Practical car, 50+mpg?

[MikeHull]

Hi,

I will soon be commuting to a new job. I've worked out that over the next two months I will be doing over 5100 miles to get to work (142 miles a day).
My current car is only returning around 40mpg (ZT diesel). My commute will be down to 73 miles a day from the end of February, so will still need an economical car.

Is there anything out there sub £2k that will return 50+mpg?

Thanks.

[ImpossiblyDaft]

Citroen Saxo / Peugeot 106 1.5D ? Wouldn't be much fun to commute in, though.

Really though, its a couple of hundred quid on fuel as 40mpg is hardly dreadful - surely there's a fairly hefty risk of buying something a bit knackered and having to spend more than that to fix it?

[John145]

Mondeo / Focus TDCi variant.

[Captain Muppet]

MikeHull said:

Hi,

Is there anything out there sub £2k that will return 50+mpg?

137 cars on PH classifieds:
http://classifieds.pistonheads.com/classifieds?Cat...

[kiethton]

Audi A6 estate, Audi A4 estate, Skoda Octavia estate, etc.....with 1.9 TDI engine

[300bhp/ton]

MikeHull said:

Hi,

I will soon be commuting to a new job. I've worked out that over the next two months I will be doing over 5100 miles to get to work (142 miles a day).
My current car is only returning around 40mpg (ZT diesel). My commute will be down to 73 miles a day from the end of February, so will still need an economical car.

Is there anything out there sub £2k that will return 50+mpg?

Thanks.

Largely this will depend on how you drive. But a diesel anything small should be fairly good on fuel. L-Series Rover 200/25 or MG ZR. Or any Ford, VW, Vauxhall, Mazda, etc etc equivalent.

I used to commute in a Pug 106 1.5d (110 miles a day). I can't say it was nice, but it was good on fuel.I typically got 62-66mpg out of it, although on it's last tank running V-Power diesel I reckon it was nearer to 78mpg!

But you really had to drive it right, drive it just a little bit harder (extra 5-10mph faster on dual carriageway) and you'd be down to 45-48mpg.

[Slow]

Dont kill me for suggesting this but a vw transporter? Not sure on the prices but a mate in college has one and he said he does 50mpg.

Also pretty nippy and can carry stuff.

[300bhp/ton]

Slow said:

Dont kill me for suggesting this but a vw transporter? Not sure on the prices but a mate in college has one and he said he does 50mpg.

Also pretty nippy and can carry stuff.

50mpg from a van? What age is it? We used one when on tour and while I was impressed with how frugal it was, it was a loooong way off 50mpg.

Indeed Parkers claim the Golf (04-08) 1.9 TDI does 53mpg. I'm not sure how adding weight, rolling resistance, worse aero and likely shorter gearing is going to allow the Transporter to offer pretty much the same fuel economy.

Happy to be wrong though.

[RenesisEvo]

ImpossiblyDaft said:

Really though, its a couple of hundred quid on fuel as 40mpg is hardly dreadful - surely there's a fairly hefty risk of buying something a bit knackered and having to spend more than that to fix it?

This - going from 40mpg to 50mpg, over 5000 miles (and assuming 1.45/litre) your total annual saving will be about £165. Not worth changing cars for. Perhaps concentrate instead on better observation, anticipation and planning to deliver a more economical drive (if you aren't already getting the most you can whilst being reasonable), and you will probably see more savings that way.

[ATM]

A small petrol engined fiat can achieve this and if the engine blows up you can get another for 50 quid.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251187123545?ssPageName=...

[MikeHull]

Thanks for the replies guys.

I'll still be doing over 10k miles for the rest of the working year as well (4 on 4 off) so would it still not be worth getting a more frugal car?

I dont fancy the injector failure that may occur on my car mind lol.

[Slow]

300bhp/ton said:

50mpg from a van? What age is it? We used one when on tour and while I was impressed with how frugal it was, it was a loooong way off 50mpg.

Indeed Parkers claim the Golf (04-08) 1.9 TDI does 53mpg. I'm not sure how adding weight, rolling resistance, worse aero and likely shorter gearing is going to allow the Transporter to offer pretty much the same fuel economy.

Happy to be wrong though.

I belive if you remap them (I know the golfs and boras had the blacksmoke remap for like £80 which improved mpg and bhp)
they get about 50ish mpg and more bhps?
Could be my mate talking out his arse for all i know however.

[sparks_E39]

1.9 TDI Passat.

[shaun442k]

206 HDi.
1.4 for economy, 2.0 for a bit more speed(all relative of course).

[SVX]

Volvo V70 D5, buying on condition not age should see you right.

[Chrisw666]

Over 2.5 years and with no great effort on her part SWMBOs KA has averaged 45mpg, its the later 70hp duratec one and they are easily available under £2k, with a bit of effort you'll get 50mpg out of one, they're quite fun to drive and you have none of the diesel issues. Plus they're utterly disposable.

[MGgeordie]

You will miss the comfort of you're ZT thats for sure. Ive not had a car as comfy as my ZT for cruising in (apart from a Renault 25 a long time ago!)

I'm sure that the diesel version should do more than 40mpg, I know someone who has one that claims it does 55mpg + on a run. I would get yours looked at before you think about changing it as there may be something wrong thats affecting the economy.

[PaperCut]

kiethton said:

Audi A6 estate, Audi A4 estate, Skoda Octavia estate, etc.....with 1.9 TDI engine

...SEAT Toledo/Cordoba, VW Bora. I had the latter, 110bhp and easy 50-55mpg on a steady (60mph!) run. Even caning it mid to high 40s. Pretty much bombproof and sub 2k.