Buy diesel or not? Advising a friend.

[ecain63]

My wife's friend is in the market for a sub £12k car for her family and commute. The only criteria are that it has to be reliable, economical and low on the road fund. She's looking at a Focus sized vehicle, probably an estate. My first thoughts are:

A new Kia. They offer great warranty and for her needs it ticks boxes ref value.
Dacia: As above.

The question is, should she look at diesels or avoid due to the possibility of them being hammered tax and costs wise in a few years?

Your help is much appreciated.

Eddie

[DaveH23]

How many and what type of miles?

If she is doing short city journeys a petrol will return better MPG than a diesel.

If she is doing longer miles where a diesel has tine to get up to temp then that will return better MPG.

Need more info really.

[300bhp/ton]

ecain63 said:

My wife's friend is in the market for a sub £12k car for her family and commute. The only criteria are that it has to be reliable, economical and low on the road fund. She's looking at a Focus sized vehicle, probably an estate. My first thoughts are:

A new Kia. They offer great warranty and for her needs it ticks boxes ref value.
Dacia: As above.

The question is, should she look at diesels or avoid due to the possibility of them being hammered tax and costs wise in a few years?

Your help is much appreciated.

Eddie

Why do you think people on here will have crystal balls and be able to answer and otherwise impossible question?

However adding a little common sense to the equation. Diesel cars are by far and away the most prolific for the average driver. Do you honestly believe the Government in all their wisdom will alienate their voting public by excessively hammering them with tax on an overnight change?

[MoleVision]

300bhp/ton said:

Do you honestly believe the Government in all their wisdom will alienate their voting public by excessively hammering them with tax on an overnight change?

Dunno... My crystal ball is broken.

[ecain63]

Thanks for the constructive responses.

[BoRED S2upid]

If she does enough miles then why not? They have already changed tax I can't see a £30 a year car increasing to £200 or £300 and the money saved on fuel pays dividends we have 2 both £30 a year tax and 50-60 mpg. Dull as hell mind.

[Jag_NE]

on the assumption that she sees a car solely as a means of transport and wants to solely minimise costs and grief, something like a Toyota auris hybrid would be ideal. At 12k you would get something with a big chunk of the 5 year warranty left, strong reliability, negligible road tax and extremely strong MPG assuming she isn't hammering it down motorways all day at 90. very practical, 5 door hatch, probably all the car you need for 99% of occasions. and about as un-pistonheads as it gets!

[ecain63]

Jag_NE said:

on the assumption that she sees a car solely as a means of transport and wants to solely minimise costs and grief, something like a Toyota auris hybrid would be ideal. At 12k you would get something with a big chunk of the 5 year warranty left, strong reliability, negligible road tax and extremely strong MPG assuming she isn't hammering it down motorways all day at 90. very practical, 5 door hatch, probably all the car you need for 99% of occasions. and about as un-pistonheads as it gets!

Thanks, that's the sort of answer I was looking for.

[thebraketester]

Need to know mileage.

Sub 20k a year and I'd be getting a petrol everytime.

[ecain63]

thebraketester said:

Need to know mileage.

Sub 20k a year and I'd be getting a petrol everytime.

I think 20k would be a maximum based on his daily commute of 40 miles round trip. Weekends and holidays will top that up quite possibly.

I'd be suggesting petrol myself but as it's not my car I don't want to step out of line.

[thebraketester]

I'd say petrol defo then.

[CrgT16]

For me if less than 25k then petrol. I can see buying a diesel for less mileage than that. I just prefer petrol engines. I don't smoke so could care much for the savings on a diesel.

[FiF]

200 miles a week multiply that by 46 working weeks is just over 9000, 9200 to be exact.

Weekends and holidays going to double that? Unlikely.

It's going to be down to preference, personally I'd go petrol, something from Toyota, Honda or Kia. But you may be limited by availability of fuel type, eg Hyundai i40 Estate, out of 220 <12000 only 1 is petrol.

[Tony427]

ecain63 said:

Jag_NE said:

on the assumption that she sees a car solely as a means of transport and wants to solely minimise costs and grief, something like a Toyota auris hybrid would be ideal. At 12k you would get something with a big chunk of the 5 year warranty left, strong reliability, negligible road tax and extremely strong MPG assuming she isn't hammering it down motorways all day at 90. very practical, 5 door hatch, probably all the car you need for 99% of occasions. and about as un-pistonheads as it gets!

Thanks, that's the sort of answer I was looking for.

My Mrs does a horrible commute in and out of Birmingham every daywas looking for exactly as was said above, lack of grief, low running costs and reliability, and so we bought a Diesel 1.6 Auris and it is indeed the perfect car for the job. The computer tells me that she is averaging 18mph over the course of the last 7 months with a average MPG of 43.2. It has all the electronic gizmos that enable her to sync her phone, kindle etc to it so she can listen to audio books as she sits in the traffic. Then when she gets bored she phones me or others up for a chat.

Occasionally I get to drive it at weekends and can improve the MPG past 55 on a run and the car is quite enjoyable to drive as it has more mid range grunt than my 2.4 5 pot Volvo. 6th gear is useless under 60 mph but on the motoway the car is a lovely cruiser.

We got 4.5 years and 95,000 miles of the warranty remaining when we bought the car for bang on your budget.

The car was an excellent choice for us. Highly recommended.

Cheers,

Tony

[ecain63]

FiF said:

200 miles a week multiply that by 46 working weeks is just over 9000, 9200 to be exact.

Weekends and holidays going to double that? Unlikely.

It's going to be down to preference, personally I'd go petrol, something from Toyota, Honda or Kia. But you may be limited by availability of fuel type, eg Hyundai i40 Estate, out of 220 <12000 only 1 is petrol.

They do a good amount of weekend miles as they are quite into the outdoors and have 2 kids. Looking at the Hyundi i30 they do a range of petrol and deisel cars in the 18 month old area and sub £12k. Deisel would appear to be the way to go regarding consumption??

[Jag_NE]

ecain63 said:

They do a good amount of weekend miles as they are quite into the outdoors and have 2 kids. Looking at the Hyundi i30 they do a range of petrol and deisel cars in the 18 month old area and sub £12k. Deisel would appear to be the way to go regarding consumption??

yes if they are doing decent mileage i would definitely go diesel, wasn't aware of that when i typed earlier and suggested the hybrid.

by the time any draconian diesel legislation is brought in the car will be worth nowt anyway!

if going diesel i wouldn't go Korean or Jap, Peugeot 308 estate, Renault megane estate, ford focus estate, all do cracking diesels and great value at 1-2 year old.

French cars are reliable these days but most people don't know it hence they depreciate like hell and make for great second hand buys.

[ecain63]

They bought a 16 plate Kia Cee'd in the end. 11k miles with 7 years warranty (got topped up in the deal) and the dealer took their old French wreck for £400 off the price. It would appear they are happy.

[JMBMWM5]

ecain63 said:

They bought a 16 plate Kia Cee'd in the end. 11k miles with 7 years warranty (got topped up in the deal) and the dealer took their old French wreck for £400 off the price. It would appear they are happy.

My wife has the 2017 KIA RIO 3 diesel, second one she has had, loves it. 60+ MPG too.

[cayman-black]

Pictures or it didn't happen.....

[ecain63]

cayman-black said:

Pictures or it didn't happen.....