diesel or hybrid

I am looking to change my car, and my driving is mainly dublin based, I need a decent sized car, with a reasonable sized boot, and looking at a 2008/2009 car, budget 12-14k with no trade-in.

I want a medium sized family car, 4/5 door, and want to make sure that it si econimical to run in terms of road costs, tax and fuel. My milage isn't high, about 8-10k Km per annum, and would be keeping the car for at least 4/5 years, so cost of ownership is important, as is realibility.

I am thinking about medium sized diesel (I know that my milage isn't high) but looking at the difference in road tax ona say Ford Focus 1.6d v' 1.6p and it could be a few hundred per year, also seriously considering the Toyota Prius as a lot of my driving is short journeys in Dublin city centre, so the electric is appealing.

What are peoples thoughts, as what should be in the mix, as mentioned important are boot space (dont need the size of a passat but bigger than a fiesta, so mid-sized), hatch perferably than saloon, low running and ownership costs.

I am looking at the costs in the UK, and notice that Hybrids have little VRT, so there is another plus for them, but was wondering what else should be factored into the decision.

Thanks in advance,

Diesel every time.

Hybrids are carryig a ton of batteries slow poor performance and not great performance.

prius is a poky medium size car.

Try a decent diesel here is one I found with cheap tax and in budget.
http://www.gumtree.ie/dublin/24/53182424.html

Nothing to do with me.

big car cheap tax loads of room.

thanks for that don't want French, and especially not after Mr. Henry!!!!

On the Diesel front was thinking about 2008/2009 Focus 1.6d or C-Max 1.6d, with 104/156 tax bands, and wondering what they are like reliability wise, and what like to drive, or any other recommendations.

cloughy said:

... a lot of my driving is short journeys in Dublin city centre, ..,

Click to expand...

This would tend to rule out a diesel as this kind of use can cause problems with modern vehicles fitted with DPFs - there are a least two older threads where this seems to be the case.

thanks for that, when I mean short journeys circ 10miles at a pop, the reason I are thinking about going away from Petrol is the road tax is high for a car in the same size as the Focus/Prius/C-Max, as would be 447 as opposed to 104/156, and also even though not high the mpg would also be a lot lower as city driving most of the time.

Any other suggestions as to what would be the right sort of car as know what size I want but want to try and keep the running and ownership costs down low, so any petrol suggestions welcomed, as the ffeling is diesel is not the way to go, and from previous posts they seem to indicate to stay away from the hybrid,

this is what I had in mind when I was talking about the diesel, seems very reasonable even allowing for the VRT.

http://www.cargiant.co.uk/style_familycar/Ford/details-458023-style_familycar-Ford.asp

is this car likely to cause problems with the short city driving experiences, rather than the longer runs that a diesel should be driven for.