I still need to own a car. I travel over 350 miles at least twice a year and 4-12 miles a week in between. In the past I have done up 18,000 miles a year and might well do again occasionally in my retirement. Too long to spend trekking to a rental company. But I am sick of Mercedes and their dealerships. Known faults with coolant and suspension systems at certain mileages blatantly denied. £1.50 part cost for a valve then costs £250 to fit by the dealer; £500 for a new water pump after 4 years; £100 charged for each front suspension spring last week when the independent garage owner told me the cost of the parts would have been less than a third of that on any other vehicle. They are simply 's******ships'.

bazomis

I simply don't like paying (more) tax to the government than I do already.

bazomis

Given your experience with the Merc, i'd have thought reliability would be your prime concern, not going into another (imo, over rated) German premium brand.

Also, your desire for cheap road tax leads down one of two roads, hybrid or electric. This would also make by far the most sense given your 800 miles annual mileage. But as you are coming from an estate and are also looking at an estate i'm assuming you want an estate?. If so, that rather limits the choice, certainly for BMW, with nothing available up to £25k. Going for another Merc, you do have the option of the C350 E which also happens to be a plug in hybrid. Again, for your useage, a plug in hybrid (rather than self charging) would make most sense. £25k would get you into a 2018 model with sensible miles. Tax on this, as far as i can tell would be £140 per annum, the some seem to be free, i think it depends on the age. About the only other option for a plug in hybrid estate up to £25k would be a VW Passat GTE.

Personally, im not the slightest bit interested in what the badge says, i'd rather get the most suitable vehcle for the job regardless of make. And, depending on just how much space you actually need, i'd very much be looking at full electric options. Nothing available as big as an E Class or 5 series estate, but if you could manage withe a Golf sized car, there are quite a few options. Including a VW E-Golf, Nissan Leaf, Kia Soul, Hyundai Ionic, and Mercedes B Class (didn't know they existed!).

It's only £475 for the first 5 years as you say so the only solution is to go a bit older really.

You could go for a pre-2017 car which would probably put you in the last of the line F11 520d which is still a very fine car indeed and has the same G47 engine as the newer model and IIRC costs £30 or less to tax. £12k-£15k should buy a very nice example which with your annual mileage should give good service for many years.

The F10 and G30 5-Series have generally proven very reliable and have few generic faults.

I

If you need a big estate, for £25k you'll be far better served by a petrol-powered Ford Mondeo, Skoda Superb or Mazda 6.

Which are all decent enough cars but, frankly, not as nice as a 5-Series.

" I travel over 350 miles at least twice a year and 4-12 miles a week in between."

That's neither 800 nor 8,000 miles a year, but still very low. With a budget of £25,000 you could get a new or nearly-new small car, say a Yaris Hybrid, and hire a bigger diesel car if you need to for the long trips. You'd still be in pocket and pay a lot less to the Government in both VED and fuel duty.

I wouldn't get too hung up on the OP's annual mileage. It's obviously extremely low.

Personally I wouldn't consider a hybrid for this use. I've seen it reported on here that hybrids which get little use can have the main vehicle battery go flat through lack of use (even if the hybrid battery is charged). If the main battery is flat the vehicle won't go. I would go for a petrol engine.

I don't see a hybrid would be of any benefit with the 350+ miles longer trips. In any case as the annual mileage is so low the MPG is pretty much irrelevant.

In response to the OP's previous replies, I do understand that you need a car and you want one car that can do everything, without dealing with hire cars for your longer trips. Personally I would be looking at less premium cars, as they are cheaper to buy, repair and have lower VED.

From your replies though, you want a premium brand. That's fine, it's your money and at the end of the day, you should buy something you like.

Buy a car for £25k - 10 years later you will have lost £20k + in depreciation - £2k pa. Add on insurance, servicing, a few repairs/replacements and it will be £3k +.pa.

Very low mileage is as damaging to a car as high mileage - albeit for different reasons.

If you are unconcerned by this, then a £25k Merc, BMW, Audi etc is just an indulgence, not a rational purchase. So why worry about VED??

Sorry, I have clearly either not explained myself properly or fail to understand how the new VED rates work.

Take the example of my current E-Class. List price almost 10 years ago was around £32,000. In 2019, the equivalent model had a list price of £39,000, being increased to over £40k in 2020. I had made the assumption that if I sourced a car with a MY where the list price in that production year was less than £40k, I would pay £165pa in VED, rather than £475.

With the example of the BMW 520d M Sport Touring, I was told the original list price of the 19/69 plate car was £44k, even although it was for sale for only £25k. I was trying to ask on here which year would have had an original price tag of just under £40k e.g. 19-plate, 18-plate or 17-plate, and therefore qualify for a lower rate of VED.

I am now having doubts! Are all makes/models since April 2017 charged at the higher VED rate if the CURRENT list price for the LATEST model of the SAME car is over £40k??

bazomis

No - if you're buying a 2017 car, it depends whether the list price in 2017 was above/below £40,000 - bear in mind that a specific car may have been under £40,000 list price but may have been optioned up above £40,000 so will pay the higher VED for the full 5 years.

So, back to my original question then - which year was a basic BMW 520d M Sport Touring (with metallic paint) last list priced at just under £40k?

And is there a known list available anywhere of all makes/models/variants/MYs and their original list prices?

bazomis

That may not be too helpful as virtually all premium cars are sold with some options, even those bought from "stock".

If you find a car you like simply go to www.vehicleenquiry.service.gov.uk and put the registration number in.

It will tell you when the additional rate applies to (if, indeed, it applies at all).

Try this one:

www.gov.uk/get-vehicle-information-from-dvla

If you enter a post-2017 car which is subject to the new tax rates it has a line which says when the higher rate applies until which you do not need to enter the V5 to get.

It is pretty simply on post-2017 cars - it can only be one of two rates so you don't really need the V5 to tell you what it is.

Spent a large part of my morning plugging possible suitable vehicles for sale registration numbers in to this site, only to find that all of you on here were correct - you cannot realistically buy any 'premium' vehicle that isn't older than 2017 MY without the additional VED rate applying.

Might keep mine for another 10 years and spend an extra £300 a year on repairs instead of coughing up the extra tax!

bazomis