USED ULEZ CARS TOP PICKS

Used car shopping is becoming even harder, because you now need to worry about low-emission zones. James Ruppert finds the best used bargains for those required to drive in the city

Choosing a used car becomes ever more complicated. Never mind the colour, the spec or finding those perfect 20in alloys, now there’s also the small matter of terrifying acronyms: ULEZ (for ultra low emissions zone) and CAZ (clean air zone). These shouldn’t be confused with any congestion charge.

Whether we like it or not, having a car with a petrol or diesel engine that complies with air-quality regulations is becoming a must. These zones already exist in London (costing £12.50) and Birmingham (£8) and are soon to come to at least a dozen more major cities, including Derby, Manchester and Newcastle upon Tyne (see more information on p51).

Get caught by the camera in the wrong car and there’s a £120 fine, so you need to know whether you have a Euro 4 petrol (usually from January 2006) or a Euro 6 diesel (usually from September 2015). However, you can’t trust the advertisement or seller when it comes to ULEZ compliance. The only places are official websites, such as urbanaccessregulations.eu, which covers the whole of Europe.

So, which ULEZ-friendly used cars should we be looking to buy?

COOL COUPES

Coupés are the only way to travel selfishly these days, or certainly to go twoup with a significant other. Indeed, a Mazda RX-8 offers proper flexibility and proof that a spinning Wankel is allowed into the city. A 2007 example that has made it to almost 90,000 miles and chunked through half a dozen owners is £2200. Otherwise, everything else is German, so let’s spend £24,995 on a 30,000-mile BMW M2 with a traffic-friendly automatic gearbox. At least it’s a handy size so fits right into urban parking slots.