What commuter car?

[John D.]

Not very exciting this chaps but I need to make a decision. Finding it quite difficult to pick the best car for my purposes.

What I think I want is a post-2001 car in VED band A to E. Budget around £1500 (happy to spend less!). Will cover approx 15k a year. Petrol or diesel doesn't make much odds to me (see below), petrol best choice I expect.

Remit for the car is to comfortably and reliably tackle a 116 mile/day motorway commute in the winter months and be a general runabout all year round. AC equipped hatchback or estate favoured as usefull counterpoint to my Elise and motorbike. Minimal running costs and depreciation. Does'nt need to be fun to drive (I have other vehicles for this ) but nor do I want something which pisses me off every day. MPG does'nt actually matter that much.

Shortlist so far:

2000 Focus 1.6. Can be had for £950 on Autotrader with 100k. Quite like the idea of one of these as the then class leading chassis is a reasonably good steer I believe. Ford seem to have begun rating the emissions of their cars before other manufacturers (2001) which is handy for me.

2001 to 2004 (?) Clio 1.5 DCi 65 or 80. Approx £1600 on AT. Main selling point is VED band C so will save me money on car tax and earn more money on car scheme. I had a 172 Cup which was great fun. ste driving position though and do I want to spend 2.5hrs a day in a diesel Clio? Is AC even an option?

Open to other suggestions. I'm sure I'm missing possible candidates but I really know quite little about such dull cars! Quite open to a bit of bangernomics if it makes sense.



To set the scene and explain the rationale:

Recently started a new job which has a 'Green' car scheme. Basically the less g/km CO2 a car emits the more cash allowance per month I recieve. Older cars (pre-2001?) which do not have a CO2 rating on the V5C are deemed to emit 190g/km (VED band J).

Fuel card is supplied for all fuel costs.

40p/mile is paid for all business miles. (Nature of my work means my place of work changes less than every 24 months, so my 'commute' is effectively business miles).

Servicing, insurance and tax come out of my pocket.


The commute is 580 motorway miles per week. Plan to use a motorbike for the summer months so the car will probably be covering approx 15k a year (rough guess, need to see how this pans out).

So due to how the scheme is weighted I am looking for a car in VED Band A to E. A-C gets highest monthly allowance, D-E £10 less, and so on. An older vehicle deemed to be band J would lose me £40 per month compared to a car in band A-C. A-C has nice bonus of saving £65 on car tax too.

[courtster]

Wow, thats a convoluted car scheme. Mine is anything under 160CO2's and never less than 5 years old. I decided to stay in the company car scheme.

Anyway, my choice would be a 2001/02 Skoda Octavia 1.9TDi Elegance. Will eat the miles, comfy and great mpg. Good kit too. Band E for the 110hp version. The later 130hp is band F. Wit a bit of bartering you should just scrape one for £1500. Maybe try the SEAT Leon equivalent too.

Edited by courtster on Monday 31st May 17:46

[MondeoMan1981]

Can you find a 206 hdi 1.4 in your price range ?

119g Co2, £30 a year road tax. Mega mpg. LX model has air con.

[John D.]

courtster said:

Wow, thats a convoluted car scheme. Mine is anything under 160CO2's and never less than 5 years old. I decided to stay in the company car scheme.

Anyway, my choice would be a 2001/02 Skoda Octavia 1.9TDi Elegance. Will eat the miles, comfy and great mpg. Good kit too. Band E for the 110hp version. The later 130hp is band F. Wit a bit of bartering you should just scrape one for £1500. Maybe try the SEAT Leon equivalent too.

Edited by courtster on Monday 31st May 17:46

Cheers, I'm liking that.

[HellDiver]

Run away from the dCi Clio if you want reliable. Injectors, looms, turbos, all a case of "when" and not "if" they'll go.

I'd go with the previous poster's suggestion of the Octavia, and also throw in a Mk3 Mondeo - the 2.0 TDDI is a good lump with less problems than the TDCi.

