fuel efficient car for town driving

shomk

Hi
We currently have a Peugeot 307 rapier 2003 which we love but the rise in the price of petrol together with the fact that we mainly drive locally and our town has ongoing road works causing us to sit in traffic for ages, our petrol costs has really spiralled.

Any suggestions for a more fuel efficient car for town/local driving, that is also suitable for a family? I dont undersatnd much about a cars mpg!

Thanks!

DCFC79

Well the mpg is miles per gallon, the higher the number eg 54 mpg is good as it does 54 miles per gallon, as to what size is good for a family but also good for mpg im not sure, id say the small cars eg the small citroen 1 but cant think of the name(is it c1) but is that big enough for a family. hat kind of family eg 2 adults and 2 small children

jase1

In all honesty I think you need to take a step back and look at how much you're spending on fuel, divide that by 3 or 4 to get the approximate amount you might save by running a smaller car (2/3 of the fuel you're using now is about as good as any saving is going to get -- i.e. if you spend £100 now, £67 is about as little as you can realistically expect to get that down to), and compare that with the cost to change, especially if your car is a good one.

You may find that it will take you years to make back the money lost in changing your car.

If you travel 10,000 miles a year, a 1.6 might do 30mpg around town vs 40mpg for a small car. At £1.25 a litre you'd expect to pay £1875 with the larger car vs £1384 with the smaller one -- a saving of about £500.

If the cost to change is £3000, you'd need to run the smaller car for six years to break even.

And if you're looking at less expensive cars, be aware that smaller cars fetch a higher resale value than larger ones at the same age, because of people wanting something "economical". Changing a newer car for an older one isn't my idea of a good plan.

Also, if you are stopped in traffic for more than a minute, switch the engine off. It only takes a second or two to start it again. You use no fuel at all when the engine is off.

Chris_Hinds

The other thing to remember is that changing your car will be stupidly expensive. If you currently get say 25mpg and do 10k miles a year you'll use £2290 of fuel in a year. Change the car for one doing 45mpg and you'll use £1270 of fuel instead. Annual saving of £1020. Changing the car from one that owes you nothing to one that will def do 45mpg is going to cost you at least £5000 realistically. That's 5 years of extra fuel for the thirsty car. I'd happily change cars but fuel economy wouldn't be my sole reason for doing so. The only reason you might think it was a good idea is because buying tanks of fuel is obvious money, depreciation on the car isn't.

Regards

Chris

forgotmyname

Buying a small hatchback with the smallest engine size they do is not always the best for economy.

It will lack power and you will be revving it harder when accelerating. A 1.4turbo diesel engine is a small
hatchback is a good compromise. You want the most basic/cheapest model with that engine.
Buying an under powered car can be a mistake.

People struggle to get more than 50mpg from a smart car where i can get more than that with an engine
thats almost 3 times bigger.

Accelerating and braking costs fuel. Sitting in stationary traffic wastes fuel. If i left work 20 minutes later
than my finish time it would half my journey time.

[Deleted User]

Another one of those spend £££ to save ££ posts.