Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

Cheapest way is to save or borrow £10-£12k and use it to buy a 3 to 4 year old car from Car Giant or similar warehouse. Then run said car until it dies or you have had enough of it.

I've only done that with ICE cars and not looked into what you would get hybrid wise for that kind of money.

Other option is to buy or lease a new car. Advantage that you get a brand new car, warranty, service plan etc. Disadvantage that it costs more (ball park £5k per year for a 3 or 4 year contract and that's basically just paying the depreciation).

My last two cars (figures are approx as from memory)

Passat 2l TDi highline, 3 years old, 18,000 miles on the clock
Bought from Car Giant for £10.5k. They gave me £400 trade in for my old mondeo which had over 100,000 miles and i'd recently driven through a flood.
Ran the car for 6 years, got £4,000 px when I bought the Skoda

Skoda Superb Estate, 2l TSi 220PS
list price £32,000 + £1,000 options
£4,000 trade in for the Passat
£2,500 dealer "contribution"
£1,000 additional discount negotiated
£360 monthly payments for 4 years
£10,500 option to buy at the end of it, which I have just done (alternative would have been to hand the car back and start another contract but I'd have needed to find a deposit and monthly payments would likely be higher).