Cheap, economical car 100 miles a day, chip fat diesel?

[DanCat]

Hi,

I'll be commuting 100 miles a day for my new job at least to begin with and i need a cheap (to run)new car.

I was thinking mk1 Honda Insight if i could find one but then i saw this thread

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=126...

Rover 600, 50-50 on chip fat.

Which other cars run well on such a fuel? Mercedes, 1.9 td vag?

Budget would be about 2k but not for a rover 600 obviously!

cheers

[folos]

Old pug 106?

[Steffan]

folos said:

Old pug 106?

500 miles a week? Surely a bigger barge would be less frenetic? Better cruiser?

As Henry Ford remarked big engines generally last longer and give smoother travelling.

[Zoobeef]

I bought a Audi A2 estate last Saturday for £2k. Its the 130bhp 1.9tdi. I averaged 62.8mpg on my 260 mile drive home from work yesterday.

[Spare tyre]

I had a 406 with 330 thousand on when I got rid of it (with 12 months mot on it)

They are not too bad overall, you'd want the 1.9 with Bosch fuel pump, Lucas pumps don't do so well

I was doing mega miles daily, never had any problems in the 260k I did in it

[10 Pence Short]

Zoobeef said:

I bought a Audi A2 estate last Saturday for £2k. Its the 130bhp 1.9tdi. I averaged 62.8mpg on my 260 mile drive home from work yesterday.

What's the insurance like on that? I suppose being worth not too much it might not be so bad.

[longbow]

Get a saxo 1.5 diesel, 2000 reg or later with the bosch pump. Does 55mpg easy and runs on SVO with no mods at all. I can get SVO for 90p per litre, so really cheap to run. Parts cost naff all too. I,ve been using it to commute for 4 months now no issues at all. Whilst certainly not quick, I have no problem siting at 90 in the fast lane with all the other commuters. Oh, and I paid £300 for it.

[Zoobeef]

10 Pence Short said:

Zoobeef said:

I bought a Audi A2 estate last Saturday for £2k. Its the 130bhp 1.9tdi. I averaged 62.8mpg on my 260 mile drive home from work yesterday.

What's the insurance like on that? I suppose being worth not too much it might not be so bad.

I'm not sure why I put A2, its an A4.
It was £12 topup for the last 3 months of the year. I think it was originally £280 for the year on my last car. I'm 28.

[DanCat]

i ideally would like a slightly bigger barge...all sound interesting so far

[hairykrishna]

I bought my 2.5 190D a few months ago to handle my new 100 mile/day commute. Mega comfy and, bar a buggered belt tensioner, has been pretty trouble free so far. I'm averaging 45mpg on vegetable oil - mostly A road mileage.

Just a warning on the oil - you need to be fairly handy as you'll be changing the fuel filter a few times in the first few thousand miles and you don't get much warning when it's blocking up.

[J4CKO]

Find a local B and B for £20 - £30 a night.

[V8RX7]

Find a car with LPG fitted.

Veg oil isn't cheap any more and the cars that run on it are old and slow.

[ClassicMercs]

My mate has been running his Octavia SDi estate all year on 50:50 - or more in really warm weather. He's lucky as the oil is free - just needs to do his own filtering. The stuff that isn't good enough for the car has been used in a converted ''wood burning'' stove to create hot water.

[ImpossiblyDaft]

longbow said:

Get a saxo 1.5 diesel, 2000 reg or later with the bosch pump. Does 55mpg easy and runs on SVO with no mods at all. I can get SVO for 90p per litre, so really cheap to run. Parts cost naff all too. I,ve been using it to commute for 4 months now no issues at all. Whilst certainly not quick, I have no problem siting at 90 in the fast lane with all the other commuters. Oh, and I paid £300 for it.

I owned one for a bit and while admittedly not the freshest example, it wasn't the wonder car you're claiming; yeah, they're tough and cheap, but they're noisy and the offset pedals are a real killer.
The high MPG is when doing 70-75, too - the way its geared, if you step over 80 the MPG plummets. I once drove along a stretch of autobahn at around 90 and it really wasn't suited to it - it got about high 30s MPG at that speed, was absurdly noisy, couldn't keep over 80 up steep hills and wasn't that planted. Plus, if lorries pulled out the brakes weren't really up to much.
In general I drove it at 70-75ish and it was okay (still a bit noisy) and got about 58mpg (plus about the same on A-roads) and the MPG would be something crazy at 60-65.

For pottering around locally and then doing the occasional long distance trip like I did where time wasn't an issue but cost was, perfect. For doing 100 miles a day, hell no.

For long distance commuting the Peugeot/Citroen option ought to be the 306/Xsara (or Xantia/406 even) with the XUD9 not the 106/Saxo; the MPG might not be quite as good but its totally worth it from a comfort perspective.

[DanCat]

Yeah, looked into b and b's, also considered a camper van...just weighing up the options.

Thanks for all the imput

Edited by DanCat on Friday 6th September 22:54

[steve2]

Zoobeef said:

I bought a Audi A2 estate last Saturday for £2k. Its the 130bhp 1.9tdi. I averaged 62.8mpg on my 260 mile drive home from work yesterday.

how the hell did you average that??? i have been driving like miss daisy this week and my A6 Avant 1.9 has averaged 47 mph

[Zoobeef]

steve2 said:

how the hell did you average that??? i have been driving like miss daisy this week and my A6 Avant 1.9 has averaged 47 mph

That's just sitting at 70mph on the motorways. Im not sure how much heavier the A6's are but they should get well over 50mpg on the motorways!

[matt21]

I don't get it either. My 2004 Passat won't do much above 50mpg, and all my friends with the VAG 130 diesel get similar to me. I don't drive hard either.

[steve2]

Zoobeef said:

steve2 said:

how the hell did you average that??? i have been driving like miss daisy this week and my A6 Avant 1.9 has averaged 47 mph

That's just sitting at 70mph on the motorways. Im not sure how much heavier the A6's are but they should get well over 50mpg on the motorways!

Ah now I get it, all motorways, mine is also local roads and yes if I was cruising on the motorway it can get 50 plus

[ModernAndy]

I've said this before this week but if it needs to be cheap to buy and to run but with a wee bit of power then you could do a lot worse than a Renault Clio 1.5 DCi 100. They cost about a grand and will do 60+ mpg