£4,000 annual fuel bill, time for a new car?

FlyingBoomerang

Hi everyone, sorry for the long post but I would appreciate peoples opinions.

I have owned my Mondeo ST 220 for 4 years and love it very much, but my new job is forcing me to spend £3,600 a year on petrol for the rush hour stop start commute. Thats on top of my normal fuel costs, £245 road tax and £900 insurance.

I'm getting a bit fed up if I'm honest, its not the cars fault (it averages 32mpg tank after tank) but the cost of fuel and my mileage.

Now if I were to sell it and buy for example, a diesel Fiesta which does 76mpg, costs nothing to tax and only £500 to insure, I'd make a massive saving in terms of running costs.

Of course the outlay is massive and this is where it gets complicated.

Would it be sensible, to buy say a diesel Fiesta for £200 a month, and spend the remaining £100 on fuel? Now you may notice I'm not actually saving any money, however if I were to sell the Fiesta in 1-2 years time I'd be able to reclaim some of that money back, maybe even 40%.

In total, my first year of ownership would see me save £2,800 (not including maintenance which would be a lot cheaper (i.e. £40 a tyre and not £100)).

Thoughts and opinions please.

Kilty_2

A diesel Fiesta won't do 76MPG in stop start traffic.

FlyingBoomerang

I'm going to use book figures to make it a fair comparison, my cars official comparison is 27mpg but I personally average 32mpg although occassionally 32mpg. So I see no harm in using the official figures for the Fiesta, infact some owners report 90mpg on a slow motorway run.

I guess the other question is, can I put up with driving a Fiesta or the likes, and is my currently excessive fuel bill worth the outlay of driving such a nice car? Obviously these are only questions I can answer, how unfortunate that I do not know.

Kilty_2

I did something similar, FYI, but I went from a 2.0 Renault Laguna to a 1.0 Kia Picanto.

£75pcm, 50+MPG, etc.

Not great for a long commute every day though

FlyingBoomerang

Would you recommend it? The problem is, I like my luxuries. I like my Xenons, my Recaro sport seats, sports suspension and big alloy wheels etc., and for 10% of the time I enjoy a good hoon (yes I can get these on a diesel saloon car, but they dont offer the same savings as a super-mini).

The other part of me says, 90% of my driving is at 55mph on the motorway, get something economical which will sell well in 18 months time. By then I expect to move closer to work, so I can return to a quick petrol car.

Kilty_2

I love it but it's a bit too small for long commuting (how long is your commute, I'm tired and can't be bothered working it out :rotfl:) and mine is the base BASE model that has no luxuries whatsoever.

As close to 4 seats and a steering wheel as you'll get in a new car.

FlyingBoomerang

I do 65 miles a day on my commute, 60 of which are on the motorway. Before someone suggests buying an old diesel saloon car for £2k, I don't really want to go down that road, my Mondeo is 8 years old to begin with! I'd rather have something a little newer and safer etc.

Kilty_2

Fiesta size is probably the smallest you want to go then - the 1.4 TDCI is sluggish but once it's up to speed it's fine (we have 14 of them at work, they're base models though, aim a bit higher if you can)

I'd suggest looking at similar cars from other manufacturers though, Fiesta is a competent car but nothing special.

You can probably get an old model (pre-registered or maybe even the last of them) Focus diesel for the same price as a Fiesta too - no idea about economy though

spaceboy

Get a Bluemotion Golf

getmore4less

Why go new?

Middle ground, more economical second hand with goodies.

Octavia L&K 2.0pd Estate DSG has all the goodies but would need to go 3-4 years old for nrew fiesta money, drop the estate and DSG and they are more reasonable, might find a lower spec with upgrades for a bit less.
(1.9 is cheaper insurance)

We have a Clio 1.5cdi 55-60mpg and that is fine on longer trips as long as you don't need luggage.

FlyingBoomerang

I don't mean to buy new, sorry if it came across that way. I mean I just dont want an old car, 4 years old is ok though