The most fuel efficient car for your money

worried_jim

Why would anyone want to spend £k's to save a few pennies? Madness.

Netwizard

worried_jim wrote: »

Why would anyone want to spend £k's to save a few pennies? Madness.

Everyone nowadays is blinded by amazing MPG and cheap tax. They will happily spend £10k on a car that does 60mpg and is only £30 to tax every year.

Most of my friends and work colleagues wince when I tell them my old car does 17mpg around town. They think i'm silly for keeping a car that costs such a lot in petrol. They forget that A) I only do 6k miles a year and although my car is rubbish on fuel, it cost £800 all in, whereas their little 60mpg diesels cost £10k+ and break all the time!

scaredofdebt

Depends on your mileage, I do around 30k a year so every 1 MPG I save works out around £1 a week in my pocket. My current car is pretty good, averages around 53 MPG, if I can get something that can get above 70 MPG I'm saving £20 odd a week. That will more or less fund the purchase of a nearly new car.

I get paid 16p a mile by the company I work for, so I am making a profit if I can achieve better than 40 MPG - if you just count the cost of fuel.

I did test drive a Fiesta Econetic and only managed 65 MPG out of it (200 mile trip) but it was the 1.4 version and low-mileage, I believe the 1.6 version is better for motorway driving and the engines get a bit more efficient once they've put on a few miles. Anyone know if that's true?

Tobster86

Another thing to factor into cost equations is that thirsty old German & Japanese tanks very rarely need to be fixed.

scaredofdebt

Tobster86 wrote: »

Another thing to factor into cost equations is that thirsty old German & Japanese tanks very rarely need to be fixed.

Japanese yes, German no:

http://www.reliabilityindex.com/manufacturer

andygb

scaredofdebt wrote: »

Japanese yes, German no:

http://www.reliabilityindex.com/manufacturer

My experience and that of a neighbour with a Mazda 3 and a Toyota Yaris would suggest otherwise, and we are real people not statistics.;)

andygb

Andyr1 wrote: »

I have a fiesta econetic - same as the bluemotion, great on the long journeys but gets thirsty around town. You have to drive it very light footed to get any benefit from it. Average fuel I get is 78mpg or so.

That is absolutely nuts, a small car which is thirsty in towns, yet economic on motorways. Motorways are just where you want the comfort, protection and rugged build quality of a larger car.

scaredofdebt

andygb wrote: »

My experience and that of a neighbour with a Mazda 3 and a Toyota Yaris would suggest otherwise, and we are real people not statistics.;)

Sample size of 2 vs 50k, I know which I'd believe.

Tobster86

scaredofdebt wrote: »

Japanese yes, German no:
http://www.reliabilityindex.com/manufacturer

Where in that survey does it specifically mention 'old'?