{"id":659720,"date":"2026-10-19T21:52:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T21:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/659720\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T21:52:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T21:52:12","slug":"i-have-driven-a-company-car-for-years-but-am-about-to-retire-what-should-i-buy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/659720\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I have driven a company car for years but am about to retire. What should I buy?’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Paddy Comyn<\/p>\n

AS THE FACE of DoneDeal Cars and with 25 years\u2019 experience in the industry, Paddy Comyn is \u2018the\u2019 car guy<\/a> to everyone in his life and he has widened out that role to you, The Journal readers.<\/p>\n

In his Car Clinic series, he answers all your motoring questions and queries. Have one? Send it with the subject line CAR CLINIC to motoring@thejournal.ie \u2013 we will publish all answers on Mondays on The Journal. (Your questions will be anonymised.)<\/p>\n

Please let Paddy know what your budget is if you\u2019re asking about your next big purchase.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s this week\u2019s question:<\/p>\n

Hi Paddy,<\/p>\n

I\u2019m about to retire. I have been driving a company car for years, so will be buying myself a car after I retire. I have always remained as a named driver on my wife\u2019s car insurance so I have a record of a clean driving record for reference when getting my own insurance policy.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m looking for something reliable, reasonably economical to run.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m looking to spend around \u20ac50,000 for a used Volvo XC60 PHEV or maybe a RAV4 PHEV or HEV.<\/p>\n

I will have a home charger installed if needed. I have Solar already.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not completely locked in on those two, something similar to that would also be considered.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Firstly, happy retirement. The two cars that you mention are really solid choices, in particular I really like the RAV4 PHEV which for me is one of the best PHEV models around. Your \u20ac50,000 budget will get you a 2025 RAV4 PHEV with pretty low mileage from a main Toyota dealer.<\/p>\n

This is without doubt one of the best plug-in hybrid cars on the market, so your instincts are really good. They are quite hard to find though but there are a few in your price range on DoneDeal Cars<\/a> right now and you won\u2019t have to go back too far, with a 2024 or 2024 well within your budget.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t be afraid of higher mileage with these either as they are superb. If I was buying a used PHEV this is what I would buy, but let\u2019s look at a couple of others.<\/p>\n

You could have a 2025 or 2026 Volkswagen Tiguan PHEV<\/a> within your budget. Again, another lovely car and you could definitely get into a 2026 model with little or no miles for your budget and that would be an appeal. The latest Tiguan is very refined, has a lovely interior and good infotainment and the EV-only range is now genuinely very impressive thanks to a larger battery.<\/p>\n

The Volvos you mention are of course an option but you will have to go back a few years to work within your budget. You might be back to a 2024 to get a low-mileage XC60 PHEV, which is fine if you aren\u2019t planning to do high mileage, but I also have to ask if you aren\u2019t planning to do high mileage then an EV would be a good option, but maybe you don\u2019t feel like making that jump yet.<\/p>\n

The Volvo, of course, is super-refined, very safe and it looks and feels upmarket.<\/p>\n

This would be my shortlist. Of these, I\u2019d have the Toyota.<\/p>\n

Paddy Comyn is the head of automotive content and communications with DoneDeal Cars. He has been involved in the Irish motor industry for more than 25 years.<\/p>\n

Journal Media Ltd has shareholders in common with DoneDeal Ltd.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paddy Comyn AS THE FACE of DoneDeal Cars and with 25 years\u2019 experience in the industry, Paddy Comyn…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":659721,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60,6395,211944],"class_list":["post-659720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-motoring","tag-the-car-clinic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=659720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/659721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=659720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=659720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=659720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}