Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
At The Back => The Dressing Room => Topic started by: _tom_ on October 02, 2012, 09:18:12 AM
-
Starting to look around for a new car again as I'm spending far too much on petrol. I currently drive a Fiesta Zetec S 1.6 petrol which gets around 42-43mpg if I drive very conservatively. Not terrible but I spend £45-50 to get me to and from work for 4 days which is far from ideal. I've seen now that some cars can apparently get upto 75mpg and get around 700 miles out of one tank! I get about 375 miles, again if I'm careful and don't go above 60. My commute is all a-roads and motorway so I think I could probably get close to quoted MPGs as my commute shouldn't really be very stop-start and there's only a tiny bit of urban driving.
Any suggestions? I was looking at something like a 1.4 Polo Bluemotion TDCI or the Seat Ibiza Ecomotive but then part of what makes them so efficient is low rolling resistance tyres which I believe are more expensive. Not sure if I'd actually end up saving much what with that and apparently diesel having shorter service intervals?
Should get about £6k for my car so budget around that, and whilst saving money is important I'm not going to drive something that looks awful :lol:
-
Any of the smallish diesel VAG cars would have you well covered here. I don't believe the gains in the extra-eco ones really match the lifetime costs.
How far is your commute, by the by?
-
About 35 miles each way. Moving closer to work would cost more than fuel and I don't really want to move away from mates at the minute as I'd just end up driving back here all the time to see them anyway!
-
If you literally want the cheapest new car you can get to run for £6k, get a 1.2 (petrol) Fiat Panda. It's white goods, it's not unpleasant to drive, does loads to the gallon, uses bugger all fuel, costs something like £15 to tax it and all round is just good at being cheap and reliable. Diesel as a rule is not as economical in the long run on these very small cars with little engines.
Personally I went down the route of buying a much older, more comfortable car for half that about 5 years ago (£3k buys an awful lot of fuel) for commuting. Does about 35mpg as opposed to 50 odd or what ever it is the Panda does. £225 tax, but classic insurance so that's nothing. Servicing costs me around £30 a pop as it's a doddle to service and parts cost bugger all for it (I swapped all the disks and pads for £80).
To be fair I have spent a grand this year getting it resprayed as the original paint wasn't clearcoated and it'd gone blotchy over the years. But the theory there is that it should last at least another 20 years and look great. Certainly as I plan to run this car until it's death (it's done 70k miles now, they're good for at least 200k if you look after them right).
Two different options depending on how you see cars.
-
Ah, 35 is a bit over my usual threshold for "Buy a Bike!". Under 20 is doable, and most enjoyable. Even a day or two a week would soon start to make an impact.
-
I have a road bike and would cycle if it was closer, I don't really fancy riding 35 miles for a 6:30am early shift though :P
-
I can relate, although my difficulty is the 2am ride home after a 15 hour stint!
-
I'd echo what JuanSolo says. You're getting pretty decent mileage in your current car, and the diesel may look good on paper but it's expensive to buy. Would you really get 75mpg, and cover enough miles to make the cost of diesel worthwhile?
Other than the Panda, you're looking at the Peugeot 107, Citroen C1, Toyota Aygo for a cheap petrol runabout. Or the Toyota iQ if you're feeling funky.
-
hmm all these cheap to run cars look a bit... well the word "grandma" springs to mind :lol: I think I came to this conclusion when I looked for a cheaper car before, didn't seem worth the hassle of switching.
How many miles do you need to cover to make a diesel worthwhile? Like I said most of my car use is commuting and on motorways/a roads so I would think I'd get a decent mpg as not much of my driving is stop start urban stuff.
-
I commute a round trip of 150 miles every day that I'm in Sutton (about 50% of the time). Back in Feb I bought a 1.6 Diesel Bluemotion Passat estate. I can get over 70 mpg driving conservatively, generally getting between 60-70mpg, and on a typical tank this gets me somewhere between 850-1000 miles for a cost of filling up in the region of £93.
I would definitely recommend the Volkswagen bluemotion cars, I am so chuffed with the Passat!
Previously I was driving a 1.4 Clio (petrol), which would get about 40mpg driving the same way as I drive the Passat. My fuel costs have gone through the floor in comparison, and it's a much bigger car. Very impressive. Oh yes, and it's much much more refined, too :)
Even around town, I can get 40-50mpg from the Passat.
Hope this helps
Roo
-
Great news! My mates just got a new diesel Corsa and has just got 140 miles out of a quarter tank - i get about 80 or so!
-
As suggested all the smaller diesel engines do quite well. Since they are fairly comparable in engine size, I would recommend going a bit beyond that and searching around for crash test results. You never think of it, but it might save your life one day. I think Vauxhalls do quite well on many crash tests.
-
The new Hyundai Picanto won a test in a Dutch carmagazine. Scored more points then the Panda en C1. Better seats, better comfort, most space.
-
i was considering efficiency too, whilst looking for a new car. then i thought "ah hell, you only live once!" and now there's an Audi TT 225 sitting outside :)
-
i was considering efficiency too, whilst looking for a new car. then i thought "ah hell, you only live once!" and now there's an Audi TT 225 sitting outside :)
Career wise: are you an estate agent or a hairdresser? :lol:
Joking aside they're pretty awesome cars from what I gather :D
My sister is in the same situation as Tom is in his OP, so I'm keeping my eyes on this thread for suggestions for her too.
-
i was considering efficiency too, whilst looking for a new car. then i thought "ah hell, you only live once!" and now there's an Audi TT 225 sitting outside :)
Career wise: are you an estate agent or a hairdresser? :lol:
Joking aside they're pretty awesome cars from what I gather :D
My sister is in the same situation as Tom is in his OP, so I'm keeping my eyes on this thread for suggestions for her too.
Ha, i know what you mean, but no, i work in a Quarry :) the hairdressers round here all drive minis! the Audi's 11 years old, but it's in great shape, and it's an awful lot of car for 3 grand. the equivalent is about £30,000 new!
it's not enormously fuel efficient though, which does my eco credentials no good at all
-
haha blue I did think like that for a bit - someone on a different forum is selling a Merc CL for £5k that I would be able to afford if I sold my car, but the cost of fuel (28mpg average) and insurance for someone under 25 would most likely cripple me financially :lol:
Still not sure what I'm going to do at the minute. My mate reckons an older bmw 1 series would be good and surprisingly cheap to insure, not sure about that but I'll check.
-
I think the VW polo would be your best bet. Decent cars (though watch the clutch and electrics) and relative cheap to service etc.
On a side note my Dad just got a brand new Merc E220 CDI. At the moment he's averaging 75 mpg which I didn't believe at first. Absolutely gorgeous car too.
-
Ha, i know what you mean, but no, i work in a Quarry :) the hairdressers round here all drive minis! the Audi's 11 years old, but it's in great shape, and it's an awful lot of car for 3 grand. the equivalent is about £30,000 new!
it's not enormously fuel efficient though, which does my eco credentials no good at all
I know mate, just poking fun :lol:
Hairdressers around here seem to either go for those convertable Astras, Tigras or Minis. Do get the occasional TT, but they're usually the manager of the place sooner than just a stylist :D
Stuff eco credentials tbh, if you can afford to use it for what it is then more power to you imo.