How to choose a car: the six answers that actually decide it
Most buying advice starts with body styles. That is the wrong end. Six honest answers about the journeys you already make will rule out four cars in five before you open a single specification sheet.
Start with the driving you already do
The most expensive mistake in car buying is buying for the year you are about to have rather than the year you just had. The seven-seater bought for the summer holiday does the school run with five empty seats and a five-metre body on a street laid out for something shorter. The big battery bought for one drive to the coast gets hauled to work and back all year.
So answer for the journeys you made last month. A hire van for one weekend a year is cheaper than the wrong car for four years.
The six questions
Who is in the car most weeks?
Just you, two of you, a small family, five or more, or you plus a lot of kit? Seats are structural, so this is the hardest filter to cheat. The catalogue runs from 2 seats to 7, median 5. Carry a sixth and seventh passenger weekly and you have already ruled out most of the market.
What goes in the back?
Name the thing you carry most often, not the thing you carry once a year. A buggy, a dog crate, a double bass all have hard dimensions. Boot volume here runs from 130 litres to 1,844, median 451 — and the shape of the opening decides as much as the number.
Where does it sleep, and where does it park?
A driveway, a garage, a street space you compete for, an older multi-storey? Length settles this. The catalogue spans 1,423 mm from shortest to longest, 3,595 against 5,018 mm — the difference between slotting into a gap and going round the block again.
What is the longest day you do, and how often?
Not the longest trip you can imagine: the longest one you made this year, and how often. Range here runs 225 km to 1,200 km on a full tank or charge, median 880. A car that covers 400 km between stops is a different purchase from one that covers 900.
Do you tow, load or climb?
Braked towing runs from 0 kg to 3,500 kg here, ground clearance from 120 mm to 291 mm. Both are capability you carry as weight, fuel and tyre wear on every trip, not only the ones that need it. If you tow, get the trailer's laden weight before you shop.
What is the number you will not go past, per month?
Not the windscreen price: the monthly cost of the car losing value, plus what it takes to keep on the road. That second figure alone runs from €72 to €265 a month here — about €2,300 a year between two cars that both do the job.
Those six answers are what the finder asks, in that order, and it re-ranks all 101 cars after each one so you can see which answer is doing the work.
Turning the answers into numbers
Each answer converts into a figure you can shop on. A specification sheet will happily agree with you about a car thirty centimetres too long for the space outside your house.
| What you do | The number to shop on | Where the list sits |
|---|---|---|
| Two of you, weekend bags | Boot from about 350 L | Median 451 L; smallest here 130 L |
| Small family, buggy and shopping | Boot from 450 L, five usable seats | Half the list clears 451 L |
| Six or seven travelling weekly | Seven seats | Seats run 2 to 7, median 5 |
| Tight street or older car park | Length under about 4.4 m | Lengths 3,595–5,018 mm, median 4,395 |
| A long day with no planned stop | Range above your longest day | Range 225–1,200 km, median 880 |
| Caravan, horsebox, plant trailer | Braked towing above the laden trailer | Towing 0–3,500 kg, median 1,300 |
Body style is where most shortlists go wrong. SUVs are 51 of the 101 cars here — half the list — which reflects what the industry builds, not what your household needs. An estate of the same length usually gives a longer, squarer load bay and a lower roof, which costs less energy to push. SUV, hatchback or estate takes the three apart.
Prepared answers that start from a journey rather than a category:
What the money actually buys
Price does not buy speed in any useful sense. The catalogue's 0–100 km/h times run from 5.0 to 14.9 seconds, and nothing about a commute separates those ends. What money buys, in order, is space, then range, then refinement, then capability you may never call on, and only then pace. The list runs from €16,500 to €85,000 with a median of €34,000, and almost everything that changes what a car can do happens in the bottom half.
| Band | What it buys here | What is still out of reach |
|---|---|---|
| Under €20,000 | Starts at €16,500 for petrol, €18,900 for electric. Small, light, five seats at most. | Space, long range, towing weight. |
| €20,000–35,000 | Where most of the list lives. Hybrids open at €21,000, plug-ins at €28,000, median car €34,000. | The longest ranges and heaviest towing. |
| €35,000–55,000 | Size, range and capability, not pace. Petrol tops out at €48,000; diesel starts at €38,000. | Very little a household needs. |
| Over €55,000 | Power, finish and badge. The list ends at €85,000 and 378 hp. | Nothing. Want, not need. |
This project also scores every car 0–100 for comfort, technology, reliability, safety and driving fun. Those are judgements made here, not measurements: comfort runs 44–88, technology 34–92, reliability 54–93, safety 42–94, fun 30–96. Use them to sort a shortlist, not to settle an argument.
