What car? Pan-Euro mile muncher, under £5k, 50mpg, 5 doors

[milfordkong]

What car? Pan-European mile muncher - Under £5k - 50mpg+ - Five doors - Reliable

I’ll soon have a requirement for a new (to me) car, i’ve considered a heck of a lot of options already but so many cars seem good on paper until you Google them and discover that according to various owners they’re prone to spontaneously combusting on 20mph downhill left hand corners thanks to their DPF short circuiting and punching the ECU square in the jaw. I’m throwing out it to PH to see if i’ve missed any worthy candidates, the criteria is:

- The car’s primary use will be trips back and forth from the midlands to the French Alps - A round trip of roughly 1500 miles. The vast majority of the journey will be spent on French Autoroutes. So it will be sat at a relatively consistent 70-80mph for the most part.

- Less than £5k purchase price.

- At least 50mpg motorway fuel consumption, this needs to be real world and easily achievable mpg. The autoroutes are pricey toll-wise so the less fuel i’m using the better (obviously).

- Five doors and bigger than a city car (So Fiesta / Clio size minimum… preferably a bit bigger I suppose but not at the expense of maximum mpg).

- Reliable - Ideally this car will be relatively low maintenance and easy to own. Not something with a bunch of known issues. I’d like this to be a low risk car, or as low risk as any car can be. It can be 15 years old, or 3 years old, as long as it’s considered a reliable proposition. Cheap servicing and parts would be great too.

- A bit of comfort. Air conditioning is a must, heated seats would be nice but aren’t essential.

- FWD (Or AWD/4WD but usually that doesn't go hand in hand with decent mpg) .. The car will spend a lot of time in the alps in winter so RWD is off the menu.

That’s about it - Any ideas folks?

[bungz]

Diesel Mk4 Mondeo.

Loads about for that sort of money.

[milfordkong]

bungz said:

Diesel Mk4 Mondeo.

Loads about for that sort of money.

Thanks - Which engine?

[bungz]

2.0 tdci is prob the best mile muncher.

The older 1.8 tdci is good but has a odd wet timing belt which is a bit costly to change.

Bonus is however no DPF but higher tax.

Think for 5K you would get a nice spec 2.0 tdci as they stopped the 1.8 in 2010 or so.

[rallycross]

Vovlo V50 D5 - a small estate with big engine ( 5 cylinder diesel).

[ExPat2B]

The thing is, there simply are not ANY 50mpg diesel saloons without at least SOME problems. They are simply too complex, the tolerances too fine.

Any engine with a turbo, half a mile of wiring, vaccum and pressurised tubes and the associated electronics is a risk.

The best you can do it pick one without any particularly horrible issues ( usually VAG engines ) and take a gamble that the fuel saving will make up for the mpg loss.

[milfordkong]

bungz said:

2.0 tdci is prob the best mile muncher.

The older 1.8 tdci is good but has a odd wet timing belt which is a bit costly to change.

Bonus is however no DPF but higher tax.

Think for 5K you would get a nice spec 2.0 tdci as they stopped the 1.8 in 2010 or so.

Thanks, I appreciate that. Is it the same 2.0 TDCi in the Focus of similar vintage?

[kiethton]

I'd be looking at something like:

Seat Leon/Octavia/VW Polo 1.6tdi (just scraping budget) or you may have a wider choice if looking at a 1.4tdi VW polo, Seat Ibiza or Fabia

A 1.5dci clio/megane is a fair shout too - very economical and being french and common over there they will know how to fix all the common issues (if any crop up, the engine itself is meant to be pretty reliable IIRC)

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

2014 plate from £5.5k, this one in budget but a little older - https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

Edited by kiethton on Monday 23 October 09:51

[Pistom]

bungz said:

Diesel Mk4 Mondeo.

Loads about for that sort of money.

I love threads where you start reading them and then the next response is exactly what's in your head.

[milfordkong]

ExPat2B said:

The thing is, there simply are not ANY 50mpg diesel saloons without at least SOME problems. They are simply too complex, the tolerances too fine.

Any engine with a turbo, half a mile of wiring, vaccum and pressurised tubes and the associated electronics is a risk.

The best you can do it pick one without any particularly horrible issues ( usually VAG engines ) and take a gamble that the fuel saving will make up for the mpg loss.