[John D.]

MondeoMan1981 said:

Can you find a 206 hdi 1.4 in your price range ?

119g Co2, £30 a year road tax. Mega mpg. LX model has air con.

Cheapest on AT is £1695 which in itself is not a deal breaker; the budget does have some leeway for the right car. It is on 137k though. How do they take the miles?

As said, I couldn't give a toss about MPG really. Fuel is paid for. I realise that high MPG is a product of low CO2 more often than not!

Looks an OK car. Skoda looks like a lot more car for the money though. Albeit one which will cost me £85 more per year to tax and lose me £60 over 6 months on the car scheme.

[John D.]

HellDiver said:

Run away from the dCi Clio if you want reliable. Injectors, looms, turbos, all a case of "when" and not "if" they'll go.

I'd go with the previous poster's suggestion of the Octavia, and also throw in a Mk3 Mondeo - the 2.0 TDDI is a good lump with less problems than the TDCi.

Cheers, I did fear as much with regards the Clio. Exactly kind of info I want.

Had a look at Mk3 Mondeo. Looks about right money but the TDDI falls in VED band G with 156g/km CO2. Whilst the Octavia is in band E (so earns more on the car scheme).

[MondeoMan1981]

John D. said:

MondeoMan1981 said:

Can you find a 206 hdi 1.4 in your price range ?

119g Co2, £30 a year road tax. Mega mpg. LX model has air con.

Cheapest on AT is £1695 which in itself is not a deal breaker; the budget does have some leeway for the right car. It is on 137k though. How do they take the miles?

As said, I couldn't give a toss about MPG really. Fuel is paid for. I realise that high MPG is a product of low CO2 more often than not!

Looks an OK car. Skoda looks like a lot more car for the money though. Albeit one which will cost me £85 more per year to tax and lose me £60 over 6 months on the car scheme.

If you look on some of the Peugeot forums out there, some of the 1.4hdi's have hit 200k with nothing other than cambelts and the odd injector.

I use mine for 120 mile journeys quite a lot, and its reasonably refined for a small car. Air con, electrics and 6 speaker stereo all help comfort wise. Averaging 66mpg @ 70mph.

Edited by MondeoMan1981 on Monday 31st May 18:45

[eltax91]

Gotta be the Skoda, worth the £140 a year difference for the reliability. Here's the story with my 110 TDi.

• Bought april 08 with FSH and 75k miles - £2150 (should be down to £1500 now)
• Put 65k miles on since then, almost all motorway.
• 50mpg calclated from receipts not the computer!
• I service it every 10k with good oil and all filters, outside of that:-

* Usual discs and pads, £100 all round (self fitted)
* Duff MAF - £85 quid
* Couple of wheel bearings - £40
* Cambelt last month - £300
* Set of 4 boots when bought, then another 2 since

It hasn't let me down, never puts a foot wrong, gets all sorts of abuse and has a huge load space when needed, nor does it lose even a drop of oil between services - I didn't lift the bonnet for the lask 10k! That's about it. All in all a TOP car for the cash.

All those taxi drivers can't be wrong

Edited by eltax91 on Monday 31st May 19:34

[Hitch78]

courtster said:

Wow, thats a convoluted car scheme. Mine is anything under 160CO2's and never less than 5 years old. I decided to stay in the company car scheme.

Edited by courtster on Monday 31st May 17:46

My scheme is simple, and the best I've found; 6 grand, tax free, per year: paid in cash each month. Plus a fuel card, which pays out up to three tanks of super a week. Sometimes living in the Middle East has benefits!

[John D.]

Hitch78 said:

courtster said:

Wow, thats a convoluted car scheme. Mine is anything under 160CO2's and never less than 5 years old. I decided to stay in the company car scheme.

Edited by courtster on Monday 31st May 17:46

My scheme is simple, and the best I've found; 6 grand, tax free, per year: paid in cash each month. Plus a fuel card, which pays out up to three tanks of super a week. Sometimes living in the Middle East has benefits!

