Long commute, car choice advice please

Kilty_2

LandyAndy wrote: »

1. You wouldn't need a smaller car to achieve 50mpg with diesel.
2. I have a Mazda2 that I would be happy to commute 40 miles each way in. It is comfortable on much longer journeys than that, although it is much newer than the OP is intending to buy.

What kind of large diesel will £1500 buy you? (one of course that will be reliable enough to actually get you to work every day)

Flearoy

Might be swayed be either a good diesel model of my car, though will need to pay a bit more, or an LPG conversion on mine. Not sure which is the best idea.

LandyAndy

Kilty wrote: »

What kind of large diesel will £1500 buy you? (one of course that will be reliable enough to actually get you to work every day)

Who's to say the OPs 9 year old 1.8 petrol will stand that strain?

Until last year I regularly did 20k a year in my 1995 Pug 405 diesel without serious incident. You could get one of those for £500 easily and it would do 55mpg.

benham3160

If you want an old dog to just use for work, pick up a £500 Peugeot 405 TD, or a 406.

Bomb proof, nice to drive, a misers car to run.

Regards,
Andy

LandyAndy

benham3160 wrote: »

If you want an old dog to just use for work, pick up a £500 Peugeot 405 TD, or a 406.

Bomb proof, nice to drive, a misers car to run.

Regards,
Andy

I'm not going to argue with that.;):rotfl:

jaydeeuk1

I'd stick with the mondeo with that budget. The money can be put to cover extra wear and tear. Give it a good service, all the filters, oil, sparks, tyre pressures etc.

LandyAndy

jaydeeuk1 wrote: »

I'd stick with the mondeo with that budget. The money can be put to cover extra wear and tear. Give it a good service, all the filters, oil, sparks, tyre pressures etc.

Actually I think I probably would for now. I only posted my consumption calculation so that the OP would have a rough idea of the numbers he was dealing with. There's a lot to be said for 'the devil you know'.

bigjl

My brother in law has an 04/04 Mondeo LX, and travels from Colchester to London a fair few times a week, he gets high 30's, sometimes low 40's.

He just changes the oil and filters every 6000 miles, his has now covered the best part of 140k, he was thinking of trading it in, but got offered £500 by a main dealer against a 3 year old Avensis.

I convinced him to just keep the Mondeo, as even if the engines goes pop, he can break it for more than £500.

My 130 Tdci is a year newer and can easily crack 55mpg, but for the extra complications of a DMF, injectors and diesel pump that might go wrong why change for the sake of a few extra mpg, not sure if it is worth the money of an LPG conversion, but if you are going to keep it for say another 2 years then it could be financially viable, not to mentio that when you do sell it an LPG converted car will be worth a bit more.

But if you convert to LPG make sure the engine won't have problems with the valves due to the LPG, you can get a kit that adds some additive as you go, I believe it is called flashlube.

After 2 years of Mondeo ownership I reckon they are a good long term proposition, you could even spend some of your replacement car budget on a some leather seats, just to make the journey a bit more comfortable.

Flearoy

Thanks for all the replies so far. There's a definite them of better the devil you know!

Having done the journey to work this morning in my Mondeo and seen that the traffic was light with very little hold-up, averaging about 40mph for a 40mile journey, I think my car might actually return a might 35mpg, maybe even more! That said, I did set off rather early (7am). We shall have to see what the traffic is like on the return journey. To complicate matters, I've thought about keeping my current car and buying a good second-hand motorbike (maybe a Kawasaki ER5, Honda CB500) with good fuel economy that will enable me to stay in bed longer and be able to cut through the inevitably heavier traffic later in the morning. Having ridden through a good number of winters, I can confirm that at the first sign of frost the bike will be put to bed and the car used instead. So, I need to do my sums based on 35mpg say 3 months a year, and about 55-60 (based on my ER-5 from a while back) for 9 months a year, plus the extra insurance etc costs.

Coveredinbees!!!!

I used to do a 2 hour commute on A and B roads and after a year I had had more than enough of it. Mind you I now do about 1000 miles a week in a not overly comfortable transit connect and don't really care that much as I normally can miss the rush hour and I'm getting paid whilst doing it. Just wish the coffin dodgers would learn how to exceed 40 mph.