How to save money on diesel?

motorguy

Jackmydad wrote: »

To be fair it's 50 miles each way. The couple of "eco-boxes" I've driven were not so bad as to make a 50 mile trip all that draining.
But realistically, what I gave are the choices. You can either make yourself nearer to your work. Or you can get the cheapest car to run that you can find. As you rightly say, changing cars will cost, but that's going to come anyway at some stage. Long term having an electric car for example could represent a bigger saving than the initial cost.
Driving more economically could make a bit of difference, but with a car that's already doing 55mpg I wonder how far you could stretch it and how much of a PITA it would be to do long term.

I've done it in a Golf 1.6TDI where i managed to achieve 62mpg over 30,000 or so miles.

I wouldnt want to be running anything smaller. Gold would be pretty much minimum size for me.

missile

You are already getting very good MPG. Get a job closer to home, car share or public transport.

motorguy

Bigphil1474 wrote: »

Nasqueron, I don't think the point was that depreciation isn't an expected by-product of owning a car a long time, and getting value for your outlay, but that the reduction of the value of the vehicle is a hidden cost in working out the overall 'cost of motoring'. If you buy a car for £5k and run it for 10 years then scrap it, it has cost you £500 a year on average, which may well be what you are willing to pay, but it's still a cost. Every mile you drive in that car will have a proportion of the outlay within it. I get paid mileage at work, and the rate is derived from all motoring costs including depreciation, which is good for me as my car is worthless, so I'm making money on it now.

Exactly. He's wholly missing my original point which was "dont keep changing your car regularly as the depreciation will be more severe". You cant avoid depreciation on a car and do those miles. You might kid yourself that if you havent sold it, it hasnt depreciated but it has. No-one is going to give you what you paid for your car 10-15 years down the line (well for anything that isnt an appreciating or future classic)

Haych1992

Hi all,
Thank you so much for your replies

In response to some comments

Car share would be difficult as I set off at 4:30 and doubt someone would be going the same way at the same time

Unfortunately I am unable to work from home because of the nature of my job

I could move closer to work however this would mean the upheaval of my family and moving away from family and friends as well as making my wife then have to commute to her place of work.

I'm pretty happy with my car and it does decent mpg, I couldn't afford to change it and I'm not sure how a smaller car could cope with the amount of miles, I have my car serviced regularly and check the tyre pressures as well as making sure the boot is empty

The route I think I will look into is reward schemes e.g. Tesco clubcard and possibly a cash back credit card, I'm a bit reluctant to use credit cards as I've never had one and probably need to do further research before I apply

Again thank you

Haych

scaredofdebt

GunJack wrote: »

christ, that's expensive... it's £1.257 by us....I'd hate to see what the most expensive was!!

It was £1,59 at Scotch Corner a few days ago!

I didn't get any!

scaredofdebt

Haych1992 wrote: »

Hi all,
Thank you so much for your replies

In response to some comments

Car share would be difficult as I set off at 4:30 and doubt someone would be going the same way at the same time

Unfortunately I am unable to work from home because of the nature of my job

I could move closer to work however this would mean the upheaval of my family and moving away from family and friends as well as making my wife then have to commute to her place of work.

I'm pretty happy with my car and it does decent mpg, I couldn't afford to change it and I'm not sure how a smaller car could cope with the amount of miles, I have my car serviced regularly and check the tyre pressures as well as making sure the boot is empty

The route I think I will look into is reward schemes e.g. Tesco clubcard and possibly a cash back credit card, I'm a bit reluctant to use credit cards as I've never had one and probably need to do further research before I apply

Again thank you

Haych

You are doing pretty well with the MPG, I have a Kia Rio diesel, one of the most efficient diesels there is and only get around 70 MPG if I am careful, my commute is slightly shorter than yours ~80 miles a day.

So swapping cars isn't going to save you enough to justify the outlay on getting a few car, you'd only save ~£15 a week.

What are you currently running and what is the deal, is it paid for or is finance about to end etc?

You won't save much with Tesco clubcard points, a couple of quid a week at best, same with cashback cards, it does add up but in the scheme of things it's only a "saving" of a couple of %

Electric would be the best solution but they are expensive to buy so depends on your circumstances, fuel costs are around 3p a mile versus 10p plus for diesel.

Arklight

Is there a bus?

DoaM

Arklight wrote: »

Is there a bus?

If the OP's area is anything like mine then you can forget about getting a bus before 6am.

AdrianC

There's a bus from here to the nearest city. Well, within a mile. On a Wednesday. If you want to spend an hour in the city before the bus back.

Apart from that, it's a five mile walk to the next nearest bus stop.

GunJack

It always makes me laugh when people say public transport....live outside London and you'll find that the majority of us couldn't do our commute in the same time & cost as using a car - cheaper, quicker and actually achievable compared to "public transport"