Help! 135+ motorway miles a week- currently in a Jimmy!

[OriginalJunglist]

The initial message was deleted from this topic on 17 June 2017 at 03:13

[anonymous-user]

I have Skoda Octavia TDI 130, I do 70 mile commute, get around mids 40 to a gallon. Very easy to drive long distances. Paid about £800 for mine, spent a bit getting right but a good car and bit of wind noise at higher speeds but any vag with the tdi 130 engine is a good bet.

[qska]

OriginalJunglist said:

Hi all
Jimmy is probs worth about 5grandish so would be looking at around that figure!
Thanks

Are you serious?

I think you need to check your assumptions here.

Plus, 22 motorway miles are hardly far.

Pretty much any car can cope with that.

Diesel mpg is usually 20-30% better than petrol, yes.

But for your mileage the difference will be around £25 per month, so hardly worth worrying about.

[bigals]

qska said:

OriginalJunglist said:

Hi all
Jimmy is probs worth about 5grandish so would be looking at around that figure!
Thanks

Are you serious?

I think you need to check your assumptions here.

Plus, 22 motorway miles are hardly far.

Pretty much any car can cope with that.

Diesel mpg is usually 20-30% better than petrol, yes.

But for your mileage the difference will be around £25 per month, so hardly worth worrying about.

i am not sure the questions all about mpg but about comfort on his daily drive , my wife used to hack her jimmny from oxford to hungerford every day and it was fun on a sunny day with the roof off but long term not that relaxing ( if the A34 ever is) we swapped to a little 306 pug tdi and went from 30mpg to 48/50 mpg so over a month the savings did add up but that swup for us was more about having a car not a mini 4x4 to drive down a 70mph road in rush hour traffic

[CanAm]

OriginalJunglist said:

Hi all
Had a 1.3 petrol Suzuki Jimmy for the last two years, which is great fun in the snow, great for bumbling about and had always put a smile on my face and was excellent for my inner city 10min commute. However I moved house and switched jobs about 6months ago and currently commuting 44mile round trip on the motorway , the little 1.3 engine is quite gutless and I'm filling up 2/3times a week(petrol) and comfort rating isn't great and in the wind it can be a little crazy. My mate has a 6geared diesel bora and reckons he gets 250motoway miles on about 25quid!
Would I be better swapping for a bigger diesel? Would it be more economical?
What are the best cars out there for my commute - Mondao Jetta Passat ? Jimmy is probs worth about 5grandish so would be looking at around that figure!
Thanks

220 miles uses 3 tanks of petrol!!! How big ( or small) is the tank?
Sorry, just realised you said 135 miles in a week! At 44 miles for a round trip that's only 3 trips, but it's using 2 to 3 tanks of petrol. I think you should have the engine looked at.

Edited by CanAm on Wednesday 5th October 07:35

[ORD]

Have you done an engine swap for a 4 litre racing V8? 3 fill ups to do 135 miles. Sure.

[OriginalJunglist]

It's hard to explain what it's like driving a Jimny iif you have driven one. The car was valued at 6grand last year, it's fairly new in good condition hence why I said ish.
Cheers for replies. Yeah I do shift work so is only three trips for shifts but feels like forever in it, fuel also used in running around between shifts. But yeah also looking for something bigger /comfortable as well as economic

[funkyrobot]

OriginalJunglist said:

Hi all
Had a 1.3 petrol Suzuki Jimmy for the last two years

Do you mean this:



or this:

[Andehh]

Surely a VAG 1.9tdi barge is up there for the best cars to do this sort of thing.

[HorneyMX5]

The Jimny tank is tiny. I've only ever filled mine up once but I think it was less than £35 when filled from empty.

They're not actually that bad on fuel round town but motorways are not it's home ground. I'm still surprised I get mid 30s out of mine with a lift kit and spots all over it. It's about as aerodynamic as a shipping container.

[Super Slo Mo]

In terms of fuel saving, it's really not a huge amount of miles that you are doing, so the saving will not be all that great, and with a diesel will probably be wiped out by the greater costs of servicing, maintenance and repairs.

Have you thought about something like a Honda Civic? the 1.8 petrol engine is really zippy, pretty good on fuel (about the same as a diesel Mondeo if my SIster in Law's experience is anything to go by), and comfortable too. Reliability is up there amongst the best too.

Edit to add: a day or two ago there was a chap on here with a thread about selling his Mazda 3 2.0 Sport (petrol). Reasonable miles, full dealer history, and pretty cheap too. That would be ideal for a daily hack.

Edited by Super Slo Mo on Wednesday 5th October 13:05

[qska]

In that case an Octavia TDI will do the trick.

1.6 or 1.9 should be very frugal, and they're surprisingly refined on the motorway.

