A SURVEY into the type of cars bought by the NHS has revealed that the public sector is more careful with its cash than big businesses. While the NHS spends £75 million a year on its 'company cars', the vast majority of the cash is spent on workhorses like the humble Ford Fiesta according to Cowie Interleasing.

Cowie runs over 68,500 company cars for private and public sector organisations and supplies more than 800 separate NHS Trusts and local authorities. According to Cowie's research 43% of the cars supplied to the public sector are Fords and over 80% of those are Fiestas and Escorts driven by midwives, district nurses and junior doctors. This compares with the private sector where the most popular car is the Ford Mondeo, commanding over 50% of the Ford fleet. While the average list price of a car in the private sector is now £14,866 the average in the public sector is just £10,478.