Thanks Pat, I hear you. Are there any petrol hatchbacks / small estates that'll comfortably get 50mpg on a gentle run? Or is that a pipe dream?

[bungz]

milfordkong said:

Thanks, I appreciate that. Is it the same 2.0 TDCi in the Focus of similar vintage?

Not as familiar with the focus but I would imagine so, its the PSA 2.0 lump used in loads of cars.

Pistom said:

I love threads where you start reading them and then the next response is exactly what's in your head.

[milfordkong]

kiethton said:

I'd be looking at something like:

Seat Leon/Octavia/VW Polo 1.6tdi (just scraping budget) or you may have a wider choice if looking at a 1.4tdi VW polo, Seat Ibiza or Fabia

A 1.5dci clio/megane is a fair shout too - very economical and being french and common over there they will know how to fix all the common issues (if any crop up, the engine itself is meant to be pretty reliable IIRC)

May work with a haggle: https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

2014 plate from £5.5k, this one in budget but a little older - https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

Cheers, I have the 1.5DCi in my Nissan van currently and it's been good to me so far - Megane might be a good shout, as you say, if they can't fix a Megane in France then well....

[milfordkong]

rallycross said:

Vovlo V50 D5 - a small estate with big engine ( 5 cylinder diesel).

Cheers, I like V50's but have read some horror stories - Mostly relating to the smaller engines though to be fair.

[nct001]

Mondeo can't match the refinement of the Citroen C5.... they have same 2.0 engine

[milfordkong]

nct001 said:

Mondeo can't match the refinement of the Citroen C5.... they have same 2.0 engine

That's interesting... Do you have experience of the C5?

[MorganP104]

MkV VW Golf 1.9 TDi

Five doors, decent sized boot, fairly refined, will munch miles all day long, and return 50mpg+ whilst it's doing it.

Buy the nicest one your budget will allow.

[ExPat2B]

milfordkong said:

ExPat2B said:

The thing is, there simply are not ANY 50mpg diesel saloons without at least SOME problems. They are simply too complex, the tolerances too fine.

Any engine with a turbo, half a mile of wiring, vaccum and pressurised tubes and the associated electronics is a risk.

The best you can do it pick one without any particularly horrible issues ( usually VAG engines ) and take a gamble that the fuel saving will make up for the mpg loss.

Thanks Pat, I hear you. Are there any petrol hatchbacks / small estates that'll comfortably get 50mpg on a gentle run? Or is that a pipe dream?

I just read that back and "take a gamble that the fuel saving will make up for the mpg loss" should have read "fuel saving will make up for any money lost from reliability issues"

The small petrol engines will juuuust about squeak 50mpg on a constant run, however you will find a 50mpg diesel engine driven in the gentle way required to 50mpg on a small petrol will start returning closer to 60mpg........and the 50mpg diesel will probably never drop below 40mpg no matter how you drive it wheres a small petrol will easily go down to 30mpg when driven hard.

One thing I have found is that the latest heavier SUV crossover type cars with a small turbo petrol engines don't get anywhere near book figures and are 35mpg cars in real use.

[Agent XXX]

Peugeot 405 estate.

Yes. You read that correctly.

[milfordkong]

ExPat2B said:

I just read that back and "take a gamble that the fuel saving will make up for the mpg loss" should have read "fuel saving will make up for any money lost from reliability issues"

The small petrol engines will juuuust about squeak 50mpg on a constant run, however you will find a 50mpg diesel engine driven in the gentle way required to 50mpg on a small petrol will start returning closer to 60mpg........and the 50mpg diesel will probably never drop below 40mpg no matter how you drive it wheres a small petrol will easily go down to 30mpg when driven hard.

One thing I have found is that the latest heavier SUV crossover type cars with a small turbo petrol engines don't get anywhere near book figures and are 35mpg cars in real use.

That's my thinking too... I'd rather the less complex nature of a petrol but the mpg saving diesel offers for regular 1500 mile journeys is just too tempting.

[milfordkong]

Agent XXX said:

Peugeot 405 estate.

Yes. You read that correctly.

I like it, leftfield - Not many around though this one looks good http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Peugeot-405-LXTD-1-9-Tur... What's your thinking behind the 405 suggestion?