The environment

Your choice of car can really help you do your bit for the environment. It’s a straight trade-off really, the bigger and more powerful the car, the more fuel it’ll guzzle - costing both you and the environment.

It’s useful to know how many miles to the gallon (mpg) your car choice manages. Taking extremes this can be as low as 14mpg for a Ferrari to over 70mpg for a small city diesel-run car. Lots of factors influence fuel efficiency but the Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA) have a comprehensive database to help you get the facts.

Fuel consumption is not the only factor, fuel choice also makes a difference – petrol, diesel, biofuel or LPG (Liquid Petroleum Gas) are the options that are now available. There are also electric or hybrid cars on the market. As with other considerations, your choice of fuel depends on what you’ll be using the car for. Some of the newer fuels are also not widely available.

It’s not just what you put in either but also what your car gives out; which brings us to emissions. All cars must now have a CO2 ranking, which tells you how much CO2 they emit per kilometre. The lower the emissions the better. And, if you do buy an eco-friendly car you’ll be rewarded. Lower emissions equals lower road tax. If your car achieves under 130g/km your road tax will be roughly a third of the normal price. Another good incentive to buy an eco-friendly model.

Technology is moving on all the time, plus production standards are getting tougher and car manufacturers are now required to produce more environmentally friendly cars. That means newer cars do have less impact on the environment. But, buying second-hand is also a way of recycling.