Motorists are foregoing style, size and colour when it comes to buying a car, opting instead to search for the most economical car within their budget, research by Carmony.co.uk has revealed.

Interestingly, petrol electric hybrid cars proved very popular with searches increasing by 32% year on year.

The findings, based on searches performed on the approved used car website in March 2011 compared with March 2010, show an increase in searches based on budget and fuel efficiency; searches for cars priced between £5,000 and £10,000 rose by 40%, whilst searches for cars achieving over 40mpg increased by 36%.

Searches for petrol cars decreased by a fifth compared with March 2010, whilst diesel fuel cars made up for nearly 80% of total fuel searches in March 2011.

“Although Britain was gripped by recession at the start of 2010, the long term impact of the country’s economic difficulties hasn’t gone away,” said commented Neil Packham at Carmony.co.uk.

“In the past year we’ve seen a new coalition government, a rise in tax, VAT and fuel duty, and job cuts across many sectors. Motorists have been hit hard and those looking to buy a car have to make their budget stretch even further.

“It’s not just the outright price of the car that motorists have to consider. Motorists are becoming more savvy when it comes to running costs and the change in search habits on Carmony.co.uk reflects this. It’s so important to understand how much it will cost to actually own a car and the more prepared a driver can be about the potential costs, the better.”
 

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