Sheddy car good ground clearance that's reasonable on fuel
Discussion
I have a rather annoying criteria for my next motor pending a house purchase, because the access to the house is a bit rough.
From one direction it's fine and on the viewings and further trips to nosey at the place, my current car has done just fine. In the other direction however, it's a different story. I would very much like to be able to use both of the roads to the house as the dodgy 1 one (less than a mile of a gravel track with huge craters) would be a lot quicker for my commute.
Budget is 3k max due to piling on miles and where it'll be abandoned..... I mean parked... And generally abused until it dies and gets replaced with similar
As economical as reasonably possible while being comfortable for 60 miles per day, auto would be good
Good ground clearance and perhaps possibility to fit some all terrain tyres which won't pop at the first sight of a large, sharp pothole. 4x4 may be useful in the winter but not completely necessary
Not too horrific to look at
So far I've thought of:
Honda CRV diesel although may struggle at this money for one that's got any life left in it
Volvo XC90 D5, again as above, also potentially expensive to keep going
Some sort of Jeep with a Merc diesel engine
Toyota Rav4 D4D
Over to you PHers, I'm new to this kind of vehicle so I'm sure there are lots I haven't thought off.
Thanks
From one direction it's fine and on the viewings and further trips to nosey at the place, my current car has done just fine. In the other direction however, it's a different story. I would very much like to be able to use both of the roads to the house as the dodgy 1 one (less than a mile of a gravel track with huge craters) would be a lot quicker for my commute.
Budget is 3k max due to piling on miles and where it'll be abandoned..... I mean parked... And generally abused until it dies and gets replaced with similar
As economical as reasonably possible while being comfortable for 60 miles per day, auto would be good
Good ground clearance and perhaps possibility to fit some all terrain tyres which won't pop at the first sight of a large, sharp pothole. 4x4 may be useful in the winter but not completely necessary
Not too horrific to look at
So far I've thought of:
Honda CRV diesel although may struggle at this money for one that's got any life left in it
Volvo XC90 D5, again as above, also potentially expensive to keep going
Some sort of Jeep with a Merc diesel engine
Toyota Rav4 D4D
Over to you PHers, I'm new to this kind of vehicle so I'm sure there are lots I haven't thought off.
Thanks
Desiderata said:
My wee Berlingo covers most of your criteria, except for " not too horrific to look at" . If you can get over that one, they are one of the toughest non4x4 rough roaders out there. Great mpg, cheap to buy and run, very versatile little runaround
Great, versatile cars I'm sure. I am not much of a badge snob or anything like that, but my Mrs also has to use this car and I can't see her wanting to drive a Berlingo at all. Thanks for your suggestion though! Edited by CX53 on Sunday 13th September 08:57
CX53 said:
I would need the dirty diesel due to annual mileage.
I was recently looking for a diesel mile-muncher (~20k/yr) and found that the much higher purchase cost of diesel vs petrol meant that I would have to drive 100k miles in a diesel version to recoup the extra purchase cost.And that doesn't even consider the greater amount of stuff to go wrong on a diesel, and the virtual certainty of a diesel landing its owner with a £1k bill at least once every 60-100k for flywheel and clutch.
Nor does it consider that some towns and cities are/were planning bans on diesels - even the latest EU-6 diesels are proposed to be banned/charged in some places.
Nor diesels not liking short journeys.
So I bought a petrol version.
Ron99 said:
I was recently looking for a diesel mile-muncher (~20k/yr) and found that the much higher purchase cost of diesel vs petrol meant that I would have to drive 100k miles in a diesel version to recoup the extra purchase cost.
And that doesn't even consider the greater amount of stuff to go wrong on a diesel, and the virtual certainty of a diesel landing its owner with a £1k bill at least once every 60-100k for flywheel and clutch.
Nor does it consider that some towns and cities are/were planning bans on diesels - even the latest EU-6 diesels are proposed to be banned/charged in some places.
Nor diesels not liking short journeys.
So I bought a petrol version.
Doing 25 to 30k per annum in a big heavy petrol will not work out cheaper, petrols might also need a clutch etc. And that doesn't even consider the greater amount of stuff to go wrong on a diesel, and the virtual certainty of a diesel landing its owner with a £1k bill at least once every 60-100k for flywheel and clutch.
Nor does it consider that some towns and cities are/were planning bans on diesels - even the latest EU-6 diesels are proposed to be banned/charged in some places.
Nor diesels not liking short journeys.
So I bought a petrol version.
I get what you're saying and there might not be much in it with certain cars and situations. I would totally agree if this was hatchback territory. I live and commute in the countryside so can't see them being banned here any time soon.
CX53 said:
Are the diesels supposed to be okay in the RAV? I'm assuming it's the often criticised unit from the Avensis... But I would need the dirty diesel due to annual mileage.
I’m not sure on the RAV4, I’ve never heard any horror stories though, I had the bigger 3.0 D4D engine in a Landcruiser and it was faultless, wasn’t the smoothest or fastest thing out there but was perfectly adequate for the car it was in.We got a RAV4 for my wife's parents for similar duties and it's been faultless, it's the 1.8 petrol though. Another alternative could be a Dodge Caliber. I can't quite believe I'm recommending one as they pretty much symbolise the worst of mid 2000s American cars, but we've had one for several years and it's been totally reliable. Ours is petrol, but I seem to remember they do one with the VW diesel engine, and they're dirt cheap as nobody wants them. Our one gets driven off road daily, and I've only grounded it out once, when I was attempting something particularly stupid so I can't really blame the car. With decent tyres, they're surprisingly capable.
Walter Sobchak said:
I’m not sure on the RAV4, I’ve never heard any horror stories though, I had the bigger 3.0 D4D engine in a Landcruiser and it was faultless, wasn’t the smoothest or fastest thing out there but was perfectly adequate for the car it was in.
Thanks that's good to know. RAV is in top spot at the moment as its the Mrs favourite in the list
None of these are cars I'd usually choose but I like the house more than my obsession with cars at this moment in time!
Geekman said:
We got a RAV4 for my wife's parents for similar duties and it's been faultless, it's the 1.8 petrol though. Another alternative could be a Dodge Caliber. I can't quite believe I'm recommending one as they pretty much symbolise the worst of mid 2000s American cars, but we've had one for several years and it's been totally reliable. Ours is petrol, but I seem to remember they do one with the VW diesel engine, and they're dirt cheap as nobody wants them. Our one gets driven off road daily, and I've only grounded it out once, when I was attempting something particularly stupid so I can't really blame the car. With decent tyres, they're surprisingly capable.
I can't quite believe I'm saying this, but the dodge caliber doesn't actually look too bad.....WRT the RAV, do you know what sort of fuel economy they get with the 1.8 petrol?
If it was decent enough it would be worth considering as I know petrol Toyota are very reliable, but I can't imagine it being great with the size of the thing.
troika said:
I had a Forester diesel for 5 years and about 70K miles, it was perfect. Just avoid the very early ones I think.
Promising, a chap at work has one and I'll have to ask tomorrow how his has been. Always liked the front end of the utilitarian subaru for some reason! A few on the ebay watch list. Gassing Station | Car Buying | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff