Looking for an economical used car

Rossy.

johnson293 wrote: »

My dad has a 2004 Renault Megane 1.5 DCi - £30/year road tax, and he averages 65-75mpg on his daily commute on A-Roads. You will probably get a fairly new one with decent spec for £8000.

However, cue replies about avoiding French Cars/Renaults due to dodgy electrics, etc.

Agreed.

Renault seem to get a bad name but i've had them all my driving life and have only ever had one problem and that was the dealers fault for not replacing a cam cover

At the moment i'm driving a £1500 Laguna 1.9dci.

I filled up 2 weeks ago at a cost of £55. I've done 324 miles since then and still have half a tank left. It's big and roomy and extremely comfortable to drive. It's extremely nippy too due to the turbo etc.

I know they suffer from problematic EGR valves but if you keep them clean they run for miles. I've currently got 147k on the clock and it still drives like new.

Diesel engines in my opinion are far superior to petrol models. Not only in their ability to consume less fuel but they tend to last a lot longer due to their ability to rev less etc.

I've just gone from a 200bhp RenaultSport clio 197 to this Laguna due to financial difficulties and im extremely happy with it. Plus the Clio would have used a tank in under 250 miles yet i've done more miles than usual lately and as i said i'm still rocking half a tank left.

Most of my Journeys are in town due to working in Central London so i won't see a diesels speciality on fuel saving as much as someone using A roads or motorways but nether the less i'm still saving fuel compared to my last car.

Good luck with whatever car you choose but again with the mileage you do i'd be looking at Diesels all day long

frothey

Rossy. wrote: »

Diesel engines in my opinion are far superior to petrol models. Not only in their ability to consume less fuel but they tend to last a lot longer due to their ability to rev less etc.

When you look at countries where people do "proper" mileage (200k+ on young cars) like america, australia, south africa, etc, they all run petrols. strange eh? The problems with petrol engined cars used to be that the car rusted to bits around the engines, rather than the engines going wrong! Modern diesels are also running at very high pressures and are very complicated things compared to the older ones - which is why they get the power and have got much more refined, but IMO they aren't as reliable as they were.

but there again, most people just don't keep cars that long anyway, so it's not really an issue with either.

There is also a NOx and particulate issue with regards to VED coming up soon, which is why all of a sudden all the manufacturers are keen on petrol hybrids. Whether the govt will backdate the legislation is anyones guess, but anything reg'd since 2001 with have NOx data on their logbooks so it's easy for them to do it.

Lirin

Proton Compact. Very cheap to insure and run, and only a few hundred to buy on average. Very good runners, and very under-rated. Will not do the 70MPG though, didn't read your post fully!

marc-h_2

Thanks for the replies, it's given me a few more to consider. I think I may end up waiting a bit longer for some of the newer eco models to be available for my budget. Although even second hand the premium you pay comes very close to negating any savings made over standard models.