LowStandards
Club Retro Rides Member
Bigging Up The Sum Sum Man Since '99
Posts: 2,657 
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Don't forget diesels take an age to warm up and in that time they dump fuel through them for fun.
My Dad has an 08 Micra dci that happily does 60mpg, but until its warm (10-15 mins) he's lucky to get more than 25mpg out of it
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jmsheahan
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 684
Club RR Member Number: 121
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I was in a similar situation to you a few months back - needed a car capable of eating 80 miles a day and cheap. I'm a VW man at heart but with my budget of 1-1.5k all Boras, Passats etc had mega mileage and were generally knackered. After looking at 6 I gave up and looked elsewhere.
Whilst I hate french cars I ended up with a 306 HDI. It's top spec, half leather seats, AC, electric everything etc, does around 700 miles to £80 odd of diesel and has a reasonable amount of poke. Only cost £1000 and tax is £130 for the year. Parts are cheap as chips too. Food for thought.
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Worked example:
I do 75 miles a day in a 1995 Peugeot 205 diesel (non turbo). It gets between 55 and 59mpg and is almost interesting to drive compared to other boring hatches.
It's done about 20,000 miles over the last year, needed tyres and front suspension bushes, it also gets filter changes every 5000 miles.
I'd also consider a 306 diesel for a bit more space but stay away from "gadgets" because they'll break. Central locking, electric mirrors, sunroof are all off the list, especially a sunroof because of the leaks and rust.
The good news is you can get a well cared for example for £800, whereas a cared for VW diesel will be treble that amount.
Other worked examples are available, but go for a car that's in good condition now, rather than what it was like when new
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Dec 29, 2012 10:20:47 GMT
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I have a Bora TDi auto, its the highline so has some toys like AC, heated seats and a CD auto changer oh and leather. It had to be an auto as my wife prefers them, and I'm glad i listened to my wife...this time. It ticks all the boxes, comfortable and frugal even with the auto box. Now my wife is driving it more i might get another for myself or maybe an Octavia which is the same car under the skin. I've had 306 tds as well and they get my vote too. If you get a diesel with a Bosch injection pump you get the option of veg oil as well.
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Dec 29, 2012 12:35:17 GMT
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Hell yeah, bangernomics. Spend as little as possible on the thing you're going to stack milage onto and thus strip value from. With your budget and the distance involved, don't sink your whole budget into the car. Buying a five grand motor is no guarantee that it won't spectacularly fail, leaving you skinted and needing to get to work. RE the petrol/diesel argument - how good are you with Excel? (Spreadsheet, not wedgy, unreliable Lotus) Plug in the cost of petrol locally versus the cost of diesel locally using 35mpg for petrol and 45mpg or even 50mpg for diesel and see what the difference is (or isn't) over a couple of months. Diesel is more expensive as a fuel, diesel cars are more expensive to buy because the market believe that they'll save a bundle. Obviously it's going to vary from person to person, but in the real world how much difference does petrol/diesel make to driving style? we're probably talking about older cars here, so the diesel version is likely to be a bit slower-so will be driven everywhere 'with the hammer down'. I'd be interested in seeing any figures which give me an excuse to buy a petrol instead of a diesel. |
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" East bound and down, loaded up and truckin' "
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Dec 29, 2012 14:12:02 GMT
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If you don't need diesel or 4 doors a well looked after E36 318is coupe is a good choice, they will handle 300k + I had one on 200k and it's probably one of the best car's ive owned, so good I owned it twice  In the time I owned/knew the car (from 176k-200k) it only needed a new backbox (the original one snapped at 195k, had it welded back together and it was fine, new rear brakes (£80), 6 tyres (£300 for all), 2 new key fobs (£40 each) and couple of services (£80 a pop). Before I bought it, it had the original suspension & clutch replaced at 160k Got daily abuse, great to drive and nippy, would get 300 miles to a tank town / 400-420 miles to a tank on a run - works out at 25/35mpg. As long as you get a well looked after one with no rust you will be very happy with one. Something like this, www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1998-BMW-318-IS-IN-RED-FULL-M3-REPLICA-IN-LOVELY-CONDITION-MOT-6-MONTHS-TAX-/271129634274?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item3f2095e5e2Could be a good one, best thing is if after a couple of years something serious breaks, you could get £600 min breaking it up. |
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Last Edit: Dec 29, 2012 14:18:39 GMT by joem83