One thing from that table: the step from €16,500 to €35,000 changes what a car can do for you; the step from €55,000 to €85,000 changes how it feels doing it. Only one is worth stretching for. How much to spend does the arithmetic.
The three mistakes that cost the most
Shopping on the windscreen price
Two cars at €34,000 do not cost the same. Depreciation here runs from 8% to 19% a year — on €34,000, a difference of about €8,400 over three years, half the price of the cheapest car on the list. Add the running-cost spread of €72 to €265 a month and the same three years can differ by roughly €15,000. Depreciation explained shows how to spot the fast fallers.
Buying a body shape instead of a load bay
A raised ride height genuinely helps if you get in and out with a bad back or a child seat, and genuinely costs weight, height and the air the car pushes. Decide which you are buying. If the answer is space, measure the boot opening and the load length rather than reading the litres: a volume figure says nothing about whether the buggy fits between the wheel arches.
Buying range and capability you use four times a year
A bigger battery, a bigger tank, all-wheel drive and a 3,500 kg tow rating all weigh something, and you carry that weight on every journey, not only the ones that need it. All-wheel drive is standard on 11 of the 101 cars here and optional on 39 more, so it is a decision rather than a given. Whether the tank or the battery is right at all is the fuel question .
How to test the choice
A ten-minute loop around the dealership tells you the seat is comfortable for ten minutes. Ask for an hour, take your own route, and do these five things deliberately.
- Park it where you will park it. Not a wide showroom bay: your street, your garage, the space at work. Length and rear visibility are what no brochure tells you.
- Put the thing you actually carry in the boot. The buggy, the dog crate, the cello. A boot either takes it or it does not.
- Fit the child seat. Isofix points vary in how buried they are and rear doors vary in how far they open. Do it in the car park, not at home.
- Drive your worst road: the broken surface, the speed bumps, the slip road you join at speed. Ride quality and noise at motorway speed are what you live with.
- Sit in the back for five minutes while someone else drives. If anyone travels there regularly, their verdict decides the car.
How to test-drive a car has the full checklist, including cars sold online and delivered to the door. If the seller will not let you test properly, that is information too.
Questions readers ask
- Should I decide the fuel first?
- No. Decide the size and the journeys first, then the fuel. The fuel question has one honest answer and it depends on where the car sleeps and how far it goes in a day, which means it is a filter you apply to a shortlist rather than the thing that makes one. Deciding it first is how people end up with an electric car and nowhere to plug it in.
- Is an SUV safer?
- Body shape is a weak predictor either way. A taller car gives a better view and more structure ahead of you in some impacts; it is also heavier, takes longer to stop and is more prone to roll. This project scores safety 0–100 by judgement rather than by crash testing, so for a specific car look up the independent rating for that exact model and year.
- New or used?
- Depreciation is the largest single cost of owning a new car — 8% to 19% a year in this catalogue — and buying used means someone else has already paid it. The case for new is the warranty, a known history and finance terms you cannot get privately. If you change cars every three years, the depreciation is effectively the purchase, and used almost always wins.
- How many seats do I really need?
- Count the people who travel weekly, not the ones who travel at Christmas. Seven-seaters trade boot space for the last row: with all seven seats up, the space behind them is usually small. Five seats plus a hired people carrier twice a year is cheaper than seven seats for 365 days.
- Do I need all-wheel drive?
- For most European driving, no. Fifty-one of the 101 cars here are two-wheel drive and they cope. All-wheel drive helps you set off on a slippery surface; it does not help you stop, because stopping is a matter of tyres and weight. If you meet real snow or a steep unmade track, proper winter tyres are the cheaper first answer.