What’s the cheapest new car in Britain? Don’t worry, you don’t have to guess: elsewhere on CarGurus website, we have a (regularly updated) list of the 10 most affordable new cars on the British market today.
At the very top of it sits the Citroen Ami. That’s a bit of a cheat, though, because while it costs just £7,695, it’s not actually a proper car: it has only two seats, no luggage space, and a top speed of just 28mph, so you can’t really use it for anything more than zipping around town. Even the law of the land refers to it as a quadricycle, rather than a car.
No, the title of cheapest ‘proper’ new car on the market today is actually held by two models: the Dacia Spring and the Leapmotor T03. Both are pint-sized electric cars that can seat four people in (relative) comfort, and with around 100 miles of real-world range each, both are capable of taking on longer trips out of town. And while the makers of both cars are currently offering large-but-temporary discounts to make them even cheaper - and as a result, which is actually cheaper changes on an almost weekly basis - both have a basic list price of a smidgen under £16,000, with just a fiver separating them.
But surely, if you’re spending that kind of money - which is still a vast sum to most of us - you want a bit more than just bare-minimum transport which, with the best will in the world, both of these cars are.
Well, I know I certainly would. Which is why if I had that budget, I’d spend it on a nearly-new car instead.
Which got me to thinking: what’s the best deal you can get on a nearly-new car for a similar price - or maybe an even lower one - to the Spring or T03? And so, off to the CarGurus classifieds I swiftly went…
Top of the list would have to be a Fiat 500e. In concept, the 500e isn’t far removed from the Dacia and Leapmotor: it, too, is a city car with seating for four. However, the 500 can manage around 150 miles of range in the real world, and it’s also a much more desirable car, with fashionable styling, lots of beautiful design touches both inside and out, and a much better infotainment system. So it was a pleasant surprise to discover just how cheap these cars are getting on the second-hand market.
Take the example I found: a 2024 Icon, which would set you back £20,995 brand new. But this one’s just had its price slashed by the dealer to £13,100. That’s a whopping £2,480 less than its CarGurus Instant Market Value - or IMV - which is to say, our estimate of what the car’s really worth.
So that’s a better, more stylish, longer-range car, for considerably less than the new one, just for accepting a car that’s done a measly 9,000 miles, instead of one that’s showroom fresh.
And the savings don’t end there. Fancy something bigger? How about a Vauxhall Mokka Electric? There are quite a few good deals on these at the moment simply because the market is slightly over-saturated, but the best I found is a 2024 Design with just 7,500 miles on the clock going for £13,825: that’s £2,213 less than its IMV.
This is a handsome electric SUV you can comfortably carry your family around in for less than a brand-new city car, and it’s only just turned a year old.
But what if you don’t want to go electric? Thankfully, there are still some brilliant deals to be had.
A 2025 Dacia Sandero Stepway with just 1,700 miles on the clock caught my eye, too. It’s on at £13,999 – £1,779 below its IMV – which makes this a stonking buy.
This one’s a size up from the Spring and T03 city cars, which means you’ll get far more space. Indeed, while the Sandero isn’t quite up there with the best small cars in terms of its interior quality, it’s still a car we rate because it gives you so much practicality for your money: and all the more so, in this case.
But what if you want to maximise your warranty cover regardless of whether you’re buying new or used? Well, look no further than the 2025 Toyota Aygo X I found. It’s essentially a city car with rugged SUV-inspired styling - comparable to the Spring and T03 in size and stature, then - but the Aygo X is much sweeter to drive. And while my chosen example has a measly 1,500 miles on the clock, it’s on for £13,990 – £1,494 less than its IMV – which makes it an utter bargain.
However, Toyota’s warranty offering is what makes the Aygo X really stand out, although for transparency, it should be said that Leapmotor and Dacia already do better-than-average here. While many carmakers we could name provide no more than bare-minimum three-year, 60,000-mile coverage, Leapmotor provides coverage for four years or 60,000 miles, whichever happens first. Dacia goes a step further: it comes with bog-standard three-year, 60,000-mile cover initially, but when you take your car to a Dacia dealer to be serviced, your cover is automatically topped up by another one year or 18,000 miles, up to a maximum of seven years or 75,000 miles.
Toyota, however, does even better. Like Dacia, the brand tops up its initial three-year, 60,000-mile warranty, by a year or 10,000 miles, every time your car is serviced according to schedule at an official dealer (Toyota was actually the first carmaker to offer service-activated automatic warranty extensions in the UK). However, Toyota’s extended cover runs up to a maximum of ten years and 100,000 miles.
In other words, here’s a nearly-new car with a longer warranty than either of the brand-new alternatives.
The potential nearly-new savings aren’t limited to just small cars, either. What would you say if I told you you could buy a nearly-new family-sized hatchback dating from 2024 – and indeed, one of the most comfortable ones out there – for just £12,750?
It’s a Citroën C4, in 1.2-litre You! form. Yes, this is the entry-level version, but you still get most of the mod cons you could need, including air conditioning, cruise control, and Android Auto/Apple CarPlay, thrown in.
This one’s done 14,000 miles, which means it should still feel as fresh as a daisy, yet it’s still on at a huge £1,872 less than its IMV.
Just think what you could do with all that change. I hear Gran Canaria’s nice at this time of year…