Horrible motorway commute £6,000

[embo182]

Hi folks, help please, don't know which way to go.
40 miles each way through crawling Manchester ring road, can regularly take 90 minutes one way.
I own Scooby WRX (thirsty, don't want to add the miles), Mx5 (noisy exhaust, too much on a hood up commute, but wonderful) which are keepers.

I'm thinking comfy, soothing auto, not too thirsty. £6,000 maximum.

Obvious choice is 320d, just worried about old diesel reliability.
Or go for a medium sized petrol, Civic?
The Civic hybrid looks great, but I've read that their batteries fail after 6 years.

I am open to all suggestions around £6,000 auto.

Cheers.

[mat205125]

Sounds like you need a two wheeled commuter, to beat the traffic more effectively.

Something small and diesel like a Skoda Fabia VRS would be the next best option for four wheeled bargain commuting ..... something that you could treat as a white good, and not be too precious about, yet being cheap to run and economical.

[Mr E]

If you can charge the car at work, consider something electric (might be slightly out of price range, but fuel savings may help).
The leaf is almost as relaxing to drive as the e-class.

[heisthegaffer]

Just about to flog my 1.8 petrol Civic (not a plug!) and have replaced with another lower mileage virtually identical one, pretty good on motorway. In June I did a 60mile trip on m25 and the trip computer suggested I was getting 52.5mpg! That was a mix of speeds including a fair distance at 70.

Note, I very much doubt I was getting that but even if its 20% out that's still very good.

So you could worse

[embo182]

Hi Mat, good shout on the Fabia, always did think they were good, auto though?

[embo182]

Cheers Mr E, the Boss won't charge my motor up I can guarantee that! Would be great though. 😂🤣

[embo182]

Heistthegaffer, good to hear about the Civic, looking good that, thanks.

[bungz]

Dull but for 6 grand youd get a nice 1.6 hdi Focus without loony miles.

Later 1.6's are fine and they give great milage in those sort of situations.

[Smiljan]

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

Toyota Auris Hybrid. (Prius clone). Cheap to run, bombproof and very,very dull.

[jackh707]

320d as mentioned

Try and get a late e90 with the 184 engine.

I wouldn’t worry too much about miles.

Mines coming up to 80k and still drives like new, good mpg, nice place to sit, well insulated and still quite good to drive.

[aaron_2000]

I'd go 520d, much nicer place to be for the commute than a 3 Series.

[rallycross]

I went for a Vovlo S60 D5 auto for this, my one is now past 165,000 miles but totally reliable, great on fuel, mega comfy to sit in, good music, heated seats, good AC.

Averages between 45 and 50 mpg, cheap to buy, no one pays any attention to it when left lying around, starts even if left for a month un-used, prices start from shed money upwards.

[Ron99]

All cars will be thirsty in crawling traffic but the smaller the engine the less thirsty it's likely to be.
However, in general, small engines don't work so well with auto boxes.
Diesels might not be able to regenerate their DPF - they need both high mileage and regularly stretching their legs to regenerate properly; that's why taxi drivers all take out the DPF.

[Deerfoot]

Smiljan said:

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

Toyota Auris Hybrid. (Prius clone). Cheap to run, bombproof and very,very dull.

Is what I'd be looking at.

[embo182]

Smiljan, that Auris looks good. Cheers.

[DailyHack]

I do the same commute to Manchester - my daily is a '12 E91 318d nice place to be the E90/91's and can pick up some good ones around £6k really reasonable, again wouldn't worry about miles they are pretty solid tanks - mine is coming up to 100k now, great mile muncher.

[ZX10R NIN]

A diesel will be fine with your commute but the 302d has a reputation for timing chain issues.

Now in your position I'd buy a bike 3k gets you a good one leaving you 2k to take your test & get all the kit you need for year round commuting, which even on the worst day would be around 50 minutes rather than 90:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Kawasaki-ZX6R-636-C1H-2...f:1

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Kawasaki-ZX636-NINJA-ZX...f:1

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2004-04-SUZUKI-GSXR600-...f:0

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Suzuki-GSXR-750-K5/1133...f:0

Failing that I'd recommend one of these:

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

In a slow stop start commute you'll see around 35 mpg when I was taking it into Central London it would average 28 mpg but that was with pretty much no motorway on a run I'd 44-48 mpg not I'm not light with my right foot, those figures were achieved with my remapped 270.

The drivetrain is nigh on bombproof make sure the Gearbox fluid & filters have been/are changed every 40k, I ran mine up to 170k & sold it on with the only extras being suspension alternator & number 5 injector in the 100k I had it for.

If you want to bring the audio up to date then I can recommend the Pioneer SPH DA230 DAB apart from that, it's a very relaxing place to be when you're stuck in traffic & can scoot along at a decent lick when you're not.

[embo182]

ZX10NIN, ha ha ha, I do have a bike licence, bike got stolen 20 years ago, never replaced it.....

I do like the 270 Mercedes, looks like a lovely place to be. Thank you.

[embo182]

Thank you for all the valuable advice, especially the superbikes! Going to look at the BMW and the Volvo, a bit twitchy about 8 year old hybrids.
Thank you all. Love this group.
Cheers.
Em.

[ninjag]

When it comes to crawling on the motorway I prefer SUVs. More space and you can see a lot more up ahead and also all around.