Spec me a motorway car

andygb

Flying-High wrote: »

Me Personally with them miles I'd be running the likes of an elcheapo Specc'd ish Diesel that's throwaway if need be... HDI 90 406 Rapier or the likes... No DPF NO DMF.. Will sit at silly speeds decent MPG.. Fixableish ... Money in the bank.

Or a 55/56/57 reg Skoda Octavia with the 1.9 engine. No stupid things to go wrong - except the dual mass flywheel (and you can swap to a solid one for around £400).
Cheap comfortable motoring and 55MPG at least on a long run. They can also go for many 100'sK miles.

Flying-High_2

andygb wrote: »

Or a 55/56/57 reg Skoda Octavia with the 1.9 engine. No stupid things to go wrong - except the dual mass flywheel (and you can swap to a solid one for around £400).
Cheap comfortable motoring and 55MPG at least on a long run. They can also go for many 100'sK miles.

Any VAG TDI really... I'd avoid a Passat or a A4 to avoid the arms on the suspension if you can't do it yourself. Any MK4 platform would be Ideal... 130 Tdi Octavia L&K or Elegance could fit the bill... £2.5 - £3k tops for a nicey nice one...

Typhoon2000

Nearly two years on, I am bumping my own thread.

So my Civic 2.2 is on 110k and has not cost me anything in garage costs as I change the oil, filters, fluids and pads myself. It gave me a round 50mpg when traveling with traffic on the outside lane and 57mpg when not in a hurry.
Unfortunately a bump means I think it's going to be written off by the insuarance company, so I am after another car for under £10k.

I could get another but would like to go for a newer model or different car than the same again. But the new 2012 on Civic diesels ( both 2.2 and the 1.6) come with a DPF now.
Whilst my motorway driving means I should have no issues with the regen I understand these filters are now really service items and last 100k or less no matter how you drive as they fill up with ash from the regen. And it can be up to a £1k to fit a new one. So if I get a diesel car with 40k on the clocK, I am going to be looking at a big bill in a year or so.

So what the deal these days when buying a 3-4yr old car for 8-10k, to do big miles. Is it cheaper to stick with petrol ( what you loose on enconomy you gain by lower purchase price and DPF issues/ replacement cost). Also I see it may cost £12 a day to driving in London by 2019, with non Euro 6 diesel (2015 or older?). I live just outside the South Circular in London.

tykesi

Not owned a diesel in years and have no intention of getting one so I can't comment on the DPF thing I'm afraid. I do however have a Civic 1.4 petrol and on a recent trip from Leeds to Heathrow & back I averaged 53MPG (actual, not the 56 the computer told me). Admittedly it won't win any races but keeps up with traffic pretty well and will happily sit at 80 on the motorway.

There are plenty of 1.2 & 1.4 turbo petrol engines across various manufacturers at the moment and Honda still do the 1.4 in the 9th gen. Civic. I'm going for one of these when I buy my next car next year. Not sure which yet, got some research to do but it's probably worth you looking if you're against the DPF idea.

wba31

Typhoon2000 wrote: »

Nearly two years on, I am bumping my own thread.

So my Civic 2.2 is on 110k and has not cost me anything in garage costs as I change the oil, filters, fluids and pads myself. It gave me a round 50mpg when traveling with traffic on the outside lane and 57mpg when not in a hurry.
Unfortunately a bump means I think it's going to be written off by the insuarance company, so I am after another car for under £10k.

I could get another but would like to go for a newer model or different car than the same again. But the new 2012 on Civic diesels ( both 2.2 and the 1.6) come with a DPF now.
Whilst my motorway driving means I should have no issues with the regen I understand these filters are now really service items and last 100k or less no matter how you drive as they fill up with ash from the regen. And it can be up to a £1k to fit a new one. So if I get a diesel car with 40k on the clocK, I am going to be looking at a big bill in a year or so.

So what the deal these days when buying a 3-4yr old car for 8-10k, to do big miles. Is it cheaper to stick with petrol ( what you loose on enconomy you gain by lower purchase price and DPF issues/ replacement cost). Also I see it may cost £12 a day to driving in London by 2019, with non Euro 6 diesel (2015 or older?). I live just outside the South Circular in London.

Why not save yourself some £££ and pick up another pre-facelift civic? i part ex'd my 2008 civic with £140k miles on it in august, and only changed it due to needing a bigger car. Only thing i had done on mine was a clutch and DMF for £750.

If looking at petrol I've been looking at replacing our old Jazz with an Octavia, the mpg suggested for the 1.6 petrol Octavia is pretty impressive, as is the 1.2 and 1.4 engines in them. truth be told theres nothing wrong with the Jazz, it's just had a new exhaust so for me the MSE thing to do is keep it and keep saving...

benson1980

Have you looked at an Auris hybrid or Prius? I do an 80 mile round motorway trip to work and back, and it's ideal. Comfy, automatic, cruise control can be easily retrofitted if required to the base models. Around 60mpg. I also do my own maintenance and the scheduled bits that need doing are really easy. No belts etc- just fluid changes and spark plugs at around 100k. And no road tax.

dannyrst

I would suggest a BMW 116d (auto if possible). Drove one for work and it was nice enough, used an indicated quarter of a tank over 400 miles (what that actually was I'm not sure).

ACG

I have a renault Captur (diesel), mine does about 56mpg according to the computer and half my time is spent on the roads. If I do 60-65mph on the motorway it is closer to around 70mpg.

I went from Manchester to the lakes and back on quarter of a tank (about £10-15 in diesel at the time). Admittedly I wasnt bombing it, but I reckon I must have averaged about 60mph (there was a couple of 50mph average speed checks in place on the way).

I love it for driving on the motorway, its not that bad off the motorway either. I know these crossovers can get a bit of stick but I quite like mine. I reckon they are less than £10k as they are "only" about £17k to buy brand new.

Typhoon2000

Thanks for the input.


After driving a few cars, I ended up getting a 1 owner FHSH 2009 Honda CRV 2.2 diesel with 55K for £7500. Its the same engine as on my Civic and I can use the oils and filters I had stocked up on.


Its a bigger car than the Civic so motorway MPG is not as good but if I drive a little slower its pretty much the same. But as it was at the lower end of my budget, I can cope with a little lower mpg. There is a big improvement in comfort, and I get to work and home more refreshed. No DPF on this model either and it has a chain rather than belt. So far I am very pleased. If the weather gets colder I may get a chance to see the part time 4x4 in action.