Car shopping!

Cars

So many to choose from and when you have narrowed it down to one or two or a handful you then need to decide the edition, the trim, add-ons and it just seems more of a headache than it needs to be.

Rosie bought her Toyota Yaris, new, in 2005, and it’s still going. But with the launch of the new Yaris she’s been thinking it might be time to upgrade.

I bought my Vauxhall Astra, used, in 2015 and quite fancy something new and shiny too. Of course the most economic car you can have is the one you already own, provided it still works, which both of ours do.

But sometimes, it’s just time for a change, or an upgrade. And what’s the point of working hard for years and years and building up savings if you’re not going to use them on something you want? So we’re now in the market for new cars (or I may upgrade to a used car, or even not at all, we’ll see) and we’ve got some of the test drives booked in so we can have a look at what’s about and review what we’ve seen.

In my ideal world I’d probably have a Range Rover Evoque hybrid, but in the absence of the £55k or so that they start from I’m dialling down my expectations. Rosie has identified four cars she wants to test drive: Toyota Yaris, Renault Clio, Ford Fiesta and Hyundai i20. She’s already taken the Yaris for a spin which obviously led me to wander the forecourts and get doe-eyed at the new shiny cars, finding the ones I liked frustratingly within my financial reach. If they were too expensive I could easily draw a line under the experience and move on, but they’re not so here we are.

I would have liked to test drive the Toyota C-HR but that opportunity was missed when I didn’t plan on upgrading until Rosie went for her test drive. So to keep things simple, and to double-up on the appointments, I’m hoping to test drive the Renault Captur, Ford Puma and Hyundai Kona. I may still go back to have a go in the C-HR.

We’ll let you know how we get on! Let us know if there are similar cars we should consider.