£4k max; frugal, reliable, daily beater for mway commute
£4k max; frugal, reliable, daily beater for mway commute
Author
Discussion

Matt UK

Original Poster:

18,080 posts

221 months

Saturday 1st October 2011
quotequote all
As per the title really - what would you go for? Links welcome.

Car will be doing 600 miles a week.

Open to ideas.

Jw Vw

4,897 posts

184 months

Saturday 1st October 2011
quotequote all
Octavia TDI?

Matt UK

Original Poster:

18,080 posts

221 months

Saturday 1st October 2011
quotequote all
Yup, not a bad shout.

The default for this sort of thing does tend to be a VAG tdi of some sort

Madness60

625 posts

205 months

Saturday 1st October 2011
quotequote all
Bah, may be sensible and reliable but what you really want is

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2011...

Matt UK

Original Poster:

18,080 posts

221 months

Saturday 1st October 2011
quotequote all
Madness60 said:
Bah, may be sensible and reliable but what you really want is

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2011...
Nice choice, food for thought there

DavidY

4,492 posts

305 months

Saturday 1st October 2011
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Was in this position 18 months ago, spent £4.5K on a 55 reg Saab 9-3 TiD (150) Auto. Been very reliable (done 30k miles), nice place to sit, decent aircon, nothing flashy just gets on with the job in hand.

scorcher

4,079 posts

255 months

Saturday 1st October 2011
quotequote all
Fabia VRS. Got a 2006, been used from new for driving instruction, now on 162k,very few problems and still on the original clutch. Just bought a 2007 VRS SE with low mileage to take over the duties.( replacing a new gutless 105bhp Fabia CR diesel)

hornetrider

63,161 posts

226 months

Saturday 1st October 2011
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2k on an awesome E38 728i

2k in extra petrol budget

Win

stick100

7,017 posts

189 months

Saturday 1st October 2011
quotequote all
focus diesel and save the extra cash

nottyash

4,671 posts

216 months

Saturday 1st October 2011
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Fabia VRS.
I used to use mine North Yorkshire to Plymouth every weekend. Very comfortable. Great MPG, performance and easily tunable. My angel tuning remap put MPG up 2 MPG on motorway runs, as well as an extra 50 BHP . Only drawbacks are the crappy colour of the standard seats (Get leather) and the cheap looking dash.

Matt UK

Original Poster:

18,080 posts

221 months

Saturday 1st October 2011
quotequote all
hornetrider said:
2k on an awesome E38 728i

2k in extra petrol budget

Win
There is always that option, but with this sort of mileage, I'll burn that extra £2k in 6 months...

300bhp/ton

41,030 posts

211 months

Saturday 1st October 2011
quotequote all
Matt UK said:
As per the title really - what would you go for? Links welcome.

Car will be doing 600 miles a week.

Open to ideas.
Jag X-Type diesel, nicer place to sit than the Skoda, more comfy, more refined and probably a better steer too.

Matt UK

Original Poster:

18,080 posts

221 months

Saturday 1st October 2011
quotequote all
300bhp/ton said:
Jag X-Type diesel, nicer place to sit than the Skoda, more comfy, more refined and probably a better steer too.
Another good call, hadn't thought of these either

Matt UK

Original Poster:

18,080 posts

221 months

Saturday 1st October 2011
quotequote all
VW Bora 130tdi seems usefully cheaper than a Golf - thoughts?

hornetrider

63,161 posts

226 months

Saturday 1st October 2011
quotequote all
Matt UK said:
VW Bora 130tdi seems usefully cheaper than a Golf - thoughts?
Actually a great motorway car with a cavernous boot. I used to have the 115bhp version (same PD engine, different turbo iirc) and it was leathered up, DSP, lots of extra toys, great on the motorway. Pic in my profile - would recommend actually. Returned 50mpg plus at around 80.

minimoog

7,352 posts

240 months

Saturday 1st October 2011
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Mondeo TDCi. Our Mk3 did 160K with no significant issues, not even a clutch.

Deerfoot

5,131 posts

205 months

Saturday 1st October 2011
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Matt UK said:
VW Bora 130tdi seems usefully cheaper than a Golf - thoughts?
Good shout. A lot of car for the money.......

V88Dicky

7,359 posts

204 months

Saturday 1st October 2011
quotequote all
Some good suggestions so far, and I would submit a mk2 Avensis for your consideration also. Well built, solid and reliable, and economical in either D4-D or petrol 1.8 vvt-i form. Your budget should get a very well specced 2005ish with low miles.
I have the previous model, and I can certainly vouch for the economy. My petrol 2.0 does 45+ mpg week in, week out on my 60 mile per day commute. Sure, it's boring as hell, but that's what my weekend car's for! smile


andy-xr

13,204 posts

225 months

Saturday 1st October 2011
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Was thinking this myself a few weeks ago when I was eying up a job commuting to Leeds everyday from just north of Nottingham, so around 150 mile round trip. It didn't come off so I didn't go much further than thinking

I thought back to when I used to do a similar distance in a Passat TDi (53 plate) and remember the economy to be pretty good. It was a brand new car and even driving like a tt I couldn't get it under 48 mpg, which got better after 20k on the clock. The problem was the seats killed my back, I just couldn't get comfy in it.

Before that I had a Mondeo 1.8 petrol, which didn't seem to drink that much, and was comfortable, but also refused to accelerate past a certain point.

I have a Focus at the moment, and on a 200 mile round trip earlier in the week the OBC was showing 58 mpg. That tends to lie a bit though, so if you say 50 to the gallon, thats not bad. And that was some motorway, some A road, and some sitting around in traffic around Altrincham. Having a 6th gear helps it out a bit

I was thinking of something to replace it with that had better MPG, and seriously thought about buying the poverty spec C1 and kitting it out with some decent seats. Also looked at the Yaris 1.4D and the Insight, but none are really places you want to spend a few hours at a time so I'm sticking with 50+ from the Focus for now

Also, to edit and add, that sort of mileage over a year is going to destroy an existing high miler, or you'll end up punting it on after 6 months while it's still worth something. It's what puts me off 100k 530D's



Edited by andy-xr on Saturday 1st October 19:05

matt21

4,371 posts

225 months

Saturday 1st October 2011
quotequote all
Can get a very nice 1.9 tdi passat for that. My 130 highline estate cost less and has been faultless, comfy and frugal