What's the best MPG for £2000 - did I buy the right car?

[ingenieur]

I decided with the cost of fuel high to begin with and more recently even higher it would be a good idea to get a commuting car where only fuel economy was a consideration. The price had to be low as well because if you spend a load of money on a car that's supposed to be economical then you've already lost.

I settled on a Vauxhall Corsa 1.3 EcoFlex. The on paper the figures seemed to be the best of any I could find in that price range and on the 100 mile journey home I verified them getting the on-paper figures in real life.. or close enough.

Could I have done better?

[Largechris]

I think that's realistically about as good as you'll do for 2G.

Provided you don't need more space.

Allegedly a chipped first gen Prius can do 100mpg.

[Limpet]

That's pretty impressive.

Most economical car of the dozens I've owned was a manual F30 320d Efficient Dynamics, which would return a genuine mid-70s trip average on a long gentle motorway run, but took some very sedate driving to get up there. The "not trying" economy was somewhere in the low 50s.

Not many cars I know that will do 80+ for real, and certainly not for £2k

[MattyD803]

Great work on that. I can't imagine you could do much better for the money.....the 1.5dCi clios can be incredibly frugle, as can the 1.4 TDCi fiestas.....but more than 84mpg frugal, I doubt it.....

A work colleague had a 1.6 diesel 9th gen Civic and once run in, he claimed that it would just nudge 85mpg on a very gentle run up to Scotland and back to see his daughter (from Dorset) on a door to door run.....but you wouldn't get one of those for £2k, that's for sure.

Edited by MattyD803 on Wednesday 6th July 14:36

[ingenieur]

Largechris said:

I think that's realistically about as good as you'll do for 2G.

Provided you don't need more space.

Allegedly a chipped first gen Prius can do 100mpg.

I think if you spend a lot on a car you defeat the purpose if all you were setting out to do was reduce your fuel bill.

Having said that, it would be interesting to know what others there are even if you had to spend a bit more to get something later perhaps?

[ingenieur]

MattyD803 said:

Great work on that. I can't imagine you could do much better for the money.....the 1.5dCi clios can be incredibly frugle, as can the 1.4 TDCi fiestas.....but more than 84mpg frugal, I doubt it.....

By the way... this is the 95hp version which seemed to be available for only a brief period around 2012 / 2013 sort of era. This one is a 2013 model. The far more common version is 74hp and a good 10mpg-or-so worse on fuel.

[MattyD803]

ingenieur said:

By the way... this is the 95hp version which seemed to be available for only a brief period around 2012 / 2013 sort of era. This one is a 2013 model. The far more common version is 74hp and a good 10mpg-or-so worse on fuel.

My dad worked for BT his entire working life and retired recently. For his last 4 or 5 years he had a little 2013 1.3 CDTi ecoflex 3dr corsa panel van, which after 6 months or so, BT had their fleet 'governed' for environmental reasons - It was limited to 70mph, but he also felt had been 'detuned' for economy. He would hammer that around town (London suburbs mostly) all day and was amazed at how very very infrequently he ever had to refuel it (compared to his previous diesel vans). He obviously never bothered to work it out, but I wonder what that would have given mpg wise.....baring in mind, no rear seats, windows, mechs etc.

EDIT: Either way - I digress - great effort. Fingers crossed for no big bills to undo your hard work. Said BT van had 2 new turbo's in it's life with him.

Edited by MattyD803 on Wednesday 6th July 14:44

[ingenieur]

MattyD803 said:

ingenieur said:

By the way... this is the 95hp version which seemed to be available for only a brief period around 2012 / 2013 sort of era. This one is a 2013 model. The far more common version is 74hp and a good 10mpg-or-so worse on fuel.

My dad worked for BT his entire working life and retired recently. For his last 4 or 5 years he had a little 2013 1.3 CDTi corsa panel van, which BT had 'governed' for environmental reasons - It was limited to 70mph, but he also felt it was 'detuned' for economy. He would hammer that around town all day and was amazed at how very very frequently he ever had to refuel it (compared to his previous diesel vans). He never worked it out, but I wonder what that would have given mpg wise.....baring in mind, no rear seats, windows etc.

I doubt the weight saving would've had much of an impact as rear seats in a car like that weigh nothing. I reckon tyres and tracking would be a good place to look for additional savings. It sounds like that BT van is the same spec as this car.

[Largechris]

ingenieur said:

Largechris said:

I think that's realistically about as good as you'll do for 2G.