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Dec 29, 2012 21:35:09 GMT
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Obviously it's going to vary from person to person, but in the real world how much difference does petrol/diesel make to driving style? I've always thought it was easier to get very good (or closer to manufacturer's advertised) MPG out of a diesel than a petrol, I find you need to drive like a funeral director to get good numbers from a big petrol engine. Someone above used the taxi example for a different reason but it's still a good place to look for this one, they do a lot of stop start and hammer down driving and still pull great numbers from their diesels. I'd be interested in seeing any figures which give me an excuse to buy a petrol instead of a diesel. Did you see my later post, I put some hopefully usefull infoporn in that? Maintenance aside, fuel only, I reckon it would have cost me 19p* extra a day to do my commute in the petrol version of my car (W203 Merc C320 CDI) which is about twelve quid* for a thousand miles. I could've had a same spec petrol C320 for four grand less than the diesel I bought but I reckon it would have cost less than £150 more in fuel over twelve thousand miles. I'll probably never get that four grand back.  (*maths isn't my strong point, I'm still hoping that someone is going to point out a glaring error with my sums and tell me that the gap is much bigger. Please, someone...) Someone above said something about diesel efficiency when they're cold, I'd love to know more about that and whether or not it's true for all diesels or only certain types or ages. |
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Last Edit: Dec 29, 2012 21:40:52 GMT by Battles
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I know it's at the top of your budget but I am selling a E46 330d touring M sport with 90k on it and fbsh for £5k . Totally mint and a new recon box in it (common fault)
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tardis
Part of things
Posts: 38
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Dec 30, 2012 11:34:03 GMT
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My opinion with that sort of money to spend if your going to put milage on it is buy something cheap and change it ever couple of years when the milage gets up
My missus needed a car for work as she travels a lot between peoples homes as well as the usual school runs and to the head office for training, we had a look at a few corsa's and micra's but ended up with a (don't laugh) Fiat Punto 1.2 petrol, 4 months down the line I can honestly say it was the best £400 quid I have ever spent, reliability and fuel consumption have been very good and even if something major did happen to it we would get £100 back by weighing it in for scrap.
Yeah it won't win any awards in the looks department but you can park it in supermarkets and work car parks and not worry about some tosser opening a door onto your pride and joy.
Also you can just as easily buy a dog of a motor for £5000 as you can for £500..
I have really been put off modern diesels by seeing some of the repair bills for them for example ford tdci injector pump on transit that had done 70,000 miles £800, and we fitted it ourselves :-(
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TS
Part of things
Posts: 558
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Hi guys,
Thanks for all the advice. Much appreciated. I've been away from the computer for a couple of days so not been able to reply.
I think the BMW's and the sales rep level cars (Modeo's and the like) will be too pricey for me on Insurance (never had my own insurance for more than a few months so no no claims etc...). I'll have a quick look soon though to be sure.
Polo/Fiesta sized cars seem to be too small for the kind of mileage I'll be doing. Or would a Polo type car with a larger engine be ok?
A golf would be pretty much ideal (or non-VW but similar size - apologies but I always think of cars in terms of VWs. So an Astra is their version of a Golf, Mondeo is the Ford version of Passat etc....).
I'll have a look at some non-VAG cars though. Seems they'd be better suited to my budget (if I go around the £1k and under mark, which judging from your responses, I probably should).
I'd still quite like a diesel but I was a bit concerned about repairs and the initial cost. Also it appears that ppl only have diesels if they're going to be cramming in the miles. Good in that the car isn't only used for short start stop driving but they're all so high mileage so other parts will inevitably wear more.
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TS
Part of things
Posts: 558
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Also I should probably stress that I'm really not fussed about anything performance or looks based. I'll mostly be using it as a tool to travel about. Despite me being on a car forum I'm not terribly into cars (I originally joined to read and post in the Other Mods section). I'm a bike (cycle) nut at heart. I do appreciate cars but much like my bikes I like them old, ratty, built/tinkered with by me and a bit weird. Although I'd love something like that in a car reliability pips all, hence a modern 'boringish' car (that I'm not about to start 'fixing' till its broken).
Thanks again.
