"Interesting/Fun" 40MPG+ Hatchback £10k

[Mr Overheads]

Getting bored of the Peugeot 206 1.4 Sport 16v 5 door now. It's 'nippy', reasonably intersting to drive and eats up motorway miles when needed, it's also been faultless for 4 years, only needing a new exhaust, tyres & brakes in that time.

It also fit's in lot's of shopping items of furniture (Ikea etc) when needed, so is also practical family car.

Replacement needs to be interesting (So Golf BlueMotion is out it's meant to be dull to drive), MPG must be over 40Mpg and depreciation shouldn't be too bad - hence at least 1 year old and 5 door so easy access to child/baby seat.
Thinking along lines of:

Mini CountryMan Cooper SD - but too expensive for now.
BMW X1 M Sport - far too expensive
Ford Focus - not sure which model haven't researched yet
VW Golf - something or other

Edited by Mr Overheads on Thursday 7th March 21:26

[carmadgaz]

Suzuki Swift Diesel if you want something 206 size, I was averaging 40mpg in the petrol, the diesel feels just as quick and should do 50mpg

[R5YUP]

BMW 123d....... Is there a better mix junior performance and economy.....?

[Mr Overheads]

Good shout on the 123, but only 3 door so difficult to get access to put baby seat in the back. Otherwise perfect.

[Gad-Westy]

Mr Overheads said:

Good shout on the 123, but only 3 door so difficult to get access to put baby seat in the back. Otherwise perfect.

You can get a 5 door.

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/b...

[Mr Overheads]

Gad-Westy said:

You can get a 5 door.

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/b...

Now I feel stupid!

Any other fun practical cars out there?

[DanielJames]

carmadgaz said:

Suzuki Swift Diesel if you want something 206 size, I was averaging 40mpg in the petrol, the diesel feels just as quick and should do 50mpg

^


Has to be a 123d or 330d Touring for me if youre going diesel

If not, how about a Punto Abarth?

[Mr Overheads]

Doing some more research an A3 Sportback 170 S-Line would seem to fit the bill. Can pick up one for £9 to £12k, have double the boot space of a 206, but still small enough not to get into estate territory and powerful enough to be a 'fun' drive plus 50mpg+

[veevee]

Golf GTI.

Why does mpg 'need' to be 40mpg+ unless you're doing a huge amount of miles it's not going to make much difference.

You have also listed 'fun to drive' as a requirement, and then shortlisted the diesel MINI countryman and X1, both overweight blobs.

Actually, your shortlist:

Mr Overheads said:

Mini CountryMan Cooper SD - but too expensive for now.
BMW X1 M Sport - far too expensive
Ford Focus - not sure which model haven't researched yet
VW Golf - something or other

sounds like something my mum, or someone equally disinterested in cars, would write.

10k, 5 door hatch, 40mph ish 'fun to drive', leaves you with pretty much any middle-of-the-road hatch around the 10k mark to be fair.

[Podie]

Octavia vRS diesel?

[Krikkit]

Mr Overheads said:

Doing some more research an A3 Sportback 170 S-Line would seem to fit the bill. Can pick up one for £9 to £12k, have double the boot space of a 206, but still small enough not to get into estate territory and powerful enough to be a 'fun' drive plus 50mpg+

Drive one before committing to buy - I found the S-line A3 of that age to be far too stiff for UK roads.

[Mr Overheads]

the 206 is surprisngly sprightly compared to most run of the mill old hatchbacks, currently averaging 36Mpg, so looking for somethin that gets better MPG. Pug is 100% reliable so sod's law says next car will need money spending on it, so at least higher mpg offsets that.

X1, Countryman Ive never driven them so would have course have a test drive
Focus - some great cars int eh lineup, also some dull one's
Golf - bit bland I think, but included to give sense of size/type of car.

My other car is a Lotus Elise (every journey is enjoyable), which replaced an Aston Vantage (big heavy and not fun on narrow twisty roads, a great car for long sweeping roads though)

[Mr Overheads]

Krikkit said:

Drive one before committing to buy - I found the S-line A3 of that age to be far too stiff for UK roads.

Most cars feel soft when compared to an Elise!

[veevee]

Mr Overheads said:

the 206 is surprisngly sprightly compared to most run of the mill old hatchbacks, currently averaging 36Mpg, so looking for somethin that gets better MPG. Pug is 100% reliable so sod's law says next car will need money spending on it, so at least higher mpg offsets that.

Replacing a car which does 36mpg with one that does 40mpg costing 10k will take you 56.82 years to offset the purchase price.

[Mr Overheads]

veevee said:

Replacing a car which does 36mpg with one that does 40mpg costing 10k will take you 56.82 years to offset the purchase price.

I didn't say I was looking to offset the purchase price. I was looking to offset the possible higher maintenance costs. Anyway every little helps. All the small costs saved add up to a lot of extra money at the end of the year.

Better MPG = saving
Take lunch to work = saving
Not buying a Starbucks on way to work = saving

Look at my username I'm very good at cost analysis (e.g. clients £440,00 mobile bill reduced to £25,000) which means I know when to splash out when needed e.g. Aston Vantage (18Mpg), would rather save money on the dull and mundane so I can splash out on the finer things in life! So for the family run around, the higher the mpg the better, but don't want a VW Golf Blue Motion or a Prius that's going to be as dull as ditchwater. Henc ewhy I asked for 40Mpg plus rather than 50Mpg+ because it opens up a whole range of extra cars that might be fun.

[wilbo83]

veevee said:

Replacing a car which does 36mpg with one that does 40mpg costing 10k will take you 56.82 years to offset the purchase price.

Could you apply the same maths to replacing a car that does 24mpg with one that does 30mpg, selling price of current car of £5k and purchase price of new car at £9k.

[aka_kerrly]

For reference, according to Parkers the 1.4 206 is a 75hp supposedly rated at 44mpg combined and takes 11.8 (months?) to get to 60mph.

In the real world then you were getting closer to 36mpg by your calculations so really to get a genuine 40mpg combined you need to look at cars that can produce 50+ regularly which sadly limits you too much to the devil's juice.

Or, spend a little less and get a car that can do around 30mpg and is fun/interesting.

mk5 Golf GTI - 34mpg for 197hp and sub 7sec >60 or a 330D if you are insistent on diesel but do consider some of the TDI specific injector/DPF/EGR related issues which cost £££££££

[Mr Overheads]

aka_kerrly said:

if you are insistent on diesel

I've never said I wanted Diesel, I'm open to ideas.

If anyone else wants to compare to my exact current car it's:
http://www.parkers.co.uk/cars/reviews/facts-and-fi...
90Hp, 46Mpg, 1049kg,

[graham22]

Mr Overheads said:

Doing some more research an A3 Sportback 170 S-Line would seem to fit the bill. Can pick up one for £9 to £12k, have double the boot space of a 206, but still small enough not to get into estate territory and powerful enough to be a 'fun' drive plus 50mpg+

Mention A3 and S-Line on here will get the haters going, usual response will be to get the Golf instead.

I was in the same situation a few years ago, fancied something with the 2.0 TFSI motor in it, kept my eye open for Golf GTIs or Audi A3, TBH the Golf GTIs often appeared a little more tired for the money, when a very tidy A3 S-line came up locally I bought it.

Narrow it down to a couple of model cars & get the best one all round one which comes up at the time.

[renrut]

I take it you do a lot of road town driving to be only getting 36mpg in a 206, that or its broken or your right leg is made of lead.

If it doesn't need to be too capacious how about something like Fabia VRs? sounds like the ideal ticket to me although how fun they are I'm not sure but surely a very good daily driver otherwise.