The most fuel efficient car for your money

chrisincog

So, what is the most fuel efficient car for your money??

I have been led to believe that the VW Polo "Bluemotion" is incredibly fuel efficient and is cheap buy in comparison to its rivals. I'm no motoring expert but i'm sure there are other cars out there, i can't test drive them all but i could do with some advice thats not coming from a salesman.

Are there any better alternatives?

What MPG should i be looking for?

What price should i be paying for a new car?

What price should i be paying for a used car?

Whats is better for the environment in the long run, petrol or diesel?

Thanks for any help you can give.

bramval

I read somewhere recently that the Smart car is officially the most fuel efficient car on the road. If you are looking for something a bit larger then a VW Bluemotion does seem to offer tremendous economy. Someone I know claims to get 80+ mpg from her Polo Bluemotion.

We have a Golf Plus Bluemotion and recently did just short of 1000 miles in a week. We were a bit disappointed when filling up because we thought that we would hit the magic 70 mpg after completing 804 miles on a single tank of diesel. Unfortunately it came out at only 69.6!

skivenov

Economy depends on a lot of things. What sort of journeys are you doing?

A hybrid will be great on fuel round town, but terrible for longer distances.
A small diesel will do most journeys fairly economically.
A larger diesel will probably be better for long distances.
A modern diesel will generally cost more to run in repairs if it's just doing short journies.

Netwizard

Don't forget to do your sums first. The general public get so hung up on MPG that they will happily blow £12,000 on a new car, just to get 60mpg rather than 30mpg. quite often, its false ecomony.

It really depends how many miles you drive

Paperbird

Netwizard wrote: »

Don't forget to do your sums first. The general public get so hung up on MPG that they will happily blow £12,000 on a new car, just to get 60mpg rather than 30mpg. quite often, its false ecomony.

It really depends how many miles you drive

Yep not much point in saving a couple of hundred pounds in fuel each year if it's value drops £1000 more each year than a less economical one.

forgotmyname

So, what is the most fuel efficient car for your money??
Depends how much money you have and what type of car you want.

I have been led to believe that the VW Polo "Bluemotion" is incredibly fuel efficient and is cheap buy in comparison to its rivals. I'm no motoring expert but i'm sure there are other cars out there, i can't test drive them all but i could do with some advice thats not coming from a salesman.
Its overpriced.

Are there any better alternatives?
The Bus? Pushbike? Scooter?

What MPG should i be looking for?
Anything over 30MPG is good for me.

What price should i be paying for a new car?
£2500

What price should i be paying for a used car?
£2000

Whats is better for the environment in the long run, petrol or diesel?
Neither. The figures only tell you half the story. Its not all about CO2.

Climate has been changing for millions of years and it always will no matter what you run your car on.

Its just an excuse to tax you more. Read recently they want to have a 2 tier tax system for cars.
One if you dont use busy roads and another for busy roads and motorways.

Whats the bet the prices only go upwards.

Top gear drove from Switzerland to Blackpool.
Hammond chose the BlueMotion. May chose a Legacy Diesel and Clarkson chose a big V6 Jag. Jag made it easily even though he did race it sometimes.

So there you go, You want a V6 Jag.

Herzlos

The Bluemotion only provides good economy if you do long enough journeys (50+ miles) to get the filters up to temp, and will result in huge bills if the filters get clogged.

If it's for about town Bluemotion's are hugely expensive, and you're better off with a smallish petrol.

But as has been said; you should look into the overall cost (repayment interest, depreciation, servicing, repairs, tax, fuel), rather than just tax and fuel.
Replacing a DPF on a diesel may easily wipe out the annual saving from the fuel economy.

If you don't to huge mileages or spend a lot of time in towns look for a petrol car with stop/start.

Herzlos

bramval wrote: »

I read somewhere recently that the Smart car is officially the most fuel efficient car on the road.

I believe that one of the car magazines showed in a test that it has the widest gap between real world economy and the manufacturers figures (differing by something like 30%). Presumably because it has to be worked so hard to keep up.

Manufacturers economy figures are complete nonsense, which makes it even stranger that people will buy a car purely on that basis.

Hintza

Herzlos wrote: »

Manufacturers economy figures are complete nonsense, which makes it even stranger that people will buy a car purely on that basis.

But it isn't manufacturer figures. Each manufacturer has to go by the same set of EU tests to derive mpg in a couple of scenarios.

Now we have the government deciding VED on those self same figures.

So the manufacturers set their cars up to minimise their CO2 figures.

The manufacturer is not allowed to mention any other (ie real life) mpg figures.

colino

Unfortunately you are taking fuel consumption in isolation. What instead if you bought a 1.8 petrol Vectra for £1000, abused it for a year and got another one? You will have enjoyed the benefits of a mid-size, practical car, up to 42mpg, cheap repairs/tyres/insurance and you'll be unlikely to weep at the inevitable, "tesco tickles". That's moneysaving.

forgotmyname

As colino said BUT not a VECTRA.. Noooo dont do it...

Spend £2000 (ish) The ish is optional if you find a really nice one. But cannot be more than £500.

Buy a mondeo petrol or diesel and enjoy reasonable fuel economy thinking about all the money you saved on depreciation and finance etc will pay for a LOT of fuel.

On the motorway at 70mph im doing around 60MPG.