Best choice for economy?

Shawn_Dark

As my current car is proving to be an unreliable, money pit I am going to have to get another car. But, I am wondering, which is most economical for my usage?

Use the below details as a model:

- I work five days a week.
- I travel at least one day per weekend (i.e. to see family):
30 miles travel plus another 10 miles once there. So a total of 40 miles on the weekend).
- I travel around 60 miles a day to work (30 there, 30 back).
- I do around 80% of my travel on a motorway.
- I need a family-sized car (so has be an Astra/Focus size, or bigger... a Corsa/Fiesta would be too small).
- I keep to the 70 mph limit (for economy sake).

So which is going to provide better economy (i.e. keep my fuel costs down) a 1.6 petrol or a 1.9/2.0 diesel?

I have always stuck with 1.9/2.0 turbo diesels but now people seem to think that with petrol prices, a 1.4 or 1.6 petrol would do better, with the added bonus that I would have less going wrong. Diesels seem to be costly to repair.

DarkFallout

what average speed do you do on the motorway?

of you drive at 70-80 mph, 1.9-2.0TDI will be more economical on a family size car

to give you an example, at present I am driving Seat Ibiza 1.2TSI, brilliant engine, but it gives be 42-44mpg with careful driving

I used to drive Mondeo Mk III 2.0TDDI estate 2002 and was getting 48mpg on motorway driving at 70mph average with no difficulty

Shawn_Dark

DarkFallout wrote: »

what average speed do you do on the motorway?

of you drive at 70-80 mph, 1.9-2.0TDI will be more economical on a family size car

to give you an example, at present I am driving Seat Ibiza 1.2TSI, brilliant engine, but it gives be 42-44mpg with careful driving

I used to drive Mondeo Mk III 2.0TDDI estate 2002 and was getting 48mpg on motorway driving with 70mph with no difficulty

I keep to the 70 mph limit (for economy/costs sake).

DarkFallout

Abu_Yoosha wrote: »

I keep to the 70 mph limit (for economy/costs sake).

usually at 70mph, big TDI engines have 10-20% better mpg than small petrol ones ... on family cars the difference is usually about 20% ...

had an Insignia 1.8i for few weeks and the mpg was 32, much worse compared all turbodiesels that I have driven

Shawn_Dark

DarkFallout wrote: »

usually at 70mph, big TDI engines have 10-20% better mpg than small petrol ones ... on family cars the difference is usually about 20% ...

had an Insignia 1.8i for few weeks and the mpg was 32, much worse compared all turbodiesels that I have driven

Yes, I have always stuck to turbo diesels.

But what is your view on repair costs (petrol vs diesel)?

In my situation I am going from old car to old car as I simply cannot afford a newer car (although a lot of the newer diesel engines sound like a nightmare in terms of reliability).

I have debts and a bad credit rating so even a new car via an 'interest-free credit' deal is not an option for me.

Its not as if I can build up savings either as I am concentrating on clearing my debts first (hopefully one more year and I am done... hopefully, hopefully).

DarkFallout

Abu_Yoosha wrote: »

Yes, I have always stuck to turbo diesels.

But what is your view on repair costs (petrol vs diesel)?

In my situation I am going from old car to old car as I simply cannot afford a newer car (although a lot of the newer diesel engines sound like a nightmare in terms of reliability).

I have debts and a bad credit rating so even a new car via an 'interest-free credit' deal is not an option for me.

Its not as if I can build up savings either as I am concentrating on clearing my debts first (hopefully one more year and I am done... hopefully, hopefully).

I think it is a lottery with second hand cars and no one can predict the costs

forgotmyname

The thing to do is dont blow all your budget on buying a car.

You need to keep enough back to pay for repairs or in the worse case
scenerio buy another one.

Shawn_Dark

forgotmyname wrote: »

The thing to do is dont blow all your budget on buying a car.

You need to keep enough back to pay for repairs or in the worse case
scenerio buy another one.

I don't have much anyway, the car will probably fetch £1000 max, which will go back into the next car.

Once I clear my debts I can put some money together, get a decent car and keep money to one side for repairs/maintenance, etc.

forgotmyname

Getting a decent car will take money though.

And cheap cars at those prices may need the same amount spending on them to make them 100%. Or just make them reliable for daily use.

You maybe better off keeping your current car.

70mph may not be the most fuel efficient speed depending on the gearing. In 6th
gear on my car i can better economy at 80mph than 70mph.

Best economy is around 43mph in 4th gear. 60+mpg. Not bad for a 1.5ton
130bhp mapped to 160bhp diesel estate. Drop to 40mph and mpg gets worse as it needs more throttle
to keep the speed.

fred7777

Had to make a similar decision earlier this year. Big factor you don't state is the price of the cars you are looking at.

We worked out that we could buy a £3.5 K petrol or a £5.5k diesel (everything else being the same) and that taking into account the lower cost of petrol per litre, the higher cost of petrol per mile, the differences in purchase price and the different depreciation the petrol was cheaper until we had driven 34k miles when the break even point would be reached and the diesel would be cheaper.

So we went for the petrol.

We are now running one 1.6 petrol car and one 1.6 diesel (older car) both have similar power, performance and maintenance costs.

Shawn_Dark

fred7777 wrote: »

Had to make a similar decision earlier this year. Big factor you don't state is the price of the cars you are looking at.

We worked out that we could buy a £3.5 K petrol or a £5.5k diesel (everything else being the same) and that taking into account the lower cost of petrol per litre, the higher cost of petrol per mile, the differences in purchase price and the different depreciation the petrol was cheaper until we had driven 34k miles when the break even point would be reached and the diesel would be cheaper.

So we went for the petrol.

We are now running one 1.6 petrol car and one 1.6 diesel (older car) both have similar power, performance and maintenance costs.

See comment #8.

I am looking at £1000, possibly more (but that would probably meaning a family/friend loan) which I want to avoid. Besides, I want to keep any extra money spare for maintenence and repairs.