Finding an economical car
Discussion
Hi all,
I currently have a 1997 VW Golf 1.6 which I impulse purchased after passing my driving test. I didn't think about fuel economy and am now wishing I'd got a diesel as I drive 380 miles a week just to work and back. Also the road tax is around the £180 a year mark so was thinking about buying a much newer diesel car. Something along the lines of a Vauxhall Corsa, Ford Fiesta, VW Polo etc. They all claim to achieve 60+ mpg but what I'm interested to know is how achievable those figures are?
I'm not a particularly racey driver, I just keep up with the flow of traffic. I find the corsa particularly desirable purely from a price point of view becuase the are used examples around the £5,500 mark with less than 30-40k on the clock. I'm not a big car nut, I just want something reliable, that's cheap to run... If it had a usb socket for my iphone I would be over the moon, but don't know what's good and what's not.
Any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks
I currently have a 1997 VW Golf 1.6 which I impulse purchased after passing my driving test. I didn't think about fuel economy and am now wishing I'd got a diesel as I drive 380 miles a week just to work and back. Also the road tax is around the £180 a year mark so was thinking about buying a much newer diesel car. Something along the lines of a Vauxhall Corsa, Ford Fiesta, VW Polo etc. They all claim to achieve 60+ mpg but what I'm interested to know is how achievable those figures are?
I'm not a particularly racey driver, I just keep up with the flow of traffic. I find the corsa particularly desirable purely from a price point of view becuase the are used examples around the £5,500 mark with less than 30-40k on the clock. I'm not a big car nut, I just want something reliable, that's cheap to run... If it had a usb socket for my iphone I would be over the moon, but don't know what's good and what's not.
Any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks
I have no trouble achieving 55mg from a Faba TDi and 65mpg is possible with a very light touch.
However, if you are going to sell a car and buy another you might find that the cost of changing far outweighs any fuel cost savings.
Depreciation is generally the biggest cost in car ownership, so do some sums before parting with hard earned money.
However, if you are going to sell a car and buy another you might find that the cost of changing far outweighs any fuel cost savings.
Depreciation is generally the biggest cost in car ownership, so do some sums before parting with hard earned money.
If you want to save money, and not spend a fortune switching over, get an older Diesel Clio. They may not be the greatest car in the world, but the 1.9 Turbo does (real world) about 55mpg and still has some power, and the 1.5 Dci which came later does about 62mpg, but doesn't have any power at all. You can get these cars for £400-1,000 in half decent nick. Obviously if you buy something newer, your savings will take years to happen. If that's the route you choose, as someone mentioned, VW but not VW. Skoda is such good value it's silly.
Anyway, man maths or not man maths, I wish I'd grown a pair and done that over a year ago, as I'd have saved (with the cost of a new car being erased by the cost of overhaul repairs to my current car atthe time of acquirement) about £3K in fuel costs.
That's rather depressing, as I knew it'd be a lot of money, but I'd never actually tackled the sums. Grim tings.
Edit: If you want a USB socket for your iPhone, just buy an aftermarket stereo with iPod support. You can get them from £50-£100 new.
Anyway, man maths or not man maths, I wish I'd grown a pair and done that over a year ago, as I'd have saved (with the cost of a new car being erased by the cost of overhaul repairs to my current car atthe time of acquirement) about £3K in fuel costs.
That's rather depressing, as I knew it'd be a lot of money, but I'd never actually tackled the sums. Grim tings.
Edit: If you want a USB socket for your iPhone, just buy an aftermarket stereo with iPod support. You can get them from £50-£100 new.
Currently drive a Suzuki alto sz4 has aircon phone socket for my iphone, bought it when they had no vat on the models, paid 6995 for it, can pick up used ones with 8k plus on for fair bit cheaper 38 pounds gets me about 450 miles or 400 round town, it might not be the most glamorous but it is cheap and the sz3 model still comes with aircon and can pick them up ridiculouslessly cheap and they are 5 doors downside they have 70bhp but top speed is well over 70 and keeps up and pulls from a friends 1.3 ford ka
McWigglebum4th said:
Okay lets say your golf does 30Mpg
Thats £79 a week or £4108 a year
New car does 60mpg
Thats £40 a week or £2074 a year
The new car will probably loose 2 grand a year
What have you saved?
