Advice on next car, please help

Mo_L

Hey All,

So I've been debating whether to go for a diesel as my next car. More than likely VW MK5 Golf. Budgets upto 5k. However my question is do I really need it/diesel? My two reasons for it are:

-I'm doing mostly motorway miles to and fro from work as well as seeing my partner every 2 weeks (sometimes weekly pending on my schedule)
-I want to give my current car (1st car, corsa 1.0) to my younger sister who will be passing soon

Now speaking to quite a few people and looking around on the net I get conflicting info. Diesels always been touted as cost effective when doing motorway miles and despite the price of diesel rising, the fuel will go further in terms of MPG (TDI's coming up to 52-54 mpg on avg). When looking at a few petrol FSI 1.6 Golfs on avg MPG was coming up around 42MPG,so there already is 20% difference.

I've worked out so far that on a monthly basis I'm doing 1270k miles so a yearly mileage take would be 15240k. I pretty much do 50 miles daily and every 2 weeks a 160 mile trip. A full tank on my corsa is roughly £55. I'm going to let it redline and then fill up to calculate its MPG. Regardless I want a Golf its just is it going to be diesel or petrol based on my mileage? Any help would be appreciated

forgotmyname

Can your sister afford to insure the Corsa? Prices have risen for females lately and a Corsa is not the cheapest car to insure.

Short journeys = petrol. Low mileages = petrol. Cheap repairs = petrol.

Longer journey = diesel. High mileage = diesel. Cheaper repairs an old diesel with no dual mass flywheel or diesel particulate filter.

These can increase repairs and servicing a lot.

SCO

i would think a diesel would save you money on fuel

Tigerprint

I agree that diesel will make a saving for you. I don't do as many miles as you but always prefer to drive a diesel car.

My favourite has been the VW Polo, it was very economical being a smaller 1.4 TDi engine.

For more motorway miles I can understand the Golf, but also think the Audi A3 is worth looking at.

worried_jim

Get the Diesel- your usage/mileage justifies.

BlueC

Petrol is currently average £1.38 per litre. This is £6.27 per gallon. The petrol car will do 42 MPG giving a fuel cost per mile of £0.149. Over 16,000 annual miles this is £2387 per year.

Diesel is currently average £1.45 per litre. This is £6.58 per gallon. The diesel car will do 52 MPG giving a fuel cost per mile of £0.127. Over 16,000 annual miles this is £2026 per year.

So the diesel may cost £360 less per year in fuel - not a massive saving but it is a saving. But as pointed out above this isn't the only consideration. How much more does a diesel car cost to buy in the first place? They are normally considerably more expensive even second hand (maybe even £1000?). How much more does a diesel car cost to service and maintain - this can be really significant as a modern diesel engine can be very expensive to service or fix if it goes wrong. But maybe the diesel has cheaper road tax? How about insurance costs? What about depreciation?

I would say this is a borderline case where other "unknowns" are going to ultimately affect which is cheaper in the long run. A £360 per year fuel saving could easily be eaten up with a single costly repair bill, but then you might buy a petrol that is a lemon and end up paying a fortune to fix that too.

chrisw

BlueC wrote: »

I would say this is a borderline case where other "unknowns" are going to ultimately affect which is cheaper in the long run. A £360 per year fuel saving could easily be eaten up with a single costly repair bill, but then you might buy a petrol that is a lemon and end up paying a fortune to fix that too.

If the costs are similar, try driving one of each and see which you prefer. Petrols and diesels require slightly different driving styles. I always preferred free revving smooth petrol engines, but having now had a couple of diesels I think I have switched camps and prefer the low down torque of a diesel.

Tigerprint

Plus, if you find a good diesel & keep it well maintained, it will out live a petrol by far :j

Strider590

Tigerprint wrote: »

Plus, if you find a good diesel & keep it well maintained, it will out live a petrol by far :j

That's not really true of diesels less than say 8-10 years of age. They're not what they used to be, the newer diesels are very fragile indeed.

DUTR

Mo_L wrote: »

Hey All,

So I've been debating whether to go for a diesel as my next car. More than likely VW MK5 Golf. Budgets upto 5k. However my question is do I really need it/diesel? My two reasons for it are:

-I'm doing mostly motorway miles to and fro from work as well as seeing my partner every 2 weeks (sometimes weekly pending on my schedule)
-I want to give my current car (1st car, corsa 1.0) to my younger sister who will be passing soon

Now speaking to quite a few people and looking around on the net I get conflicting info. Diesels always been touted as cost effective when doing motorway miles and despite the price of diesel rising, the fuel will go further in terms of MPG (TDI's coming up to 52-54 mpg on avg). When looking at a few petrol FSI 1.6 Golfs on avg MPG was coming up around 42MPG,so there already is 20% difference.

I've worked out so far that on a monthly basis I'm doing 1270k miles so a yearly mileage take would be 15240k. I pretty much do 50 miles daily and every 2 weeks a 160 mile trip. A full tank on my corsa is roughly £55. I'm going to let it redline and then fill up to calculate its MPG. Regardless I want a Golf its just is it going to be diesel or petrol based on my mileage? Any help would be appreciated

In practice there won't be a 20% difference, I have a MK5 GTI and one of my mates had a 2 litre TDI, on a run from Bham to Preston in convoy (so same driving) the time we got to our destination, his computer was showing 42mpg, mine was showing 39mpg, so that was a 7% difference on a 100 mile run.
As diesel is more pricey than petrol, at today's rates the cost in the TDI would have been £15.71 vs £15.34 in the petrol, so the difference in price is like 3%.
Just had an mot test today, and the milage since the last mot is 6100miles , so according to the 'saving ' I have driven an extra 200 miles in a year.
Also my other mate had a volvo c70 2 litre petrol and said a full tank was lasting him 10 days for his driving pattern, he has changed to an audi A5 and a full tank lasts him 12-14 days.

chrisw

DUTR wrote: »

In practice there won't be a 20% difference, I have a MK5 GTI and one of my mates had a 2 litre TDI, on a run from Bham to Preston in convoy (so same driving) the time we got to our destination, his computer was showing 42mpg, mine was showing 39mpg, so that was a 7% difference on a 100 mile run.

42mpg is very poor for the 2 litre TDI, particularly on a longish journey like that. I had a 06 Passat with the same engine which never dropped below 45mpg no matter how hard it was thrashed. I would expect mid 50s mpg on normal driving for that journey.