140 mile daily commute 70mpg - realistic ?

[PixelpeepS3]

Looking at getting another car to do commute duties - this will be mainly motorway miles, ideally it would be better than 70mpg over all(based on some math) - is that possible? if so, what car?

As we will be putting 35,000 miles a year on it i would prefer a used car so we don't lose too much money but happy to look / consider all options

the equivalent rail ticket for me and the other half (we would be commuting together) would work out around £500 a month (2x250) so ideally we would bundle the cost of the car+fuel and hit a figure less than £500 so we got a car for free (man math?)

av 2865 miles per month sees the fuel working out £241 p/m @ 70mpg

any suggestions for a suitable car? (I've already suggested a bike but the other half doesn't wanna mess her hair up )

[PixelpeepS3]

TooLateForAName said:

so 70 miles each way?
charging available at work?

In a leaf or zoe you'd be saving nearly £3K a year compared to ice fuel costs.
Depends on the journey - its certainly at the upper limits of distance for a cheapish ev, but worth looking at.

Yeh, 70miles each way. Majority of that on motorways... M11, M25, A127 - CB7 to RM14

[PixelpeepS3]

H6Nathan said:

I've been doing 140 miles a day commuting round the M25 for the last 8 months....

Get a VAG Diesel with adaptive cruise (and a Tesco Club Card).

My Passat GT 150 (non adblue) on lease was sourced specifically for this grind, and it's working well. Comfy seats, iPod Dock, 20k service intervals, 50 mpg and about 25ppm all in.

how did you manage to get such high mileage on a lease to work out cost effective ?

[PixelpeepS3]

theboss said:

Personally after embarking on high mileage commuting like this for some time and then being rendered partially disabled by a severe lower disc herniation probably brought on by years of poor posture, I'd be getting some sort of barge with the comfiest seats possible and setting the mpg sights lower. You have to take ergonomics seriously and doing 35k a year in some sort of super-mini is asking for trouble.

I have back issues anyway thanks to an accident 20 odd years ago so i appreciate your post its a good point.

I don't intend to do this long term - hopefully 2 years max.

Just been looking, the new golf bluemotion diesel shows 84mpg combined (yes i know, VAG figures lol) and the 1 series 120d looks like a great compromise. I had also considered the 330e but can't find any figures on long distance MPG (180mpg on short commutes sounds pretty impressive!)

[PixelpeepS3]

The Leaf looks an interesting option - just seeing if anyone would be mad enough to let me have one on a 35k miles pa deal

Charge all day at work charge all night at home.

Only issue i could see is traffic... do these things turn off when stationary ?

[PixelpeepS3]

Evanivitch said:

911p said:

Can't believe the Civic 1.6 i-DTEC has only received one mention. Does no one remember this...



100mpg over 8000 miles. 70mpg is supposed to be more than possible for real world motorway miles. I was recently looking for a car myself for 25,000 miles per year, with almost the exact criteria you mention.

Top option was to pick up a 1.6 i-DTEC Civic from a Honda main dealer for £7-8k, complete with 12 month warranty.

That's a bargain prices, but Autotrader suggests that you'd struggle to find one for less than 10k, and of those 2 one is a Cat D.

Good car otherwise, but expensive for lack of kit.

I had forgotten all about those civics - strange seen as how i used to work for Honda and had one on a long weekend

iirc i was averaging around 0.90mph and 60odd mpg - that was the 2.2diesel too..

[PixelpeepS3]

the leaf looks like the strongest contender so far - £199 down and £199 a month for the fully loaded 30kw (140mile stated 120 real world apparently) gets me 10,000 miles pa - 249 for 20,000 - maybe £350 for 40k ?

Its a shame i don't need to drive in london every day - it'd save me even more !