non-disaster, fun(ish) driving, commuter car, £7k

[xcentric]

Need a car to go to and from the station (25 miles each way, b roads and town traffic, and to take kids and dogs out at weekend (3 kids, 3 dogs, inc Irish Wolfhound who can curl up reasonably small.....)

Head says steady, economical, boring car, heart finds it almost impossible to agree - help me reosolve the issue!!

Looked at a few cars that might solve the dilemma:

520d touring - good to drive, spacious, but horror stories of timing chains.....
Merc E 320cdi - less good to drive, comfy, very spacious, mixed reviews on reliability.....
Skoda Octavia vRS more expensive to run (though maybe ok), standard a bit cheap inside, ok engines
Clio Cup - bit small in the boot if we wanted to take kids AND dogs somewhere
Golf GTI - boot problems
Got GTD - more economical than GTI, but over budget for ok mileage, and boot problems again
Fiesta - ST good to drive, standard ecobost economical - ST out of budget, standard one bit too small
Focus ST too uneconomic, standard one a bit boring

So, are the engine issues etc just a case of internet noise, really - though as the owner of a Boxster that did have an IMS failure, I know these things do happen.

Suggest something decent, or try to put my mind at rest if relevant :-)

[Blaster72]

Slightly thirsty but your commute isn't very long.

http://www.classicandsportscar.com/classifieds/cla...

[SWoll]

Volvo V70 Estate. Listen to your head and accept that with your requirements and budget anything fun is going to be expensive to run, older and more likely to throw up a bill.

Quite why you've even added the Clio, Fiesta, Golf and Focus to the list baffles me with 3 growing kids and 3 dogs to transport.

[Barchettaman]

S-Max 2.5t petrol?

[xcentric]

ah, the fiesta, golf and clio are there cos we also have a Disco, so could take large loads in that if we needed to, But are also trying to keep mileage down on that. We also do a lot of miles a year (~40k) just not on the commute......

SMax is a good call - used to have one when kids were a bit younger, too. But been there done that, possibly.....

Head should be listened to, yes - have other cars for fun. But also thinking that, as we have an hour in the car each day, it might as well be enjoyable.....

[SWoll]

Barchettaman said:

S-Max 2.5t petrol?

A bigger, heavier version of car he's already dismissed as too heavy on fuel.

[Darryl247W]

I'm with SWoll. Anything with enough power for fun is going to take a bit more to run. Anything capable of carrying 3 kids and/or 3 dogs is going to be more expensive and bigger i.e. less fun/nimble.

You've listed lot of German and a couple of Fords. SWoll's V70 is a good shout. V60? Subaru Levorg?

I've been considering the power/fun/capacity/different/bang-for-buck equation recently and my own preference comes down to estate versions of the Octavia VRS or Focus ST.

[Ahbefive]

Focus ST out of that list. You can get 30mpg on a run, hell even my S60R averages 29mpg.

[ZX10R NIN]

From your list I'd say the Focus ST you'll easily see 30mpg & that 5 cylinder engine is a peach but I think you'll suffer from the lack of boot space.

I'd go for the bigger Mondeo which will have the right amount of boot space whilst still being a good steer & you get the 2.0 Ecoboost engine if you go for the petrol.

2009 Mondeo Titanium X Sport 2.2d 175bhp 55k FSH

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2017...

2010 2.0T Titanium X Sport 200bhp 60k FSH

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2017...

Estate

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2017...

[xcentric]

good call on the Mondeo -looked at one the other day - nice car if unremarkable inside.

Also just been looking at Renaultsport Megane 230...... what else?

Focus ST suggests 30 mpg combined but real world seems less - Evo reckons the newer one is only good for 25mpg real world and is much more economical than the older one (i.e. the one I'd be looking at). Mind you, ASBO Orange is pretty neat.

[DukeDickson]

xcentric said:

good call on the Mondeo -looked at one the other day - nice car if unremarkable inside.

Also just been looking at Renaultsport Megane 230...... what else?

Focus ST suggests 30 mpg combined but real world seems less - Evo reckons the newer one is only good for 25mpg real world and is much more economical than the older one (i.e. the one I'd be looking at). Mind you, ASBO Orange is pretty neat.

It really does depend on where, how and when you drive. I rarely get under 25mpg in the old one and can get up and close to 30. On a couple of miserable runs I've seen nigh on 40 (but they were very much park brain & trundle specials). That's over what is now rather a lot of real world miles.

However, if you're only going to use one in traffic and or traffic with occasional liberal (and possibly over) use of the pedal, over a small number of miles, it will be suitably tragic.

[ZX10R NIN]

xcentric said:

good call on the Mondeo -looked at one the other day - nice car if unremarkable inside.

Also just been looking at Renaultsport Megane 230...... what else?

Focus ST suggests 30 mpg combined but real world seems less - Evo reckons the newer one is only good for 25mpg real world and is much more economical than the older one (i.e. the one I'd be looking at). Mind you, ASBO Orange is pretty neat.

If you think a TXS is unremarkable inside don't take a look at the VRS then.

My Focus ST averaged 27.9mpg over 12k which I thought was pretty decent compared to 29.4/30.3/30.1/28.4 for my mates Astra VXR/Golf edition 30/Megane RS250/265 so whilst being the most thirsty out of the lot it drove well & always made me smile when I heard that 5 cylinder start up.

One important thing to do on the Focus is to change the Intercooler as it's to small & even affects the performance on a warm day so even if you do nothing else change that.

The Mondeo won't have the 5 cylinder but it will have the later 4 pot ecoboost engine in.

Edited by ZX10R NIN on Sunday 19th February 12:58

[xcentric]

realised that the 6 cylinder BMW engines don't go bang like the N47 ones - so the 530d and 525d >2007 are back on the list.....