What economy car for a 19 year old?

[Petrolhead95]

Due to the fairly high mileage I do, my little Corsa needs to be swapped in for something a bit more economical but I have no idea about economy. Being only 19 this could be interesting, especially without a years NCB yet. Boxes it needs to tick:

- Economical
- Cheap to buy
- Cheap to insure
- Cheap to run
- Not too slow, I'd like something fairly sporty
- Something hatchback size

Budget for the car is probably £5,000 at a push. I was looking at an '09 plate Fiesta 1.6 TDCI which ticks all those boxes.

Cheers.

Edited by Petrolhead95 on Tuesday 16th September 15:19

[Petrolhead95]

Insurance would be a problem there.

[Petrolhead95]

Hard to say annual mileage over a year as I haven't been driving for a year yet, but in the 4 and a half months I've had my Corsa I've covered 7,000 miles in it.

[Petrolhead95]

JB! said:

I had one at 21 and it was fine to insure.

Still only a diesel hatchback at the end of the day...

Quotes for the VRS with 1 years NCB come back at £2,200 a year.

[Petrolhead95]

Rovinghawk said:

You'll find very little more economical, especially when you think about costs involved in changing vehicles.

Keep the corsa.

My car is in no way economical. £50 won't see me 300 miles.

[Petrolhead95]

Qwert1e said:

£50 for 300 miles is about 17p a mile - or about 35 mpg.

Even if someone with a 35 mpg car buys a car which can achieve 45 mpg the difference in annual fuel use over, say, 10,000 miles would be only be 64 gallons - saving just £384 a year.

Or to put it another way, spending £5,000 on the new car would take 13 years for the "fuel savings" to get back to beak-even point!

That puts things into perspective. I think I would benefit greatly from a car with more motorway suited gear ratios. 70 MPH in my car is 4,500 RPM which is definitely not economical.

[Petrolhead95]

doogz said:

What sort of Corsa do you have?

Corsa C 1.2 Active

[Petrolhead95]

I can't drive at 70 MPH on the motorway, I get seriously bored. I tried it while on the way home from Silverstone and lasted 15 miles before going back to my normal cruising speed.

[Petrolhead95]

HereBeMonsters said:

You utter tool.

A whole thread with helpful suggestions, and it's entirely your fault in the first place. Do you really not see the correlation between your speed and lack of economy?

That's the last time I try to help someone on here, I tell you. Definitely.

A tad harsh.

I don't drive fast in any manner. When on the motorway I normally sit at 80 MPH which is hardly fast speeds. When on single roads I'm always changing gear early, flicking it into neutral and coasting downhills. I don't expect 90 MPG, but better than I currently do.

[Petrolhead95]

Qwert1e said:

Most fuel injected engines shut off the fuel completely when coasting or downhill in gear. If you put the car in neutral the engine has to burn fuel to keep itself turning. In other words, you will use MORE fuel in neutral than in gear.

I'm no mechanic but my Corsa is a Twinport which IIRC has something to do with this.


I have a 350 mile round trip on Saturday, I'll brim my car up completely and drive economically as possible and see how far I get. As I said, I'm no mechanic and didn't realise I'd use that much more fuel than at 70.