Buying a new car at an affordable price is becoming an increasing challenge for many consumers. The automotive market has seen a notable increase in vehicle costs, posing serious problems for those looking to purchase a car for personal use.
With price increases of more than 30% in most brands, according to the Organization of Consumers and Users (OCU), accessing a new car is a decision that requires a much deeper analysis than it seems. The restrictions of low emission zones (ZBE) also represent additional complexity when choosing the right vehicle.
To facilitate the work of consumers, the OCU has published on its website a list of the five cheapest cars on the Spanish market by engine type. Cars with a gasoline engine and a C label are the cheapest at the time of purchase, although electric cars can be profitable in the long run if they are charged at home and used intensively, highlights the OCU.
The organization highlights that there are large price differences depending on the type of motorization. He cites as an example that purchasing the cheapest gasoline or gas car costs less than half the price of purchasing the cheapest plug-in hybrid.
Cars with the C environmental label from the General Directorate of Traffic (DGT) can circulate in most of the low-emission zones that all Spanish cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants must have ready before the end of the year. Although in the future they could be banned from entering city centers, the OCU hopes that they will be able to continue circulating through the ZBEs if the DGT begins to assign labels based on emissions, as the organization has requested.
Small diesels stand out for their low consumption, although their purchase price is higher than gasoline models. The price differences between vehicles with these two engines have widened in recent years, due to the complex anti-pollution systems of diesel vehicles. The gap between the two is about 3,000 euros.
These models are not true hybrids, since their battery is quite small and represents little difference in consumption compared to the same car without hybridization. Despite this, they have an Eco label, despite being a large displacement car, as the OCU has reported.
Cars in this category provide a reduction of around 30% in consumption, although this is especially noticeable in the city. They are significantly more expensive than traditional engine models.
Vehicles that run on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) are not very popular in Spain although it is the most used alternative fuel in the world. They provide two fundamental advantages: their low emissions and the use of a more economical fuel. In addition, they have the Eco label from the DGT.
As is the case with mild hybrid cars, their labeling as zero emissions is controversial, since the consumption and emissions of plug-in hybrids depend greatly on whether they are truly used electrically. Their price is high, even above purely electric models, but they offer the advantage that if they run out of autonomy in electric mode they can always resort to the combustion engine.
Electric cars, despite being the cheapest to use and the least polluting, still have little presence in Spain. The relative scarcity of charging points and an extra cost of 10,000 euros in relation to an equivalent gasoline model are holding it back. The emergence of some Chinese brands has helped to energize the market, but they have done so in a segment that moves away from this OCU proposal of presenting the cheapest models.