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Hi,

I am currently driving a 2002 Peugeot 307 three-door 1.6 petrol with 63,000 miles on the clock. Having a son now makes the three doors pretty impractical and the car is expensive to run. I was taken in by Renault's recent ad campaign for the 'Carculator'. It compares all your outgoings on your car with the costs of running a brand new Renault. The problem is, although I could probably purchase say a new Mégane for about the same money per month as my current outgoings on the Peugeot, this involves a deposit of about €6-7k. The Peugeot is only worth about €1,500-2k at best in trade in and I don't have that much extra cash to throw at it.

This got me thinking though, I should be able to purchase a 2-3 year-old car that is substantially cheaper to run and still be able to make repayments on a loan. My current costs on the Peugeot are €514 on tax, about €900 on petrol to cover 4,500 miles annually, approx €600 on servicing plus it needs two new tyres at €130, and €55 on NCT. This comes in at €2,200 for the year. This is where I would like your help. I am sure there are cars that would cost €800-900 a year to run including all these costs, which leaves me with €1,300-1,400 to cover loan repayments for the year.

Can you suggest a car with low tax, far better fuel efficiency, low servicing costs that won't need an NCT for a few years and that with a €2k trade-in, will have relatively low monthly repayments over say five years? I know it's asking a lot but with your knowledge of the market, I hope there might be some possibilities for me.

Thanks,

Rowland (Dublin 5)

How much would I get to trade in a 2007 Volkswagen Passat 1.6 with 105,000km on the clock?