Car Advice: £5,000, 350 miles / week - what car?

scheming_gypsy

nah, just not a fan of a lot of French cars.. Think it's because i've driven a Xantia and a Berlingo, the Xantia had the spongiest and dodgiest brakes ever and the Berlingo was simply grim.
One of my favourite cars was my old Pug 205 GTi, also liked the R5 GT Turbo and my old Renault 19 16v was ok.. Although you needed little piggy woman feet to drive the Clio 16v I used to borrow.

So i'm guessing i hate French cars after driving Citroen's

jase1

Don't completely ignore the petrol option. You're just on the cusp of a petrol being viable.

Petrols are cheaper and less complex than diesels these days. As for buying a diesel, I'd suggest going small and with a smaller engine -- the larger ones are the models with the reputation for eating DMFs etc. Smaller, Focus-sized models with 1.6 diesel engines tend to be less prone to going bang expensively. Avoid a DPF if you can as well -- more trouble than they are worth IMO.

French diesels -- with the conspicuous exception of the 1.9 and 2.2 Renault/Nissan dCis -- are usually fine. So are the gearboxes if you stick to the manuals. It's the electrics that are dicky, so avoid too many toys if you do buy French.

Avoid the Mazda 6 diesel as well at the price range you are talking about -- they are prone to going wrong in quite spectacular fashion.

I am in a similar position to you right now. What did I buy? A 1.6 petrol Focus for £3500, 3 years old with 70,000 miles. Put the £1500 away to pay for the extra fuel bills.

A modern car, be it petrol or diesel, should clear 200,000 miles without major fault if in good condition. Don't listen to all this nonsense about brand-X "lasting forever" -- they last forever because people think they last forever, so they get maintained for longer. That is the one and only difference between a VW and a Hyundai, say.

The Cee'd is a good proposition. A three year old 1.6 diesel with four years of warranty left for around £4500 seems like a sensible purchase to me. Brand-new peace of mind for near-banger money these days.

Oh, and finally, if presented with a straight choice between a 3 year old car with 80,000 miles, and a 6 year old with 30,000 in the same apparent condition, pick the newer car. Every. Single. Time. Especially with a modern diesel. They're built for the miles, not tootling around. Low-mileage older cars can suck you dry.

bigjl

As you suggest and I touched on earlier.

Ex fleet petrol cars are ignored by large parts of the used market, as they reckon they will save so much with a diesel.

BiL bought a low miles SRi 2.2 Vectra, £6090 on an 08 plate, and from a dealer!

Put LPG on it and it will be a lot cheaper to run than a diesel i would think.

Long service intervals, no dpf how bad, even spark plugs these days are long life and need done every 60k in some instances.

The allure of petrol car for next to nothing is indeed great.

bigjl

scheming_gypsy wrote: »

nah, just not a fan of a lot of French cars.. Think it's because i've driven a Xantia and a Berlingo, the Xantia had the spongiest and dodgiest brakes ever and the Berlingo was simply grim.
One of my favourite cars was my old Pug 205 GTi, also liked the R5 GT Turbo and my old Renault 19 16v was ok.. Although you needed little piggy woman feet to drive the Clio 16v I used to borrow.

So i'm guessing i hate French cars after driving Citroen's

Reckon the Xantia you drove had an issue since Citroens with the hydraulic suspension are well known to have the sharpest and most powerful brakes around.

Completely agree on the Berlingo, not the nicest van, could have done with some more sound proofing, but they run forever with the XUD, not sure about the later ones, think they had a HDi.


Ren 5 GT Turbo, mmmmmmmmmm:cool:

scheming_gypsy

I think it was a courtesy car or something, going back a while though but by 'dodgy' i meant they were powerful. Just a touch and it was like you'd anchored it, i really couldn't get used to it.

The Berlingo was the car version but it rattled and groaned. My dad loaned it me to save me some money as i was doing an 80 mile round trip and his diesel would be cheaper to run. By the time i'd taxed it, lost a few hours work through dodgy brake lights and lost another half day and half a tank of petrol as it was spitting diesel all over the place.... plus £15 for the part. It cost me more money than it would to take the Supra every day.

my first boss had a couple of 5 Turbo Raiders with the full dimmer kit.. wouldn't mind a turbo II myself!!

jase1

For one reason or another the Berlingo is always being driven at 40mph whenever I come across one.

Either this is a reflection on the kind of skin-flinted purse-lip that buys these things, or they're just horrible over that speed.

Either way, I'd lob a grenade through the window of every one I saw if I thought I could get away with it.

CrashUK

Get a ford focus 1.8 tdci.. mk2.

can not go wrong with this car.

rodenal

Disagree - the 1.6 tdci is a much better engine

puddles

Thanks for all the advice.

I've been looking at some Focus models on Autotrader and have seen 1.6, 1.8 and 2.0 litre diesels in my price range (increased it to 6k). Someone told me I shouldn't look below 1.8l as motorway driving at 70mph will give a bad MPG - is this true? It has a stated combined MPG of 58 which sounds brilliant compared to my old Vectra's 38! The 1.8 is at 53.4 and the 2.0 at 51.3. All are great in comparison and the 2.0 looks like a lovely car but it's also 3 insurance groups higher than my Vectra.

Again, any more advice would be much appreciated.

My journey is a mixture of traffic and motorway, though I never need to go higher than 70mph on my commute - I'm a good boy most of the time, that and the traffic at rush hour doesn't really allow speeding!

rodenal

I had the 2 litre and in similar driving to yours I averaged 44mpg - my friends 1.6 tdci managed 56-58.

Honestly don't bother with the 1.8 - there's nothing wrong with it but it's an older engine, will give similar mpg to the 2 litre and the 1.6 eclipses it in every way, just stay away from the 90bhp version of the 1.6 diesel and you'll have no motorway issues.