Looking to buy a new car in 2025? Not sure whether you should go electric, or stick with diesel? What about hybrid power? Do you need seven seats? Or do you want to find a good home for that Christmas bonus and really treat yourself? Well, look no further – here, we present our recommendations for the motoring year 2025.
So, what to buy as a second car?
Consider the Nissan Leaf
The current Nissan Leaf – launched way back in this second-generation form back in 2017 – is no one’s idea of a cutting edge electric car.
Its 40kWh and 62kWh battery packs were designed to older blueprints, and it just can’t deliver the one-charge range of its more modern rivals.
However, the Leaf is also arrestingly cheap – €23,495 gets you a basic 40kWh model – and so the arithmetic changes somewhat, as it becomes the perfect second car.
Keep it charged up on the driveway and the relatively brief 275km range will be fine for runs to the shop, sprints to the airport, and whatever other mundane daily duties you ascribe to it.
While the price isn’t super-low or anything, the Leaf is bigger and more practical than any other EV that’s close to it in price terms, and it’s actually not a bad thing to drive, once you quell the butterflies of range anxiety.
Plus: Sharp pricing, good quality, lots of space.
Minus: Short range, old tech.
Equals: An ideal second car.
Also try: Toyota Yaris Cross
The cute and cuddly Yaris Cross is actually not as small as you think – in fact, it’s all-but identical in overall size to the original 1990s RAV4, but everything else has grown up around it. The cute styling makes it look smaller still, but actually there’s quite a spacious cabin and a useful boot inside, and while it’s no ball of fire to drive, the 1.5-litre hybrid engine has the ability to hit 4.5-litres per 100km or better if driven gently.
If your everyday motor is some big, prestigious SUV that’s built like a pit bull, then the Yaris Cross is the ideal lapdog to keep it company on the driveway.
Skoda Octavia Combi
Updated this year – new lights, some interior tweaks, but nothing to scare off more traditional buyers – the Octavia has actually been the second-best selling car in Ireland in 2024, at a time when according to all experts we’re supposed to be buying nothing but SUVs.
The standard Octavia hatchback has an utterly massive boot, with 600 litres, but this Octavia Combi estate can swallow 640 litres, or 1,700 litres with the back seats folded. That gives it astonishing second-car credentials as you have the leeway to run something sportier and more driver-focused as your everyday wheels, while the Octavia awaits duty as an airport hack, an IKEA specialist, or as the meister of the recycling run.
To be honest, calling the Octavia a ‘second car’ is a blatant insult to an excellent machine, but it just seems to suit the task rather perfectly.
Wild Card: Fiat 500
It’s true that there’s a lot wrong with the Fiat 500. For a start, it’s been in production since 2007, so in motoring terms it’s ironically ready for a bus pass. It’s also cramped inside, has an incredibly awkward driving position, and is far from the most enjoyable front-wheel drive hatchback to steer.
However, there’s just an effervescent character here that we can’t overlook, and that’s an increasing rarity in the modern motoring world. The dinky hybrid engine is super-efficient, and the styling just begs you to drive it in the true Italian fashion – at maximum revs at all times. It shouldn’t be good, but we can’t help but love it.
