I woud consider a Dacia Logan for that purpose. Your budget will buy a nice reasonable mileage one and it would be ideal as long as you're not a badge snob. They are literally everywhere on the continent, so they obviously are ok! I have even thought of one myself as a substitute van, they really are tremendous value.

My simple answer will be: Don't do it.

To rent a Ford Focus Estate or similar class C estate will be around £2k for 10 weeks all included + fuel. For 2k you can also hire something like a new Nissan Leaf if lectric is your thing.

A hatchback Focus/Astra is around £1200 for ten weeks plus fuel.

Leaving a car standing for 10 months of the year is asking for trouble (from experience and see above comment from other members).

You can SORN it if leaving it off the road but once you visit you will of course need to gear her up with all the paper work MOT/insurance and all the other ancillaries involving car ownership.

Edited by JonestHon on 30/09/2023 at 21:32

If you kept the money in the bank, it would earn you interest.

You might struggle getting car insurance without a UK address or on the electoral roll.

If you kept your car on the road, you might find the council decide to cut trees and your cars gets towed away....

There are loads of places you can get temp cover from 1 hr to 28 days, your own insurance company will prob do temp cover as well.

if you want to consider this, you can park it off road ( garage qualifies ) then you can declare it off road, but, if you do this you will have to tax it every time you come back, but you will get a refund on any mths tax unused, and you will not have to get it taxed while it is parked. You will have to make sure the person taking care of your car knows it is not allowed on a public road, or a private place where the public would ordinarily have access.

But if it is totally private ( note public bit above ) they can drive it around the farm/space. I have never stored a car before, but used temp insurance when driving cars back home after buying them. My cover allows me to drive any car 3rd party.

That is an idea, maybe ? If you know someone who has 3rd party cover and trust them enough to drive your car then perhaps they can look after it ? But, they will have to keep it off road when not driving it. Then, you only need get temp insurance for the time you use it. I have always found it handy to keep a copy of the cover in the windscreen when parked, just in case it shows up as not being insured. You can tax it for the whole year in one go, and then cancel if you are going to be away for a while, or monthly and do the same. If you do decide to do this, just use a word processor and compile a letter giving the person who is looking after your car permission to do so, just in case the po lice think it is nicked.

Edited by HGV ~ P Valentine on 04/10/2023 at 11:17