I have a 2013 VW Transporter (camper-converted) and a 2018 Audi S3, which serve our current family needs well. My wife doesn't drive the van.
We live in a city centre, just on the very edge of a new low emissions zone. Soon, many of the van's journeys will become chargeable at £9 a pop (it's Euro 5).
At the same time, our kids' activities and possibly a new school run mean we are likely to do more urban driving, which is hard on the S3. I'm also doing more care visits to my parents, which is a 100+-mile round trip.
So, I've been thinking of buying a small car and keeping the van for camping and leisure trips, with the S3 doing longer distance stuff. One of the three vehicles would be stored in a local lock-up at any one time, a short walk from the house.
I was all set to get something for ~£5k, like a VW Up. However, I've been offered my father-in-law's 2014 Golf GT. It's a nicely spec'd car, 80k miles with full history and likely at trade price of around £5.5-6k because its cosmetics aren't great... But it's a non-ULEZ-compliant 2.0 TDI 150.
Should I consider the Golf over a ULEZ-compliant but much more basic city car? Despite being Euro 5, it could still be useful if driven carefully around the clean air zone boundary and, unlike the van, my wife would actually drive it.
Golf +
- known car, much nicer thing than an Up, trade price
- already has a few scratches etc
- have S3, my legs or bike for city centre
- could sell at cost / small profit for the foreseeable future
Golf -
- clean air zone issues
- no easier to park than the S3
- won't use it much on long runs, leading to possible DPF issues
- higher repair costs than a city car
Your views? Thanks
We live in a city centre, just on the very edge of a new low emissions zone. Soon, many of the van's journeys will become chargeable at £9 a pop (it's Euro 5).
At the same time, our kids' activities and possibly a new school run mean we are likely to do more urban driving, which is hard on the S3. I'm also doing more care visits to my parents, which is a 100+-mile round trip.
So, I've been thinking of buying a small car and keeping the van for camping and leisure trips, with the S3 doing longer distance stuff. One of the three vehicles would be stored in a local lock-up at any one time, a short walk from the house.
I was all set to get something for ~£5k, like a VW Up. However, I've been offered my father-in-law's 2014 Golf GT. It's a nicely spec'd car, 80k miles with full history and likely at trade price of around £5.5-6k because its cosmetics aren't great... But it's a non-ULEZ-compliant 2.0 TDI 150.
Should I consider the Golf over a ULEZ-compliant but much more basic city car? Despite being Euro 5, it could still be useful if driven carefully around the clean air zone boundary and, unlike the van, my wife would actually drive it.
Golf +
- known car, much nicer thing than an Up, trade price
- already has a few scratches etc
- have S3, my legs or bike for city centre
- could sell at cost / small profit for the foreseeable future
Golf -
- clean air zone issues
- no easier to park than the S3
- won't use it much on long runs, leading to possible DPF issues
- higher repair costs than a city car
Your views? Thanks