Keep my car or upgrade

col81

I also drive very slow watching the fuel gauge

Grumpy_chap

col81 said:

I do a lot of town driving too. I have put £110 in the car in 9 days it is doing 30-40mpg. I think a lot of the time it is low 30s. Obviously it is a very big car and auto. My friend was in a similar position he got a A5 manual that is doing 50mpg. A run a kids sport team so need a big boot I also like a nice spec. I am still in 2 mins. Factoring the reduction in insurance, tax, tyres, fuel etc I really am stuck. In a ideal world a vw golf gt tdi 15 plate putting £3ish k to it would be good £30 tax, insurance £200 less fuel 50-60 mpg etc I do 50 miles most days in the week on the motorway

Nothing has changed - stick with keep the Audi.

Biggus_Dickus

col81 said:

I do a lot of town driving too. I have put £110 in the car in 9 days it is doing 30-40mpg. I think a lot of the time it is low 30s. Obviously it is a very big car and auto. My friend was in a similar position he got a A5 manual that is doing 50mpg. A run a kids sport team so need a big boot I also like a nice spec. I am still in 2 mins. Factoring the reduction in insurance, tax, tyres, fuel etc I really am stuck. In a ideal world a vw golf gt tdi 15 plate putting £3ish k to it would be good £30 tax, insurance £200 less fuel 50-60 mpg etc I do 50 miles most days in the week on the motorway

Having contributed to myriad car/motoring forums since the internet was a lad it’s very obvious that the subject of MPG  often brings the blusterers and d***wavers out in force.

No two drivers will do the same journeys over a period of a year, for example, and it’s the journey ‘profile’ that ultimately dictates the actual MPG that can be achieved in any particular vehicle.

To get the full picture accurate monitoring of the MPG for an extended period of time is essential; i.e. use the tank  fill-up ‘brim to brim’ method and also make a note of the type of journeys you’ve driven in between fuel top ups.

Some cars (my own for example) perform quite well in urban situations but not so well on motorways (or not so well as one might think, ..or hope!).  Other cars are perhaps not so economical in urban areas but really come into their own on long motorway journeys.

Making an informed  decision to replace your car based on the MPG info supplied by other drivers is never going to be easy;...very difficult to compare like for like because there are many variables. In addition the blusterers and d***wavers (there’s none on here of course! 😁) can sometimes make meaningful MPG comparisons virtually impossible.

 

 

 

macman

One other point: assuming that it's going to take you around 3 years to recover the capital investment in fuel savings alone, how sure are you that in 3 years time you will still be doing the same annual mileage and the same job?
A lot of people have found in the last year that their mileage requirements have changed dramatically.

Goudy

I'm going out to get shot down, but you might want to consider the fact your current Audi is a Euro 5 and there are already low emission zones like London's ULEZ  that penalise with charges older polluting diesels like this and more are coming real soon.

Bath, Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester, Sheffield and the likes are already getting in on the act with clean air zones and charges for vehicles that don't meet their standards, which for diesels tends to be Euro 6.

Your fuel bill could soon be supplemented with a daily charge if you venture anywhere near a large town or city and your Euro 5 diesel will plummet in value as no one will want it anymore.

I'm not telling you to change it, but I would encourage you to take a look at what's going on in the place you live and the places you are likely to travel to regularly.

col81

I work in manchester!!

Goudy

It looks like Manchester will start with vans, buses, coaches, taxis, private hire vehicles, minibuses and heavy goods vehicles and it pretty much covers everything between Littleborough and Altrincham, Mottram to Standish.

London started out with a similar scheme for similar heavy vehicles called the LEZ, this covered most of Greater London.

They then introduced the ULEZ to capture those heavy vehicles and private vehicles within Central London. (yes on top of the congestion charge)

Now the ULEZ is being extended to cover everything inside the North and South Circulars.

As soon as they announced that I got shot of my Euro 5 diesel before it became a noose around my neck.

The Manchester scheme won't effect private cars to start with, but it's a sure bet it will sooner rather than later, they just need to give time for everyone to get used it it, then give people time to swap out their polluting cars.

AdrianC

Goudy said:

I'm going out to get shot down, but you might want to consider the fact your current Audi is a Euro 5 and there are already low emission zones like London's ULEZ  that penalise with charges older polluting diesels like this and more are coming real soon.

Bath, Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester, Sheffield and the likes are already getting in on the act with clean air zones and charges for vehicles that don't meet their standards, which for diesels tends to be Euro 6.

Your fuel bill could soon be supplemented with a daily charge if you venture anywhere near a large town or city and your Euro 5 diesel will plummet in value as no one will want it anymore.

I'm not telling you to change it, but I would encourage you to take a look at what's going on in the place you live and the places you are likely to travel to regularly.

Minor issue...

Most £7k diesel Passats on Autotrader will also be Euro5. The ones that are Euro6 are mostly just as leggy as the OP's Audi.

Of 144 cars between £6.5k and 7.5k, 62 are "ULEZ compliant". 30 of those are 100k+. That leaves 32 cars... nationally.

Goudy

col81 said:

My audi has just had a full service, cambelt water pump done and 4 new tyres. My point is doing 20k I was looking at a passat manual rather than the auto audi. I was looking to go to a 65 plate with 95k on it. My audi has never let me down. It's simply the fuel costs. The insurance is £150 cheaper in vw and the tax £30 rather than £220 in the audi. I would need to borrow the cash for the upgrade

Not a minor issue for the OP.

They stated they are looking at a 65 plate Passat, so that would have been registered between Sept 2015 and end of Feb 2016.

All diesels registered from Sept 2015 had to be Euro 6 compliant, though many manufacturers released Euro 6 cars prior to this date.

So a Passet B8 registered after Sept 2015 would be Euro 6.

When I search those dates, I get over 600 cars and they are all ULEZ compliant.

col81

Any recommendations? On a new car? Mine is a s line so it is well equipped. If I had a budget of £8k?