Fast ish petrol car that can get (even close to) 50mpg?

[tight fart]

Looking to change cars, budget sub £15k, would like,,,
Room to put a dog in the back, so happy with an estate.
Cheapish road tax.
Sporty performance.
Around 50 mpg.
And petrol!
Any ideas, I'm drawing a blank unless I go deisel.

[MJK 24]

Depends on your definition of fast.

The Audi A4 1.4 petrol posts a better (meaningless) 0-60 time than the 2.0 TDI. I drove one to Italy and back and it’ll comfortably do 50mpg with the AC on at 75-80mph.

You may need to wait 6 months or so for them to fall into budget.

[PartOfTheProblem]

What you want doesn't really exist to be honest.

I think the closest you'll get to 50mpg from an estate at under £15k would be a Skoda Octavia 1.5TSI, but even then I'd expect mid-40s mpg over mixed driving.

[Scobblelotcher]

I think we could do with you clarifying what you mean by sporty performance?

To be honest most frugal, normal petrol cars will struggle to achieve 50mpg with mixed driving never mind something with decent performance,

[Equus]

The 1.6 litre Lotus Elise S officially does 56.5mpg extra urban, and is one of the quickest cars you can buy, point-to-point.

But I sense that's not the answer you're looking for...

[Hub]

You're probably limited to Octavia 1.4 or SEAT Ibiza 1.4 estates. Or some sort of hybrid depending on your mix of driving?

[anonymous-user]

Spec B

[Haltamer]

If you can find a cheap new civic 1.5, https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...
That's got a good amount of performance - Official MPG Is 47, Though https://www.honestjohn.co.uk/realmpg/honda/civic-2... gives it ~43.
If you sacrifice some performance, you could opt for the 1.0, though that seems to get a lower real world MPG - Most likely as it needs to be worked harder.

[Dracoro]

Or knock a couple of grand off and buy what you’d rather like but only gets, say, 35mlg. That couple of grand pays for a lot of petrol.

35mpg is £1,600 a year in petrol per 10k miles.
45mpg is £1,250 a year “”””””””

[300bhp/ton]

tight fart said:

Looking to change cars, budget sub £15k, would like,,,
Room to put a dog in the back, so happy with an estate.
Cheapish road tax.
Sporty performance.
Around 50 mpg.
And petrol!
Any ideas, I'm drawing a blank unless I go deisel.

I don’t think this is possible. Not as an average mpg.

I run a smart ForTwo. There is a bigger ForFour that may fit a dog in. Not exactly quick, although probably not a million miles off hot hatches of yesteryear.

I average 44mpg over 21,000 miles from new. NEDC mpg claims are way higher. Think even into the 70’s.

Best I’ve ever got over any sort of distance is 67mpg and that required HUGE effort and concentration.

So I’m less convinced 50mpg — “average” is going to be possible no matter the car. Maybe an ev is an option?

[Plate spinner]

Dracoro said:

Or knock a couple of grand off and buy what you’d rather like but only gets, say, 35mlg. That couple of grand pays for a lot of petrol.

35mpg is £1,600 a year in petrol per 10k miles.
45mpg is £1,250 a year “”””””””

This ^^

[MrGTI6]

If it can't be a diesel, then as others have suggested, lower the budget a bit to compensate for poorer MPG. That should open up a load of options!

[ST Ford]

Who the hell spends 15k on a sporty car and then worries about mpg? Unless your doing over 15k miles per year i don’t see the point in having a set mpgzzz requirement the difference between a 200+bhp fun enjoyable hot hatch getting 35mpg and a boring 150hp car getting 45-50mpg at a push is minimal. Not worth worrying about if you have 15k for a car.
Skoda VRs estate or Focus ST estate sound like they would fit the bill

[Truckosaurus]

If money saving is the goal, then I'd be more worried about potential repair costs on any petrol engine that could get into the 40s.

An Octavia vRS should give you mid/high 30s MPG and cheap to run and repair.

[fatboy b]

If you don’t mind the trim rattling or falling off, then a Golf 1.4tsi 150 is a good engine.

[Jim the Sunderer]

There's a somewhat rare Focus Focus 1.6 Ecoboost, with one of them remaps might work.

[GroundEffect]

Do you want it to give you a blowjob too?

[Smiljan]

kapiteinlangzaam said:

I had a new A3 sportback TFSI rental last week.

Went well enough (im guessing about 7-8s to 60). OBC said it averaged 45-55mpg over the week.

Sounded like a diesel, strangely enough.

I have one, it does high 40's on long runs at 75-80mph. Does around 8s 0-60 and sounds like a bag of spanners when running on 2 cylinders at lower speeds in town.

They are gutless off boost though, for example if you get caught in 2nd pulling away at low speed you barely move and aren't exactly known for their stunning good looks. Great car though, I'd think any with the same engine or the 1.5 engine would fit the bill nicely for what you're after.

[s m]

kapiteinlangzaam said:

I had a new A3 sportback TFSI rental last week.

Went well enough (im guessing about 7-8s to 60). OBC said it averaged 45-55mpg over the week.

Sounded like a diesel, strangely enough.

A1 TFSI 148 bhp is comfortably mid 7s ( DSG will do 7.1 ) and will do getting on for 50mpg on a run
Handles well and seats fold in back for a dog unless you need to carry 4/5 at same time

[nicanary]

MJK 24 said:

Depends on your definition of fast.

The Audi A4 1.4 petrol posts a better (meaningless) 0-60 time than the 2.0 TDI. I drove one to Italy and back and it’ll comfortably do 50mpg with the AC on at 75-80mph.

You may need to wait 6 months or so for them to fall into budget.

I got an Audi A4 Avant with the 1.4 Tfsi engine a few months ago - 2 years old and cost £14,500, half the price of a new one. Usually achieves 50mpg on a run. Average mpg is around 45/48. A warning if you want sporty - acceleration in town use is sluggish. OK on the open road if you want mid-range punch, but from a standstill it's hopeless.