I hope you have a V8 in that Jeep! Good effort with the flat 6 anyway

[John D.]

eltax91 - great info thanks

So no one thinks a 1.6 petrol Focus is a good shout? Is certainly cheaper to buy than a diesel Skoda.

[John D.]

A Seat Toledo (oh yes!) with the same 1.9Tdi lump I assume as the Octavia is up to >£500 cheaper. Horrible looking car though.

Edited by John D. on Monday 31st May 21:55

[jdwoodbury]

My wife had a 1.6 Focus for 8 years, it was a very good car only normal wear and tear in over 80k miles. On a run it would do 40+mpg and felt pretty well put together. From all accounts they are supposed to be a reliable model, and A/C is quite common on the LX and Zetec models. I would steer clear of a leggy diesels though as things can get expensive (injectors, turbo etc).

[slipstream 1985]

i have a diesel clio 1.5 dci. its a fun enough car to make a mundane a road a little interesting. 600 miles from £48 of diesel. £35 road tax. doesnt have ac but cd player drives fine comfortable at motorway cruising speed.

[John D.]

jdwoodbury said:

My wife had a 1.6 Focus for 8 years, it was a very good car only normal wear and tear in over 80k miles. On a run it would do 40+mpg and felt pretty well put together. From all accounts they are supposed to be a reliable model, and A/C is quite common on the LX and Zetec models. I would steer clear of a leggy diesels though as things can get expensive (injectors, turbo etc).

Thats another reason I feel a petrol Focus may be good.

What is leggy on a modern diesel though? 100k? 200k?

[jdwoodbury]

John D. said:

jdwoodbury said:

My wife had a 1.6 Focus for 8 years, it was a very good car only normal wear and tear in over 80k miles. On a run it would do 40+mpg and felt pretty well put together. From all accounts they are supposed to be a reliable model, and A/C is quite common on the LX and Zetec models. I would steer clear of a leggy diesels though as things can get expensive (injectors, turbo etc).

Thats another reason I feel a petrol Focus may be good.

What is leggy on a modern diesel though? 100k? 200k?

I would say that if you are looking at a diesel with 150K on the clock you need to allow for some unwelcome costs at some point, if you go the VAG route then the 1.9 8v PD unit is generally considered the most robust and should do 250k if well maintained...they need to be used and well serviced to do this mileage. Of course a petrol engine is simpler and but at this type of mileage it's not really the engine you need to worry about, it's auxiliaries and other components such as suspension and bearings that are most likely to fail.

[oakey1979]

I'd agree with the suggestion of a Seat Toledo. Check the review on Parkers website. It's similar to the Leon, VW Bora, Skoda Octavia, Audi A3 and TT in that their all built with Golf bits. However the crucial difference between the Leon and the Toledo is that the Toledo is built by Audi in their Belgian factory so the build quality should be that little bit better. I bought a 1.6 petrol for £900 about 6 months ago with full service history and 72k on the clock and haven't found a single thing wrong with it in the 12k miles I've covered since.

[bodhi]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

This. The 40p a mile you are paid will more than cover the fuel something like an E36 328i will use (mine costs around 21p per mile on the commute), and it makes the journey far less stressful than my old Punto used to (at 18p a mile). I would also say the sound of a straight six in the morning is WELL worth the extra £10 a week it will cost you.

Probably about as cheap as a Clio DCi to fix if it goes wrong as well.

[John D.]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

I'm with you

My eye has been drawn to a V8 E34 of some description too. Started pondering Mk3 Golf VR6/Corrado VR6 today as well

Purchase price is the main governing factor here. £1.5k max as I see it at the moment. Of course I do not want to saddle myself with high maintenance and insurance costs (fortunately MPG is not a factor ). Car must be reliable too as it has to get me to work every day.

Using my head I should just get the cheapest overall car that'll do the job. Thats just boring though! I'll quite happily fund some extra running costs if it means I can have a car that gives me some pleasure.