Diesel automatic with good fuel economy?

JoeyEmma

We are looking for a small family car that is-
- Automatic
- Has good fuel economy, such as 60mpg combined (probably looking at a diesel)
- Has five doors
- Is a reasonable size, but not a big saloon.
- Isn't going to hammer me for company car tax, so low emissions.
It is going to be through work, and we want to try and keep the budget below £20k

I have had a good look and have ruled out the following
- Toyota Prius (hated the visibility from the back
- Citroen C4 and Peugeot 308 (didn't like either)
- Volvo S40 (over £25k, so the tax will be huge)

We have ruled out slightly smaller cars such as the Fiesta, Polo etc as they do not come with a reasonably punchy automatic engine with good fuel economy. We don't want a 1.2diesel that does 0-60 in 15 seconds!

And have a short list of the following
- Audi A3 1.6TDi S-tronic Standard
- VW Golf Match 1.6TDi Automatic with BlueMotion Technology
- Renault Megane dCi 110 Auto Dynamique TomTom

What else could we look at? Not many places do an automatic diesel or automatic that gets 60mpg or so.

Kilty_2

JoeyEmma wrote: »

And have a short list of the following
- Audi A3 1.6TDi S-tronic Standard
- VW Golf Match 1.6TDi Automatic with BlueMotion Technology

Skoda Octavia / Seat Leon are essentially the same car as these - worth seeing what you think of them too because there's substantial discounts available.

Vauxhall Astra 2.0 CDTI (new shape) ?

JoeyEmma

I am not a cash buyer so discounts are irrelevant, as it is a company car.

I have already looked at both the Octavia or Leon and neither of them come with an automatic engine that offers any greater than 50mpg fuel economy, and I am wanting to try and get better than that, for tax reasons and to try and save fuel.

The Astra 2.0CDti gives 48mpg and will be much higher on the company car tax as it starts at £24,500.

I have just noticed that there is a new Toyota Auris Hybrid that gives 70mpg-ish and comes in at less that £20,000.

TVR2

£24,500 for an oil-burning Astra?! I feel old...

JoeyEmma

Exactly! The world has gone mad when you can buy an Audi A3 (or even a BMW) for less than the cost of an Astra!

daveyjp

Diesel auto and 60mpg - let me know when you find something. I've had a PD 2.0TDi Audis with the s-tronic box and 55mpg took some doing, the new CR engines may be better and stop start technology will improve city mpg, but 60+ mpg from a diesel auto is optimistic.

Does the Focus diesel come with a Powershift gearbox (like s-tronic)? Problem with a Focus is massive discounts are available, but on a company car you pay tax on the list price and they aren't cheap.

Green.Lander

Toyota Prius is a great car and fits you bill, you can get a review view camera and company car tax is minimal

bengalknights

Go for the VW Golf Automatic Bluemotion or VAG equivalent maybe

According to autotrader spec they get over 60mpg which the equivalent ecomotive leon or greenline octavia should be able to get.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201101376369437/sort/priceasc/usedcars/transmission/automatic/radius/1500/postcode/dy27dp/page/1/keywords/bluemotion?logcode=p#techSpecPerformanceAndEconomyContent

getmore4less

Skoda octavia 1.6 CD DSG 60.1mpg combined

JoeyEmma

DaveyJP- I am well aware that the mpg they declare is never what you actually get, but I stil want to get something as efficient as possible. i keir eep playing around on the Ford website and can't get their powershift to come up on any of the models, its very strange, however I expect that it is going to be too high on the mpg as it is a 2l engine.

Green.Lander- Thanks, but I test drove a Prius and hated the whole design and visibility out of the back. A rear view camera wouldn't make any difference to me!

BengalKNights- Thanks, that is a good suggestion that I am going to definitely ask for quotes on from work, as it is coming out as one of the best cars for me.

daveyjp

"I am well aware that the mpg they declare is never what you actually get,"

On diesel autos I've had the published figures have been realistic.

My current Jag X type has an urban figure of 29.6 - in summer when ambient temperature is close to test conditions I get 30mpg round town.

Extra urban is 51 - driving at 50ish I can get more than this

The combined figure is 41 which is about right for the long distance trips I do.