White cars

Shouldnt we all be aiming to drive smaller, more eco friendly cars to save the planet?

Like Monica I've never bought a new car. I traded in my 10 year old Honda last year for a Volvo. My only stipulation to the salesman was not black and definitely not white. I am now the proud owner of a 3 year old dark silvery grey model. Each to her/his own, but white? No!

It is more environmental friendly to buy a second hand car. The construction of an electric car consumes the equivalent of the amount used when driving 100,000 miles.

So driving my current car, a Toyota Yaris, until it dies - and that could be another decade - by which time I will have owned it for nearly 25 years, is more environmental than buying a new electric car.

My DH's policy has always been to buy a new car, because it will be the most up to date and energy efficient. We then keep them till they give up on us, or, as in the present case, until the (German) government offered a generous grant for scrapping old, unecological cars and buying new state of the art ones.

Our previous car was on the way out anyway and we were downsizing because the kids had all left home.

As I said before, however, whether the car looked clean or not was never a criterion.

I would strongly advise against silver cars. For most of the year, they are the same colour as the road and the sky and are practically invisible.

We bought our first white car a couple of years ago. Yes it shows the dirt more quickly than our previous high shine black car, especially in the winter weather.
However, we really like the styling of the car and enjoy driving it.
So on balance, I would suggest that if you really like the car, go for the white one and wash it a bit more frequently in bad weather.
Wishing you happy and safe driving.

I get a Motability car as disabled, I'm fed up that DH very rarely cleans the cars I pay for, previously I'd do ours inside and out once a week. I've chosen a white car this time, I always get final say on colour and choice of car from scaled down list. Why white? Well I'm hoping it'll encourage DH to clean it more often without me having to keep asking that it be done. I no longer drive due to illness and disability, he uses car every day so I don't think is unreasonable to expect him to take car to drive thru car wash if he doesn't want to wash it himself. Bit disappointed some saying white cars don't show dirt as quickly as I'd hoped. ?

I just drive my car through the car wash every so often. The idea of cleaning it inside and out every week leaves me in awe. Where do you find the time?

I must say that as the main user of my car, the inside stays nice and tidy and clean, because I never leave anything in it, that could be classed as litter.

I tried 2x this week to have the disgustingly filthy car washed at Tesco car park but the wait was over 2 hours so last night, in despair, I donned the Marigolds, got out the stepladder (car's big, I'm small), floor mop & sponge, filled a bucket, turned on the hose and did it myself. Soaked from head to toe but I was pleased with the result and the garden got a bit of a soaking too. Sa8ved a few £s

RomyP you could take your car to one of these hand-wash car services. They do inside and out if you wish. They're all over the place here, can't move for them! In one of the car parks you get free parking if you choose the top level valet service.