Buy diesel or not? Advising a friend.

[ecain63]

My wife's friend is in the market for a sub £12k car for her family and commute. The only criteria are that it has to be reliable, economical and low on the road fund. She's looking at a Focus sized vehicle, probably an estate. My first thoughts are:

A new Kia. They offer great warranty and for her needs it ticks boxes ref value.
Dacia: As above.

The question is, should she look at diesels or avoid due to the possibility of them being hammered tax and costs wise in a few years?

Your help is much appreciated.

Eddie

[ecain63]

Thanks for the constructive responses.

[ecain63]

Jag_NE said:

on the assumption that she sees a car solely as a means of transport and wants to solely minimise costs and grief, something like a Toyota auris hybrid would be ideal. At 12k you would get something with a big chunk of the 5 year warranty left, strong reliability, negligible road tax and extremely strong MPG assuming she isn't hammering it down motorways all day at 90. very practical, 5 door hatch, probably all the car you need for 99% of occasions. and about as un-pistonheads as it gets!

Thanks, that's the sort of answer I was looking for.

[ecain63]

thebraketester said:

Need to know mileage.

Sub 20k a year and I'd be getting a petrol everytime.

I think 20k would be a maximum based on his daily commute of 40 miles round trip. Weekends and holidays will top that up quite possibly.

I'd be suggesting petrol myself but as it's not my car I don't want to step out of line.

[ecain63]

FiF said:

200 miles a week multiply that by 46 working weeks is just over 9000, 9200 to be exact.

Weekends and holidays going to double that? Unlikely.

It's going to be down to preference, personally I'd go petrol, something from Toyota, Honda or Kia. But you may be limited by availability of fuel type, eg Hyundai i40 Estate, out of 220 <12000 only 1 is petrol.

They do a good amount of weekend miles as they are quite into the outdoors and have 2 kids. Looking at the Hyundi i30 they do a range of petrol and deisel cars in the 18 month old area and sub £12k. Deisel would appear to be the way to go regarding consumption??

[ecain63]

They bought a 16 plate Kia Cee'd in the end. 11k miles with 7 years warranty (got topped up in the deal) and the dealer took their old French wreck for £400 off the price. It would appear they are happy.

[ecain63]

cayman-black said:

Pictures or it didn't happen.....