What you want is a 1.0 K11 micra as they are stupidly cheap to run and buy
listen to him. So many people get obsessed with splashing £10,000 on a newish car because they want an extra 20mpg out of their daily commute.Thats £79 a week or £4108 a year
New car does 60mpg
Thats £40 a week or £2074 a year
The new car will probably loose 2 grand a year
What have you saved?
What you want is a 1.0 K11 micra as they are stupidly cheap to run and buy
Spend around the same amount on a diesel, spend less on a cheap petrol/diesel. Or convert your golf to LPG.
McWigglebum4th said:
Okay lets say your golf does 30Mpg
Thats £79 a week or £4108 a year
New car does 60mpg
Thats £40 a week or £2074 a year
The new car will probably loose 2 grand a year
What have you saved?
What you want is a 1.0 K11 micra as they are stupidly cheap to run and buy
But... he's talking about spending £4-5k on a car, even if it does manage to lose £2k/year it's only going to do it for a couple of years after which he's quids in. Depends how long he expects to be doing the big mileages for I guess.Thats £79 a week or £4108 a year
New car does 60mpg
Thats £40 a week or £2074 a year
The new car will probably loose 2 grand a year
What have you saved?
What you want is a 1.0 K11 micra as they are stupidly cheap to run and buy
However I'd still be considering something cheaper if I were the OP, I did 100k miles in 3.5 years some time back, and the 100k miles ZX I started out with was worth next to nothing anyway. You're probably only looking at 50mpg from an older diesel, but the low purchase cost and lack of depreciation make up for it.
McWigglebum4th said:
Okay lets say your golf does 30Mpg
Thats £79 a week or £4108 a year
New car does 60mpg
Thats £40 a week or £2074 a year
The new car will probably loose 2 grand a year
What have you saved?
What you want is a 1.0 K11 micra as they are stupidly cheap to run and buy
woulld you do 400 miles a week in a k11 micra?Thats £79 a week or £4108 a year
New car does 60mpg
Thats £40 a week or £2074 a year
The new car will probably loose 2 grand a year
What have you saved?
What you want is a 1.0 K11 micra as they are stupidly cheap to run and buy
For 4-500 miles a week, have a look at what cars private hire drivers use.
Have a look at the Toyota Avensis, the 1.8 petrol is surprisingly economical at 38-40mpg if you drive with a steady foot, while the diesel should crack 45-50mpg. I'd also consider a Peugeot 406 HDI which will also crack 45-50mpg.
Of course, if you want the absolute cheapest car to run, without compromise, I'd get a 106/Saxo 1.5d, and run it on veg oil. But whether you'd want to do over 400 miles a week in one is a different matter.
Have a look at the Toyota Avensis, the 1.8 petrol is surprisingly economical at 38-40mpg if you drive with a steady foot, while the diesel should crack 45-50mpg. I'd also consider a Peugeot 406 HDI which will also crack 45-50mpg.
Of course, if you want the absolute cheapest car to run, without compromise, I'd get a 106/Saxo 1.5d, and run it on veg oil. But whether you'd want to do over 400 miles a week in one is a different matter.
For 4-500 miles a week, have a look at what cars private hire drivers use.
Have a look at the Toyota Avensis, the 1.8 petrol is surprisingly economical at 38-40mpg if you drive with a steady foot, while the diesel should crack 45-50mpg. I'd also consider a Peugeot 406 HDI which will also crack 45-50mpg.
Of course, if you want the absolute cheapest car to run, without compromise, I'd get a 106/Saxo 1.5d, and run it on veg oil. But whether you'd want to do over 400 miles a week in one is a different matter.
Have a look at the Toyota Avensis, the 1.8 petrol is surprisingly economical at 38-40mpg if you drive with a steady foot, while the diesel should crack 45-50mpg. I'd also consider a Peugeot 406 HDI which will also crack 45-50mpg.
Of course, if you want the absolute cheapest car to run, without compromise, I'd get a 106/Saxo 1.5d, and run it on veg oil. But whether you'd want to do over 400 miles a week in one is a different matter.
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