Good commuter car?

[KieranSprouse]

Hi guys,

Just looking for some general advice really! At the moment I have a 2014 Ford Fiesta 125 Ecoboost which is great. I drive it 80 miles each day (Mon-Fri) as my work is 40 miles from home.

My wife is going to need a car soon so I thought she could have the Fiesta as she would be doing less miles and I could throw the miles on something cheaper which I don't care about as much.

The question is: what would be a good car to get? It needs to be reliable with a decent fuel economy but also cheap to insure for a 22 year old. Looking for real world economy of around 45+ if possible to match the Fiesta's mpg. Not particularly bothered about how exciting it is to drive as it is just motorway for 40 miles really and the Fiesta would be the car I drive at the weekends or whatever.

Also budget is tight as I pay for the Fiesta on a HP monthly and so would want to buy a car upfront for less than £2000.


Thanks for your ideas in advance,

Kieran

[7heGeneral]

Not really sure what to suggest, but I'm in a similar position in needing a cheap car for work so following with interest!

[anonymous-user]

Best Passat B5.5 PD TDI you can find.

[KieranSprouse]

Hi MJ85,

There are no Passat B5.5 PD TDIs near me so not sure that is a feasible route to go down.

To be fair, a Golf Mk4 may do the trick, though the insurance on the 1.8L Diesel is fairly pricey. The 1.6 is better but the mpg isn't very good.

The 1.4 may be an option though unsure about mpg or acceleration.


Kieran

[anonymous-user]

KieranSprouse said:

Hi MJ85,

There are no Passat B5.5 PD TDIs near me so not sure that is a feasible route to go down.

To be fair, a Golf Mk4 may do the trick, though the insurance on the 1.8L Diesel is fairly pricey. The 1.6 is better but the mpg isn't very good.

The 1.4 may be an option though unsure about mpg or acceleration.


Kieran

Not quite sure what engines you mean... low powered petrols will be best avoided, along with the NA diesel. PD diesels are transverse installations of the PDs mentioned in the Passat. PD150 is known to be a little less reliable than the 130/100 etc. I don't know of a 1.8 diesel, the diesels i'm talking about are all 1.9.

[carboy2017]

Have you considered a Nissan Micra? of course you might have to compromise on speed a bit but im sure the MPG is good

Honda Accord is damm good and I used to commute 115 mile a day some months ago on a 2004 petrol accord but the MP was only 34-36 MPG and insurance is high (in ur case especially)

[ferrariF50lover]

Any 2 litre TDi saloon in budget. That's what they're designed for. Go on Autotrader and pick one you like.

[tomsugden]

Personally for that distance I'd be looking at electric. Have a drive of a Renault Zoe. We were offered one on a cheap lease by the local Renault dealer - with all the subsidies available a brand new one was £9.5k!

[ZX10R NIN]

Fiat Grande Punto get the 1.9 with the 6 speed box you can pick up good examples for not much outlay & they're reliable.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

[KieranSprouse]

Hi ZX10R NIN,

Seems like a good shout - cheap to insure too, just had a look at some quotes and cheaper than my 1L Fiesta if you can believe it!

Looks like you may be onto something



Kieran

[slk 32]

Polo bluemotion 1
Zero tax
Real world 70+mpg
14 inch wheels equals £55 michelin tyres which last forever
Loads of torque so not like a gutless 1 litre petrol

I paid £2650 for mine 3 years ago and use it as my runaround in London and regularly drive 150 miles to Worcester

It's so good most of the time my SLK 55 stays in the garage. You'll be looking at 550 miles plus on a £40 -45 tank

[MrGCC]

might not be the coolest car or anything but for some reason it just came to mind for me, Audi A2. Very good fuel economy and cheap on insurance. Might be one to consider

[ZX10R NIN]

KieranSprouse said:

Hi ZX10R NIN,

Seems like a good shout - cheap to insure too, just had a look at some quotes and cheaper than my 1L Fiesta if you can believe it!

Looks like you may be onto something



Kieran

Hi Kieran glad to help they're a bit of a forgotten car, nice seats & you'll probably find it's pace isn't far off of your current Fiesta 125 (the 207 lb/ft of torque will see to that) one thing you'll want to consider changing is the headunit as it doesn't have Bluetooth/DAB/Bluetooth Streaming etc, so one of these would be worth looking at:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Kenwood-KDC-BT700DAB-Blu...

Another one to look at is the 1.7 Astra (I personally think the Punto is the better car) is another worth a look.

SXI

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

SRI (Haggle hard & you should get close to your budget)

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

Edited by ZX10R NIN on Monday 16th October 23:49