[Super Slo Mo]

qska said:

In that case an Octavia TDI will do the trick.

1.6 or 1.9 should be very frugal, and they're surprisingly refined on the motorway.

I just think a diesel is not the right car for 7,000 miles a year. Driven sensibly, a medium sized petrol will not cost a lot more in fuel anyway.

[TooMany2cvs]

HorneyMX5 said:

The Jimny tank is tiny. I've only ever filled mine up once but I think it was less than £35 when filled from empty.

Yeh, but even so...

My series Landy only takes about £40 of fuel - and guzzles it FAR worse than the Jimny will - mid teens MPG. Yet it still manages 150 miles from a tank.

[BugLebowski]

TooMany2cvs said:

Yeh, but even so...

My series Landy only takes about £40 of fuel - and guzzles it FAR worse than the Jimny will - mid teens MPG. Yet it still manages 150 miles from a tank.

A Jimnys tank is 40l if I remember right, mine used to get 250mile from a tank and the newer ones should be slightly better.

[ZX10R NIN]

OP if you want comfort & economy take a look at the Mondeo:

2008 91k Mondeo Titanium X Sport 180bhp
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2016...

2007 39k Titanium X 140bhp
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2016...

Or if you're doing low mileage:

2008 2.5T Mondeo Titanium X 50k 220bhp
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2016...

Edited by ZX10R NIN on Thursday 6th October 08:32

[qska]

Super Slo Mo said:

I just think a diesel is not the right car for 7,000 miles a year. Driven sensibly, a medium sized petrol will not cost a lot more in fuel anyway.

For his usage pattern, 20 miles each way is just about enough not to have DPF problems.

I think OP said he/she commutes 3 days a week?

[Super Slo Mo]

qska said:

Super Slo Mo said:

I just think a diesel is not the right car for 7,000 miles a year. Driven sensibly, a medium sized petrol will not cost a lot more in fuel anyway.

For his usage pattern, 20 miles each way is just about enough not to have DPF problems.

I think OP said he/she commutes 3 days a week?

Yes, true but diesels in general are more pricey to maintain and you usually don't start seeing savings until 12,000 plus miles per year.
Personally, having had several VW based cars, I would avoid them as they all have niggly little problems that, while they don't let you down, cost a lot to repair.
Japanese or Korean would be my choice. And that's from someone who would never have gone near one only 3 years ago.

[qska]

Super Slo Mo said:

Yes, true but diesels in general are more pricey to maintain and you usually don't start seeing savings until 12,000 plus miles per year.
Personally, having had several VW based cars, I would avoid them as they all have niggly little problems that, while they don't let you down, cost a lot to repair.
Japanese or Korean would be my choice. And that's from someone who would never have gone near one only 3 years ago.

Do tell :-)

I was looking for a cheap commuting hack, towards the VAG group products - small TDIs, with 2010 Octavia being on the list, and available in good prices. VRS a bit less purposeful (as less frugal).

So why should I not do it?

Do tell, so I can get on with my life and avoid hassle ;-)

[Super Slo Mo]

qska said:

Do tell :-)

I was looking for a cheap commuting hack, towards the VAG group products - small TDIs, with 2010 Octavia being on the list, and available in good prices. VRS a bit less purposeful (as less frugal).

So why should I not do it?

Do tell, so I can get on with my life and avoid hassle ;-)

It's nothing massive, just little things like the alternator pulley internal ratchet seizing (the ratchet reduces vibration somehow), air con pump failing, coolant temp sensor failing, MAF failure, console bushes failing. These were all on a Polo. My Superb, which was brand new was generally ok, but it had a number of little electrical gremlins, like the heating would go to max temperature, then all the way back to fully cold first thing, then quite often during a journey it would whizz around to max temperature again and back. My colleague's car, also brand new, had the electric mirror fold stop working.
The wife had a diesel Polo, that was ok mostly, but had to be in with VW every few weeks having the DPF cleaned. She replaced it with a 1.4 petrol, which has been great, and is nearly as good on fuel.

None of the above stopped the cars from working as they should, they're just annoying. By contrast, my Toyota has had nothing at all go wrong, it feels like the engineers have had the final say, not the accountants.

My sister in law had a Mondeo diesel, that cost a fortune to keep in good order, and eventually blew the engine. She replaced it with a £2,000 Civic 1.8 which has been faultless (she does 40,000 miles per year), and more or less as economical on fuel.

To be fair, the Octavia TDI's are pretty good, and I would still consider one. Hondas and Toyotas are generally more reliable, but the VW based cars tend to have a slightly better finished interior, although I can't complain about mine at all.

As far as the OP goes though, at his mileage I'd be sticking to petrol.