Does it exist?

[anonymous-user]

My shed V70 is being MOTd on Tuesday and if I’m honest I’m not entirely confident that it’s going to pass. To prepare for an expensive failure I have begun to research and look at replacements. Trouble is, I feel that my perfect car does not exist within my shed budget, and thus I am turning to you, PHers, to give me some ideas!

What I need is as follows:

- Reliability and cheap ish maintenance. I do about 20k a year and depend on my car heavily. If possible, I would like to avoid going diesel again, because the world of injectors, DPFs, DMFs and the like does not instil confidence. Simple is good. This may not be possible however due to my next point...

- Reasonable running costs. I would at some point like to stop living with my in-laws and buy a house of my own, so economy, insurance and tax costs are also a high priority. I would of course sacrifice some of this if my other 2 points could be met, but a V8 wafter isn’t going to cut it sadly.

- Comfort. I am now used to Volvo and their seats, so something equally wafty would be ideal. Ideally a saloon or estate. This is probably the lowest of these 3 priorities.


What would be desirable would be:

- Slushbox. I recognise that this will sap economy, possibly reliability too and may add an extra maintenance burden. I would be willing to sacrifice the economy if the box was known to be reliable (unlike Volvo’s Geartronic), and had had the necessary fluid changes

- Cruise control. Temporary 50 limits are annoying.


Of course, my Volvo might pass it’s MOT/not need expensive repairs and this entire thread will be moot, but on the off chance it doesn’t, I would like to be prepared to avoid any last minute flapping. So PH, does it exist?

[Poppiecock]

Saab 9-5 LPT Estate?

[anonymous-user]

Poppiecock said:

Saab 9-5 LPT Estate?

Excellent start, hadn’t thought of that.

Another thing I’ve forgotten, the Volvo is averaging around 46 mpg on diesel (125.9p a litre where I fill up). Petrol is 121.9p, is there anyone more motivated to do maths than I who could work out an equivalent mpg for petrol (i.e how low the mpg could go while retaining the same fuelling costs)?

Could also consider LPG I suppose.

[Poppiecock]

Jbeale96 said:

Poppiecock said:

Saab 9-5 LPT Estate?

Excellent start, hadn’t thought of that.

Another thing I’ve forgotten, the Volvo is averaging around 46 mpg on diesel (125.9p a litre where I fill up). Petrol is 121.9p, is there anyone more motivated to do maths than I who could work out an equivalent mpg for petrol (i.e how low the mpg could go while retaining the same fuelling costs)?

Could also consider LPG I suppose.

LPG... only if you have a good local source and think it will remain a source longer term. BP have more or less removed all LPG installs, Esso largely don't have them and other oil companies are not removing them, too. It's only your independently owned stations and stand alone LPG sites which will still have LPG very soon. Plus Morrisons and the odd Asda.

We have an LPG campervan, but have a Morrisons and local unmanned station nearby.

A 9-5 LPT should hit low 30s.

Another option is a B5 or B5.5 Passat with the 1.8T engine, they'll average mid 30s MPG and are pretty bulletproof - I ran one to 180k miles with no issues.

[Hub]

Jbeale96 said:

Excellent start, hadn’t thought of that.

Another thing I’ve forgotten, the Volvo is averaging around 46 mpg on diesel (125.9p a litre where I fill up). Petrol is 121.9p, is there anyone more motivated to do maths than I who could work out an equivalent mpg for petrol (i.e how low the mpg could go while retaining the same fuelling costs)?

Could also consider LPG I suppose.

20000 miles a year at 46mpg 125p/l works out at about £2500 a year. I don't think the difference is that much for 4p a litre less - maybe about 1.5mpg less? (But I've had a couple of glasses of wine so could be wrong!)

[Joelonghair]

Hub said:

Jbeale96 said:

Excellent start, hadn’t thought of that.

Another thing I’ve forgotten, the Volvo is averaging around 46 mpg on diesel (125.9p a litre where I fill up). Petrol is 121.9p, is there anyone more motivated to do maths than I who could work out an equivalent mpg for petrol (i.e how low the mpg could go while retaining the same fuelling costs)?

Could also consider LPG I suppose.

20000 miles a year at 46mpg 125p/l works out at about £2500 a year. I don't think the difference is that much for 4p a litre less - maybe about 1.5mpg less? (But I've had a couple of glasses of wine so could be wrong!)

Cost per 100 miles in the Volvo:

100 / 46 = 2.17 Gallons required.

@ 125.9p cost is 2.17 x 125.9 = 273.7p


So gallons required for 100 miles to keep costs equal using petrol:

X x 121.9 = 273.7
X = 2.25

Therefore MPG equivalent is:

100 / Y = 2.25
Y = 100 / 2.25
Y = 44.5 MPG
Good guess Hub!

[Mr Tidy]

Just a thought, but I'm sure I read something on here recently saying that Volvo made some dual-fuel cars - as in petrol and LPG.

Ford and Vauxhall also made some IIRC.

I'd much rather have an OEM installation than an after-market LPG conversion!

[Poppiecock]

Mr Tidy said:

Just a thought, but I'm sure I read something on here recently saying that Volvo made some dual-fuel cars - as in petrol and LPG.

Ford and Vauxhall also made some IIRC.

I'd much rather have an OEM installation than an after-market LPG conversion!

The OEM will use exactly the same bits as an aftermarket...

[Mr Tidy]

Poppiecock said:

The OEM will use exactly the same bits as an aftermarket...

Well to get that into perspective, maybe the aftermarket used the OEM bits!

[s3 akr]

320/520, C180K, E220, A6, Passat, Superb, Octavia Estate, 407, Exeo, some big old exec Kia thing with 7 year warranty (clearly forgotten the name),.......

I would take a serious look at a Skoda Superb/Octavia with DSG and toys and on your usage of 20k miles a year I'd not rule diesel out either. I think the Saab was a good shout, but starting to get old and perhaps not so reliable now. I would be looking at a highish miler running on german or asian mechanicals, probably diesel as the market has nose dived for diesel.

You said "shed", but its all relative to how much you could spend vs how much you want to spend.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/57-Skoda-Octavia-1-9TDI...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Skoda-Octavia-Estate-La...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Skoda-Superb-2-5-v6-tdi...

[stevemcs]

You would be better off paying for any repairs than changing it. Unless you want a change.

Edited by stevemcs on Saturday 7th September 13:45

[ZX10R NIN]

+1 to the above if it costs 1k to sort the Volvo then it's worth doing or look for a 5/6 cylinder Mercedes the drivetrains are pretty much bulletproof & you can get one with sensible miles for decent money:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

Brave Pill:

2.7 407 GT

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...