What economical nippy commuting car

[rainagain]

Ive got a budget of 1.2-1.5K Im looking for something to get me back and forward to work which is a 60 mile round trip consisting of motorways and A roads so far I have the following criteria:

1. Must be petrol
2. Must be able to seat two adults and two children
3. Must have at least 4 star euro ncap
4. Must be economical, combined 40mpg+
5. Must be reasonably nippy 0-60 in ~10 seconds or less to allow me to overtake the 40mph club on the A roads

Apart from the above Im not fussed about much else, so far Ive found the following:

Honda civic coupe 0-60 9.6s, combined 42.2mpg
Punto Sporting 0-60 10.9s, combined 44.8mpg

However both of these seem to be made of a laminate of rocking horse manure and hens teeth round where I stay in Fife. So over to you guys if you can think of an alternative please let me know!

[wemorgan]

If some cars are rare in Fife say what cars are available to you then it will be more relevant to suggest which one is 'best'.

[BritishRacinGrin]

A fairly low budget and fairly high expectations with regards to fuel economy. With diesel cars it's helpful to identify the best engines and find a car which features that engine. For example, we all know the VAG 1.9 pd tdi was very good. That can be found in VW Golf / Passat / Jetta, Skoda Octavia / Fabia, Seat Leon / Toledo, Audi A3 etc etc. The other good one was the PSA 1.9 and 2.0 common rail units- the ones which are around 10 years old. Find 'em in Citroen C5, Peugeot 306 / 406.

P.S. an extra grand in the kitty would open up some newer or lower mileage options. I bought a 2k '03 Ford Mondeo TDCI which served me well but after two years and having reached 140k it was pretty much finished.

Edited by BritishRacinGrin on Monday 26th May 09:17

[rainagain]

BritishRacinGrin said:

A fairly low budget and fairly high expectations with regards to fuel economy. With diesel cars it's helpful to identify the best engines and find a car which features that engine. For example, we all know the VAG 1.9 pd tdi was very good. That can be found in VW Golf / Passat / Jetta, Skoda Octavia / Fabia, Seat Leon / Toledo, Audi A3 etc etc. The other good one was the PSA 1.9 and 2.0 common rail units- the ones which are around 10 years old. Find 'em in Citroen C5, Peugeot 306 / 406.

P.S. an extra grand in the kitty would open up some newer or lower mileage options. I bought a 2k '03 Ford Mondeo TDCI which served me well but after two years and having reached 140k it was pretty much finished.

Edited by BritishRacinGrin on Monday 26th May 09:17

I did look at the 1.9 pd engine in the Seat Leon as this just squeezes into my budget, but I'm trying to avoid diesels full stop as my tight budget means most will have high millages with big bills just round the corner.

[HumbleJim]

rainagain said:

Honda civic coupe 0-60 9.6s, combined 42.2mpg
Punto Sporting 0-60 10.9s, combined 44.8mpg

You do realise you are only likely to achieve 35mpg from those.

[Txspete]

I would consider something like a Yaris T-sport / Ignis sport or a Colt CZT but that might be just outside the budget

[Mr SFJ]

My sister has a 13 plate Aygo, put a £1500 deposit down, gets about 609+MPG quick enough, seats her, her husband (who's built like a brick sh!thouse and a teenager and a 12 year old easily enough.

She pays about £80 a month for 3 years with no worries at all.

[oilslick]

MK1 Focus 1.6, except for the MPG bit...

[BGarside]

Rover 25 1.6. Cheap as chips and parts still available. Get one that's had the head gasket done.

Rover 25 or 45 turbodiesel - apparently the L-series engine is pretty bombproof and not much affected by DPF, injector, turbo woes.

Focus 1.6 Mk 1 as previously stated - should be capable of 40mpg plus as it has quite a high top gear. Watch for rust!

Peugeot 306 TD or HDI - Don't rust much, mechanicals pretty reliable. Trim and electrics might be flaky though.

Last Toyota Corolla or old-shape (EP3?) Honda Civic - 1.4 or 1.6 petrol. Pretty bomb-proof all round.

[rainagain]

Thanks for the replies, I do like rover 25/45s but they only get 3 star euroncap. Same with the 306.

Did think about a Focus but most of the Mk1s are starting to look like the bottom of a tug boat.

I was looking at the Yaris T-Sport but after driving my mum years back I always felt like I was sitting on the car rather than in it.

Have just discovered the Citroen C2 GT, does anyone have thoughts about their reliability? My own experience with French cars has been a bit of a mixed bag, Mk1 Clio, Peugeot 206 no problems, Megane DCi one fault after another.

[t400ble]

How about a Clio?

Facelift was on a 2003/53 (ish). Handle well and must of done well in the crash tests?

[HumbleJim]

I think the NCAP thing can be misleading and not the be all and end all.

Some of it is about quite obscure things like an outside door handle that's easy to grab upside down. To achieve extra points it's often about tweaking little things rather than structural things.