by _Hoppers on Tuesday 18th November 11:47

[SWoll]

FourGears said:

You've answered your own question.

Dacia Spring would be ideal for yout short journeys.

Yep. No brainer really for that use case assuming home charging not an issue. For £10k any other option will be at least 3 years old and in most cases rather leggy, the exception being the Mazda MX-30.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202510237...

[normalbloke]

i3. Small, cavernous inside, does a lot with a little as it’s so light. Be quick though, prices seem to be having a bit of a surge currently.

[andy43]

sagarich said:

andrewpandrew said:

Honda e.

I was thinking this, but wonder if there s a lot of tech waiting to rear a large bill when it goes wrong? I do love the idea of one though.

If the front door handles have been replaced with updated parts and the brake booster recall has been done there's not really any other common problems.
RWD chassis, nippy, ace interior and a good ride. If range isn't a problem (it hasn't been for us) it's a good slightly left field choice, and they're silly cheap now.

[andrewpandrew]

andy43 said:

sagarich said:

andrewpandrew said:

Honda e.

I was thinking this, but wonder if there s a lot of tech waiting to rear a large bill when it goes wrong? I do love the idea of one though.

If the front door handles have been replaced with updated parts and the brake booster recall has been done there's not really any other common problems.
RWD chassis, nippy, ace interior and a good ride. If range isn't a problem (it hasn't been for us) it's a good slightly left field choice, and they're silly cheap now.

Yeah, just had the Brake Simulator recall letter for my 2021 car this week. Beyond that (and replacing the 12v battery a few weeks ago), I've not had a single problem with it. Door handles have never been a problem and mine lives outside and is used several times a day. Great car, I still love it after all this time, just a great thing to live with.

[normalbloke]

andy43 said:

sagarich said:

andrewpandrew said:

Honda e.

I was thinking this, but wonder if there s a lot of tech waiting to rear a large bill when it goes wrong? I do love the idea of one though.

If the front door handles have been replaced with updated parts and the brake booster recall has been done there's not really any other common problems.
RWD chassis, nippy, ace interior and a good ride. If range isn't a problem (it hasn't been for us) it's a good slightly left field choice, and they're silly cheap now.

I love the Honda e. It was between that and the i3 but the Honda didn’t quite have the range for our needs. Great looking car though.

[fido]

We have a hybrid Jazz for station runs and as a small van. Okay a bit more than 10k unless you get an early one with high mileage but it's mega reliable and a nice car to sit in.

[Skodillac]

Gotta be a Nissan Leaf. Reliable, cheap to buy and run, spacious for 4 or 5 people, not crazy large externally.

I'm on my third one.

[Ian_SW]

For a boring sensible second car which never needs to do very long journeys, an EV makes a lot more sense than a secondhand shopping trolley type petrol hatchback.

Personally, I'd avoid the new Dacia spring and make use of the heavy depreciation on something like a MX30 or e-2008 and have a 2-3 year old less tinny and more capable car, but that's more personal choice than any rational argument either way.

However, this is PH, and if this is a low mileage second car, it's worth pointing out that there are also 48 Porsches, 36 cars with more than 400BHP and 21 Mazda Mx5s currently for sale on Autotrader for between £9500 and £10000.......

[Fred Smith]

P675 said:

If you have the budget and space for a home charger, EV could work for you. If you never need to use the car to go on holiday or any long journeys, the Spring could work for you.

For example if I drove 450 miles to Inverness in a Dacia Spring it would take 14 hours, 5 of those hours are charging because the DC charge rate is quite slow (34kw). Compared to a Tesla Model 3 that would only need under an hour of charging.

Edited by P675 on Tuesday 18th November 08:59

I hope under an hour of driving actually means "5 minutes" otherwise that makes a Tesla look really really poor compared to a real car.

[Dog Biscuit]

sagarich said:

andrewpandrew said:

Honda e.

I was thinking this, but wonder if there s a lot of tech waiting to rear a large bill when it goes wrong? I do love the idea of one though.

not for 10k though

[Chris_i8]

i3 or Renault Zoe.

[JQ]

We had a VW e-Up for the purpose you describe, great little car that's like a Tardis on the inside but fits in the smallest of parking spaces. Great to drive too, plus you don't need a wall charger, we just used a 3 pin plug. My wife was very sorry to see it go despite the fact she had zero desire for an EV, it was just tax efficient to run through her business.

It's been replaced by a small manual ICE so we can teach both our kids to drive over the next 12 months. Having driven an EV for 2 years she now hates driving the ICE car. I can guarantee the second both kids are passed and have their own cars, she'll be back in an EV.

A 2021 Nissan Leaf in Tekna trim is a used EV bargain my my eyes and well within your budget.

[andrewpandrew]

Fred Smith said:

P675 said:

If you have the budget and space for a home charger, EV could work for you. If you never need to use the car to go on holiday or any long journeys, the Spring could work for you.

For example if I drove 450 miles to Inverness in a Dacia Spring it would take 14 hours, 5 of those hours are charging because the DC charge rate is quite slow (34kw). Compared to a Tesla Model 3 that would only need under an hour of charging.

Edited by P675 on Tuesday 18th November 08:59

I hope under an hour of driving actually means "5 minutes" otherwise that makes a Tesla look really really poor compared to a real car.

Lol, yeah you're not a troll are you