Advice for Diesel under £7k

[jimmyb83]

Hello all,

I'm a newbie to this forum.

I'm currently looking to purchase a "new" used car - but because of my job I travel up to 40 miles a day. Instantly I thought of a diesel for the economy.

I have a budget limt of £7k, and I'm interested in the following cars (all diesel) -

Audi A3
Audi A4
VW Golf GT
Seat Leon FR

Any advice, thoughts or alternatives are greatly appreciated.

Many thanks

[PaulB81]

My mate had a Leon FR. I really liked it. Quite nippy too.

Also consider 120d, 320d, Mondeo

Not very exciting. I hope for your sake it won't be your only car

[AndyT77]

All the cars you mentioned are pretty much of a muchness, coming from the same stable. How about considering the following:

Alfa Romeo 147/159
Ford Focus/Mondeo
Jaguar X Type
Honda Civic/Accord
Vauxhall Astra/Vectra
Volvo S40

I would suggest you do some further research, using forums like this one, and others like Honest John, Auto Car etc. Then make a short list of cars to test drive.

[Golaboots]

40 miles a day isn't really that much. It would take a long time to recoup the extra costs of a diesel over a petrol.

It is hard to think of particular suggestions of cars, what size do you need? Are you after something sporty?

In general VAG group cars that you have suggested tend not to receive much love on here. Mostly because there are generally more interesting, better priced alternatives.

[jimmyb83]

Thanks everyone.

I'm after something self indulgent. I'll be doing majority of my driving on M1.

My car ownership history ain't great - Rover 25 and 206 on my cv.

[thinfourth2]

40 miles a day assuming 5 days a week = 200 miles a week
200x52 = 10400 miles a year

diesel 60mpg

10400/60=173 gallons
173gallons = 786litres
786 x 1.45 =£1140 a year

diesel 50mpg (more likely)

208 gallons = 945litres
945 x 1.45 = £1370 a year

petrol 40mpg

10400/40 = 260 gallons
260gallons = 1180 litres
1180 x 1.35 = £1595 a year


So you save £455 a year to have a diesel or half a turbo charger

or if you take more real world figures then £225 a year


I expect the diesel bores to be along talking about torque and they get 7million miles to the gallon

Edited by thinfourth2 on Saturday 18th February 08:10

[thinfourth2]

Oh and my Micra does 40 miles a day cost £700 to buy and does 50mpg on petrol

Leaving you 6 grand for a decent car which is M3 money

[jimmyb83]

Cheers ThinForth.

No disrepect to Micra's, but those aren't my cup of tea.

[thinfourth2]

jimmyb83 said:

Cheers ThinForth.

No disrepect to Micra's, but those aren't my cup of tea.

Most people hate them as they don't show how rich they are

[BE57 TOY]

A3 S line

[Pints]

I have the Golf GT TDI 2.0

It does the job but, being a VAG product (all your options seem to be), it can bore you to tears driving it everyday.

Thankfully you're only doing 40 miles a day, so you should be ok.

[VolvoT5]

thinfourth2 said:

I expect the diesel bores to be along talking about torque and they get 7million miles to the gallon

Edited by thinfourth2 on Saturday 18th February 08:10

This is a fair point but basing your sums on 40mpg from a petrol is a bit optimistic in my opinion. Yes 40mpg is possible but not driven equally. My car is a VAG tdi and I would have to absolutely thrash it everywhere to get close to 40mpg, with 2.0 petrol you would have to drive very gently to get close to 40mpg average.

Point is still valid though. 7k for a diesel or probably 5.5k for the equivalent pretrol.... if this guy is doing maybe 12-13k a year it is going to take a long time to get the money back.

[andy-xr]

If you want economy, strangely, you'll need to look at the Citroen C1 and it's variants.

Whether you'd want to do 40 miles a day in one on the M1 I don't know, but they're under budget brand new and average 60mpg

[Harji]

Up to 40 miles a day and you want a diesel? So some days you won't be doing 40 miles on the odd occasion that you do those endurance miles is your justification for a diesel?

Edited by Harji on Saturday 18th February 09:47

[edward1]

147, then at least when sat in the traffic jams you are in a nice interior! The JTD 16v is a reliable unit (in my experience) and as far as I know no DPF to worry about on 147's or 156's for that matter. For your money you will get a much nicer newer car than you will looking at anything VAG and the diesel engine in the alfa is more refined.