Please help - I need to get a more efficient car!

SimplyA

Hello - I'm looking for some advice from any knowledgeable folks out there about the best sort of car to look into to get the best mpg with the least CO2 emissions etc - for the cheapest price! Not looking for much eh?

I currently drive a 2001 VW Beetle 2.0L Petrol - sigh - it's realllly not good with fuel efficiency... and I'm on the £185 bracket for road tax. I bought it (second hand of course!) when I was working full time and wasn't nearly as concerned about my fuel consumption and my outgoings on it - and I wasn't nearly as aware of emissions as I should have been - bad me! At the time my mileages weren't that high so it didn't cripple me the way that it now is! My intention was always to buy this car... to treat it with some tlc and I'd no thoughts to replace it until it was well and truly 'done'. It's got 63000 on the clock if that helps anyone!

Priorities have now changed and I can't justify the costs. I have gone back to Uni as a full time student and my daily travel has increased to a 65mile round trip each day (mainly motorway). Currently if I top up on a Monday morning... I won't get back home from Uni on one tank costing approx £45 - I have no money left to even think about going anywhere else! I've looked into all other public transport options but my journey would include at least two forms and there's no other way of getting in that I can do more economically - particularly as my uni days only take me that far for two thirds of the year.

At my current fuel costs I would be better off renting a room locally - but staying in my nice mortgage free flat where I am and changing my car would be the more sensible option.

So despite me having WAY too much sentimental attachment to my gorgeous bug... any suggestions on the way forward from here?

I'm mainly transporting myself so don't have huge space requirements...I really don't NEED a 2l engine ever again. I guess my criteria are - something to successfully get me from a - b via motorways mainly using the least amount of fuel possible and saving me the most via insurance and road tax... and I'll have to be buying second hand based on getting something back for my own vehicle and I won't be able to get finance for anything (but could scrape together *something* to add towards it if I really had to). Current usage of vehicle to remain the same for the next few years - I also have about six few long mileage (300-500) journeys to complete each year.

Please help! I've found out a lot of information about 'city cars' but I'm not really in that category - I skirt the outskirts of one to another. Am I perhaps fighting a losing battle as it's perhaps only the newer cars coming out that are going to give me the kind of fuel efficiency I am looking for and are therefore going to be out of my price band?

Any suggestions most definitely gratefully received!

dopester

You should add reliability in to the mix.... a reliable car helps keep maintenance costs low.

Click the "Compare our range" on Toyota website (red button - left of page)

Aygo £6,945 BRAND NEW from Toyota ! (so I expect you could find some good 2nd hand deals)

Upto 61 mpg !!!!!!!!

Low Car Tax - I think it's £45 quid a year

Insurance Group 1 (low premium for car insurance)

However it's a bit too small for me.. I'd still drive it... but would prefer the Yaris. Very similar.. especially the 1.0 L. Yes.. it's a 1.0 but you don't need to be Mad Maxing it from the traffic lights... 1.0L are fine in those size of cars. And in your situation practicality sounds like where you need to be - and not posing in a VW (although I have a VW... but I service it all myself)

The way I see it.. the more feature and complexity a car has.. the more to go wrong with it.

dopester

And if you still have a few long journeys to do each year, in a smaller car just factor in a couple more stop-offs along the way, to stretch your legs. Aygo or Yaris get you there fine.

Also can help to better enjoy the trip, instead of being locked behind the wheel for hours on end.

SimplyA

That Toyota looks fabulous! Hadn't spied that model before now and having a look on autotrader there's some perfectly acceptable (on paper!) second hand models for wayyy under the 5K mark.

Just spied a couple of diesel options on it - any ideas whether paying the extra for a diesel might be a better investment? The Toyota website doesn't seem to give a diesel option... yet there's a couple of second hand ones kicking about - is that a bad omen?

I'm reckoning I'll have to go down the trade-in through garage route as unfortunately some git decided to 'key' my car and I reckon a private sale won't get it's worth (and neither will a through garage route either! but they don't seem to care so much about what they are getting in exchange imho)

Thanks so much for you comments so far - it's great getting a starting point to go from

(Oh and I should add - I'm lucky enough to be a 5'4" short bod so stretching of legs isn't often a problem!)