Comfy diesel commuter for a girl...£6-9k

[Legend83]

Friend of mine does a lot of miles in her job and regularly drives from London to Devon to see family so needs a mile muncher.

Criteria is:

- Automatic (she has bad knees)
- Diesel
- Low tax / running costs
- Not too big (currently drives a Clio DCI)
- Budget up from £6-9k, but trying to stay at the low end

My first thought was BMW 1 Series diesel?

I don't know much about automatic cars so thought I would ask the PH uber-team.

[HonestIago]

Mk5 Golf TDI with DSG?

[GreatGranny]

Ditto, Golf DSG, loads within budget.

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

As OP said, 1 series auto within budget

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

Leon, same engine, gearbox as Golf but cheaper for same year.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2010...

[DavidY]

Saab 9-3 TiD (150), paid £4,500 for a 4.5 year old one last year, has munched through 20k miles without issues, decent performance, does 55mpg on a long run and averages 45-47 between services.

[HellDiver]

i30 diesel. She'll get a 1 year old car for her £9k, they've all the toys, and a lovely little 1.6 cam-chain diesel. Oh, and 4 years manufacturer's warranty.

[Legend83]

Cheers for the responses chaps!

Other thoughts of mine are:

Alfa 147 (although a bit old now and reliability worries)

Fabia

Volvo C30 (in budget now?)

Thoughts?

[paoloh]

A3 TDi Sport with DSG

[mgmrw2003]

DavidY said:

Saab 9-3 TiD (150), paid £4,500 for a 4.5 year old one last year, has munched through 20k miles without issues, decent performance, does 55mpg on a long run and averages 45-47 between services.

agreed. My manual fulfills all them boxes.

If size is too big, merc C-class automatic derv

[Monty Python]

HellDiver said:

i30 diesel. She'll get a 1 year old car for her £9k, they've all the toys, and a lovely little 1.6 cam-chain diesel. Oh, and 4 years manufacturer's warranty.

If you're on a budget, then you have to consider running costs. Audi/BMW/VW are nice, but if they go wrong they're not cheap to fix. Having 3 years warranty makes sense.

[Bonefish Blues]

HellDiver said:

i30 diesel. She'll get a 1 year old car for her £9k, they've all the toys, and a lovely little 1.6 cam-chain diesel. Oh, and 4 years manufacturer's warranty.

(Genuine enquiry) - what's so good about this engine, can I ask?

[mgmrw2003]

Bonefish Blues said:

(Genuine enquiry) - what's so good about this engine, can I ask?

chain means lack of need to change belts, thus reduced maintenance?

[niva441]

I suspect the 6-9k of 1 series will be before the efficient dynamics package was introduced. The early cars had difficulty achieving anything like their official fuel consumption.

[Rammy76]

HellDiver said:

i30 diesel. She'll get a 1 year old car for her £9k, they've all the toys, and a lovely little 1.6 cam-chain diesel. Oh, and 4 years manufacturer's warranty.

+1

[HellDiver]

Bonefish Blues said:

HellDiver said:

i30 diesel. She'll get a 1 year old car for her £9k, they've all the toys, and a lovely little 1.6 cam-chain diesel. Oh, and 4 years manufacturer's warranty.

(Genuine enquiry) - what's so good about this engine, can I ask?

It's very compact and light, it's got a cam chain, it's quiet, it revs freely, and doesn't need any really expensive DPF fluid refills like the PSA/Ford 1.6 diesel.

http://www.hyundai-blog.com/index.php/2008/09/17/n...

The 115PS version in the i30 can be remapped to around 150PS, too. Try that with the PSA 1.6 diesel.

[Bonefish Blues]

HellDiver said:

It's very compact and light, it's got a cam chain, it's quiet, it revs freely, and doesn't need any really expensive DPF fluid refills like the PSA/Ford 1.6 diesel.

http://www.hyundai-blog.com/index.php/2008/09/17/n...

The 115PS version in the i30 can be remapped to around 150PS, too. Try that with the PSA 1.6 diesel.

Helpful, thanks - what sort of consumption would be expected in the real world (Sorry OP, but probably relevant for you, too)?

[Legend83]

It would have been relevant but she has done the girl thing, Google pic'd the i30 and told me she wants something a bit more "exciting".

Fair enough.

So the current contender is a C30 D5 Geartronic - just have to find one in budget now.

[Bonefish Blues]

Legend83 said:

It would have been relevant but she has done the girl thing, Google pic'd the i30 and told me she wants something a bit more "exciting".

Fair enough.

So the current contender is a C30 D5 Geartronic - just have to find one in budget now.

snigger - we've all been there!

[HellDiver]

Bonefish Blues said:

Helpful, thanks - what sort of consumption would be expected in the real world (Sorry OP, but probably relevant for you, too)?

Well, we get 44mpg out of our 1.4 petrol i30, that's weekday short commute and 200 miles straight runs at the weekend. Book is around that. The diesel i30 is somewhere in the high 60s, so I'd be annoyed if I didn't get that.

[mgmrw2003]

In terms of TCO (total cost of ownership) I found when commuting, that to make diesel really worthwhile I had to be doing 20,000 miles or more, predominantly motorway, to make it pay.

Below that, a 1400-1600 modern petrol engined focus sized car, would cost the same as it's diesel equivalent.