Provided you don't need more space.

Allegedly a chipped first gen Prius can do 100mpg.

I think if you spend a lot on a car you defeat the purpose if all you were setting out to do was reduce your fuel bill.

Having said that, it would be interesting to know what others there are even if you had to spend a bit more to get something later perhaps?

I mentioned the first gen Prius specifically because it's available for about the same sort of money:

https://www.pistonheads.com/buy/listing/13365823

[SturdyHSV]

ingenieur said:

MattyD803 said:

Great work on that. I can't imagine you could do much better for the money.....the 1.5dCi clios can be incredibly frugle, as can the 1.4 TDCi fiestas.....but more than 84mpg frugal, I doubt it.....

By the way... this is the 95hp version which seemed to be available for only a brief period around 2012 / 2013 sort of era. This one is a 2013 model. The far more common version is 74hp and a good 10mpg-or-so worse on fuel.

I used to have a 1.5dCi Clio and it would comfortably do 60-65mpg without much deliberate effort, getting it over 70 was harder work though, and I don't think it would have managed 85mpg on anything resembling a useful journey.

That is impressively frugal, given the same distance in my daily would have used 4 times as much fuel then as I assume it's only a few hundred quid to insure, tax and MOT I'd break even in about 7,500 miles

[ingenieur]

This car is free road tax as well.

I did notice the Prius had a good MPG figure but I thought trying to find one which had not been a mini cab and which was not running solely on the petrol engine due to knackard hybrid gear would be too much of a challenge. I've been in a petrol-only Prius minicab before and I hardly ever use taxis so is it common for them to be in that state?

[WIWs]

I've been looking at getting an MHD Smart ForTwo for the exact same reason, on paper 85mpg zero road tax easy parking etc, but no decent ones have come up for sale locally yet...

[Baldchap]

I got a brim-brim 88.2mpg from a mk1 Skoda Fabia vRS during the second fuel crisis in about 2006 or 2007 (the one that sort of never was). 1.9PD TDI. I'll bet they're in the £2k bracket by now.

Problem with efficient petrols is you have to try really hard to get the economy. With a diesel you get it however you drive and then even more if you try.

I'll bet smaller, non-performance diesels would crack three figures without much effort.

[J4CKO]

That is impressive, my sons mate runs a Fabia diesel estate, think its 75 bhp and that does 70 plus.

The Electric Corsa apparently does an equivalent of 152 mpg, but you cant get them for 2 grand yet.

[Largechris]

ingenieur said:

This car is free road tax as well.

I did notice the Prius had a good MPG figure but I thought trying to find one which had not been a mini cab and which was not running solely on the petrol engine due to knackard hybrid gear would be too much of a challenge. I've been in a petrol-only Prius minicab before and I hardly ever use taxis so is it common for them to be in that state?

In my head people have mentioned new batteries being cheap and easy for the Prius so I don't know why moon mileage taxis would be running only on petrol, however I could be wrong and a Prius expert would need to advise.

[aaron_2000]

Largechris said:

I mentioned the first gen Prius specifically because it's available for about the same sort of money:

https://www.pistonheads.com/buy/listing/13365823

That's a 2nd gen Prius

My £600 320d gave me 6 months of trouble free driving without a single bill and did 50-70mpg

[ingenieur]

WIWs said:

I've been looking at getting an MHD Smart ForTwo for the exact same reason, on paper 85mpg zero road tax easy parking etc, but no decent ones have come up for sale locally yet...

Yeah they could probably get the MPG but I have to have 5-doors and rear seats for putting small kids into the back.

[ingenieur]

J4CKO said:

That is impressive, my sons mate runs a Fabia diesel estate, think its 75 bhp and that does 70 plus.

The Electric Corsa apparently does an equivalent of 152 mpg, but you cant get them for 2 grand yet.

I looked at the Nissan Leaf while browsing. They're about £3k-£4k but at that price they were quoting range of 25-40 miles on a charge. To me that means 20 to 25 miles on a good day and I just had this image of having to go out and rescue the wife's car from the side of the road had I dared to go for a cheap electric.

[stogbandard]

The problem with getting a Prius it’s the automotive version of that person who farts in the same aisle of a supermarket - you give them a very wide berth.

[Gtom]

I got this in a mk2.5 focus estate 1.8tdci on a 70mph drive from Derby to Hull. It’s replacement, a mk3 focus estate 2.0tdci won’t do much above 42mpg. This cost £2000, the former was £1100.