what kind of fuel to go for?

butterfly_mum

I'm looking at replacing my Megane as it doesn't have enough room in the cabin now that my children are tall (and haven't finished growing :eek:). I do daily short journeys around town, longer 20-30 mile journeys once a week or so, and 2x 300 mile round-trips each month.
The Megane is a 1.5 diesel, which I bought for economy and low road tax and it's been great on those points but I'm a bit wary of getting another diesel in case things like road tax shoot up. I will have approx 10k cash to spend plus trade-in on my old car and am struggling to work out what to look for. . Petrol and take the hit on the long journeys (I've done that trip in both petrol and diesel cars in the past and the difference in cost was amazing) / hybrid / risk another diesel? I was thinking hybrid but there doesn't seem to be much for my budget that would give us more room.

Thanks for letting me pick you brains!

Herzlos

Petrol. You'll get a better car for the same money.

AdrianC

A hybrid won't save you much - if anything - on a long journey, when the electricity's not doing much, but may well be of benefit in your short-journey urban use. Consider the storage space trade-off though - hybrids need to put the batteries somewhere, and the usual location is under a false, raised boot floor.

Fuel cost difference between petrol and diesel on a 300 mile round trip is unlikely to be much over a tenner if you're looking at similar sizes and types of car, maybe a third of the total fuel cost.


Your regular long runs will mean DPF issues are likely to be minimised.

jimjames

Is a Megane particularly small? My grown up kids fit fine in a Golf which is the same class?

Indout96

jimjames wrote: »

Is a Megane particularly small? My grown up kids fit fine in a Golf which is the same class?

Possibly the coupe version, I looked at one when they came out and the roof slopes quite a lot over the rear seats (also only 3 doors)

Pauciloquent_1_2

Herzlos wrote: »

Petrol. You'll get a better car for the same money.

How do you arrive at that conclusion when the price of secondhand diesels has fallen so much?

fatrab

If it was me I'd be looking at a diesel. If you didn't have the 300 mile round trips then definitely petrol.

I'm not worried about this whole diesel thing at all yet. Will they put tax up again on older cars? I'd be surprised if they did. They're only going up one band as it stands.

Buy an efficient diesel (under 110g/km CO2) would be my advice. The savings on fuel will offset the rise in tax ten times over.

Ranger8

Safe with buying diesel for quite a while yet