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Polo/Fiesta sized cars seem to be too small for the kind of mileage I'll be doing. Or would a Polo type car with a larger engine be ok? I'd disagree with that, even the 1050cc Polo can crack 85mph and hold 75mph all day. As long as your cruising speed is 75mph or less, you've got plenty in hand to accelerate. If you like to cruise at 80-85 then acceleration will be frustratingly gradual which makes for a stressful journey. I find that doing motorways you should either do 60mph or 90, anything in between and you're caught up with the cretins fighting for the last inch between bumpers. 60mph in any 1980s car is pretty quiet in my experience. A couple of years ago I had a 1300 Polo which was alright and did 40mpg no matter how it was thrashed. Going back even further a 1050cc Polo was a bit more frugal, look for the 4+E gearbox or Formula E badge for higher gear ratios, the 5 speed on a regular Polo Coupe has lower ratios for better acceleration but slightly worse mpg. |
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tardis
Part of things
Posts: 38
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On todays conjested roads a couple of mph doesn't make a great deal of difference, I have a 20mile drive to work every day and honestly the difference between the time it takes in the 1.2 punto, the 2.5td landrover and the 2.0 petrol VW LT is minimal. I'd be lucky if there is 5 mninutes between them.
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Just to throw a spanner in the works, my daily commute is ~100mile round trip.  this is my only car. Its bloody excellent. You don't need diesel, they're not worth it imo. And you definately don't need a big car. |
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The petrol v's Diesel debate is a good one. I had a 2.4 PETROL Volvo before my current car. It was very respectable on fuel and genuinely surprised me and others with what it could get to the gallon and if you're driving was all motorway it puts you as well off as 1.6 Astra boys at motorway cruising speeds for fuel. It was only doing low miles, it had non of the expensive diesel components to go wrong so was ideal. It also had the job of towing our caravan on odd weekends which it was OK at.
Our main car was a 1.4 Honda Civic, reliable as anything and economy was always great. It has nothing expensive to go wrong and well made. It was THE best car we've ever had! We've just sold that.
Circumstances have since changed and I've traded Volvo in for a VW Passat TDI (2001 B5.5). It's a low mileage car so I had to pay strong money for it. But so far i'm happy. We've done 2700 miles in it in 8 weeks and it's delivered great MPG in that time as it is now our main car. It has also towed the caravan and out performs the Volvo in EVERY aspect, comfort (when towing), stability, MPG, torque, smoothness etc etc).
Other than fuel costs I am aware that it costs more in every other aspect, insurance, servicing, repairs (potentially) etc etc.
If it wasn't for our Caravan, we'd stick with a smaller Petrol, infact we'd never have sold the Honda!
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Last Edit: Jan 1, 2013 12:19:35 GMT by Deleted
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this is my only car. Its bloody excellent. Is it a coincidence there's a trolley jack in your photo?  Agreed though, if you buy carefully and do the maintenance needed, a car from the '60s or '70s can be fine, as long as you don't try and do anything stupid like hold 90mph for hours at a time. |
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TS
Part of things
Posts: 558
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Last Edit: Jan 1, 2013 19:33:48 GMT by TS
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 That plate isn't on that Volvo anymore accodring to the DVLA. Even without a massively valuable number plate, that Volvo could be a great bet. |
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bl1300
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,678
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Food for thought I just averaged roughly 35mpg out of my E36 323i (2.5l petrol auto) on a 400 mile round trip.
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Current fleet.
1967 DAF 44
1974 VW Beetle 1303s
1975 Triumph Spitfire MkIV
1988 VW LT45 Beavertail
1998 Volvo V70 2.5
1959 Fordson Dexta
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TS
Part of things
Posts: 558
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The Volvo does indeed look good. Just had a message from the seller. MOT till Sept 2013. But no Tax.
Now on my understanding I can't drive it without tax and can't get tax until DVLA have me registered as the owner (so a few days from buying and sending off the form, right?).
Short of insisting the seller taxes the vehicle first (and paying him for the car AND the tax at cost). I don't see a way of doing this legally.
They have VED camera now don't they? Can't afford a fine.
I've found a Golf that would be just as perfect (maybe more so - I've heard Volvo bits aren't cheap and the smaller ones were made by DAF so not as good as the big boxey swedish ones) but again no tax.
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Last Edit: Jan 1, 2013 23:33:17 GMT by TS
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