Change car

Gareth19

Hi all - advice appreciated. I am unfortunately looking to change my Lexus IS200SE (51 plate) for something a little lighter on fuel consumption. The fuel these beasts drink is just ridiculous. I have been looking at the Nissan Primera 2.0SVE cars. The one I'm looking at is a 2003 model. I see these cars have a good spec. Can anyone give any advice on how they are on fuel? Or has anyone any other tips for a decent spec car (6 or 7 years old approx) which won't break the bank with fuel like my Lexus currently does.

Cheers everyone!!

rodenal

I really, really dislike that model of primera - one of my first "real" jobs was with a hire company and we had nothing but problems with them, even when relatively new. They also have the worst steering this side of a vauxhall corsa.

There's plenty of choice out there for you, mondeo/vectra/e39/accord/mazda 6/passat/octavia etc etc. Most have a choice of petrol or diesel engines that'll give reasonable mpg. How bad is your IS? I know they're meant to be quite heavy on fuel, i'm guessing mid 20's? If you're getting anything over 30mpg in it I would question whether you'll really save much by buying another large car.

Gareth19

quite heavy doesn't begin to explain. I get around 20 if I'm luck and that's driving nice and steady. I can almost see the needle going down as I'm driving along. I only noticed the Primera because you seem to get a good spec with lots of extras. I did own the model before (W Reg) and that was pretty good but it seems not any more. Thanks for your advice I will look at some of the cars you have mentioned.

iolanthe07

Are you sure there isn't something wrong with it that could be fixed? You might regret getting rid of your Lexus - lovely cars.

Gareth19

They are lovely alright but my dad has exactly the same model and his fuel is the same. Nope it just loves the fuel too much for some reason. I'm putting £20 in every other day to do a 30 mile journey. It's ludicrous but as you say they are great cars and it is a very reluctant decision. But its either that or the bankrupty court at this rate

iolanthe07

Lexus are very popular in the US where fuel cost isn't so much of an issue. Good luck with selling it.

Hammyman

Gareth19 wrote: »

Hi all - advice appreciated. I am unfortunately looking to change my Lexus IS200SE (51 plate) for something a little lighter on fuel consumption. The fuel these beasts drink is just ridiculous.

The only reason it drinks fuel is because of the way you drive. You should be able to get 35+MPG out of it. Just because you're driving "steady" doesn't mean you're driving economically. I used to do a run to London from Hull every night following someone in an identical vehicle to the same place with the same load. He used between 40-50% more fuel than I did and I only took 2 minutes longer to do the 200 mile journey. We swapped vehicles with the same result.

Mobeer

The Lexus has (or had) official figures of 28.8 mpg combined manual or 28.2 automatic when new. The Nissan had 32 mpg when new. Swapping between such cars will probably make little difference to your overall fuel bill.

rexmedorum

Indeed if the fuel bill is such an issue should you swap to a 2l petrol car?
Maybe you should consider converting the lexus to LPG, get a quote, look up the price of LPG in your area (does anybody know how much more LPG you'd expect to use?)

Weird_Nev

Lexii IS200's are notoriously thirsty, and unfortunately worth very little because of this. Mid 20's mpg is apparently normal for them.
How about a diesel? Even if you've got no money you could get a Peugeot 306 D Turbo for around £700, they do 45-50mpg and are cheap to maintain and run.

Other than that ,pretty much any hatchback with a modern diesel engine should see you pushing 50mpg.
But beware the 'spending money to save money syndrome'. If a petrol car is £1000 and gets 30mpg ,and the diesel equivalent is £3000 but gets 40 mpg, then that £2000 saving on the purchase price buys a hell of a lot of fuel before you begin to see the savings of having a more efficient car.

Run some numbers including the cost to change your car before you commit to spending a lot of money, you might be surprised.

gilbert_and_sullivan

rexmedorum wrote: »

Indeed if the fuel bill is such an issue should you swap to a 2l petrol car?
Maybe you should consider converting the lexus to LPG, get a quote, look up the price of LPG in your area (does anybody know how much more LPG you'd expect to use?)

Indeed, but most people can't bring themselves to invest the money, though they seem happy to take finance out on another unknown quantity car that does 5mpg more.

You need a first class car to start with, one that's been maintained properly with a view to keeping it long term, not worth investing in a neglected heap which will never run properly on propane if it's runs like a bag of nails on petrol.

Unless i go Hybrid next time, which is a distinct possibilty, i shall get my next petrol car converted too, it's saving me a fortune, or rather enabling me to run a 3.2 24v MB for about the same costs as a cloned eurobox.