I exchanged notes with fellow Porsche owner Julian, who was interested in my recent dealership experience. The one where I spent zero pounds. Now, Julian adores his Macan to the extent that he really ought to be doing Autocar road tests, so eloquent is he on the car. Although he did find the first full, 40,000-mile service something of a shock as it topped £2000.
Maybe rather than buying cars we like, it should be about buying cars that are cheap to service, and interested companies produce stats on this all the time. Most recently, whocanfixmycar.com pitched in and its big reveal was that the Fiat Punto is the cheapest vehicle to maintain, with drivers forking out only £255 a year in repair costs, on average. It’s super-cheap to buy, too, but there is a downside as they break down. I feel like we reject these out of hand every few months. An original 2003 one with the rectangular lights is what I want and I fell for a one-female-owner example with 74,000 miles. Just £495. They’d probably take a few quid off for a cash sale, too.
Next up was a Peugeot 206, which costs £283 a year to keep healthy, apparently. I would like one of those purely because they are disappearing fast and are quite pretty. Not the most reliable, but a simple little thing. A 2005 1.1 Zest three-door – an unwanted part-exchange with a solid 160,000 miles and pretty much a year’s MOT – looked great in the pictures, as they always do, and £390 seemed fair enough.
There is a pattern here as the next cheapie to run is an old-style box-shaped Mercedes Mercedes-Benz A-Class, which costs £289 to keep on the straight and reliable narrow. I like these as they make so much sense as a teeny family van. You need to be careful because a lot of cheap ones are a bit broken or need parts. However, a 2004 A140 Classic with 140,000 miles with history is £599.
The pattern is this: if you want cheap-to-run, you need to target relatively straightforward over-a-decade-old superminis.
Interestingly, number four in the list is a Citroën C4, which is old now but not especially simple. Still, a 2005 1.6 HDi SX C4 with 110,000 miles and advertised by a trader as being a good runner – so it has to be – is just £390.
There we were, me and the Baby Shark, full-on bombing down the A14 when there was the most almighty and quite terrifying graunchy sound from the nearside. It initially sounded mechanical, but the wind noise was the big clue.
Join the debate
Add your comment
Care needed with the A Class
Because of the way the mechanicals are packaged, parts can be rather inaccessible and labour intensive to replace.