How much would changing cars save me

Legacy_user

Hi peeps,

Im on a cost cutting exercise atm and need a little help.

I am currently driving a N reg Puegeot 306 2.0 Litre 8 valve, fuel injected model and it was never cheap to run but now in light of increased fuel prices im looking at changing models (that and it will fail its December MOT)

Based on my current usage, I estimate I use £30 a week on fuel at the minute, with insurance of £360 and tax at the higher rate. Also this car will fail its MOT for sure, needing a new drive shaft, exhaust and an oil leak sorting as a minimum.

So I was looking at getting a cheap run around ie J reg £500 fiesta 1.3 or similar. Now some things such as tax and insurance savings almost pay for the car outright. However what I cant quantify is the petrol. How much more efficient would the fiesta be in terms of fuel ?

Also to complement this, I just got my bike fixed so I can ride down the country lanes to work, as its only 5.5 Miles there and the same back. That should save me a tank of petrol a month alone.

What I am hoping to do is sell the Pug for just enough to cover the car and the insurance, because last time the insurance was paid a year in advance.

Any comments appreicated

madfrenchgirl

OK try to go onto Parkers.co.uk, they have the technical data in the review section for cars as old as P reg.... I know this wont cover your Little Fiesta 1.3, but it is worth checking out to see what cars are fuel-efficient or not...

madfrenchgirl

and another thing... my BF parents have a L reg Fiesta 1.1... It aged very gracefully as they looked after it... BUT it is only worth about 300 quids, so 500 for a J reg seems a tad much.

wazza

the carb fed fiesta is less fuel efficient than a fuel injected engine. But with the fiesta you should get a higher mpg figure than the pug but will lose out on performance.

as for the cost of buying one parkers do a book which covers older car. when i was looking for a old small car for the missus to learn to drive i was suprised to learn the fiesta is in a higher insurance group than nova.

you can also get cheap parts from local scrapyard. for my c reg pug 205 i got plug leads, carb, spare tyre for 15 pounds.

also if u intend to use a bike a lot then why not hire a car when you need it instead of buying one? All depends on how much you use your car

BobToo

I think you would get something like 40-45mpg in a Fiesta but some can be badly out of tune and give quite poor economy. Fiestas also rust spectacularly and any one in the sub £1000 bracket would give you some problems with rust.

I would recommend a Peugeot 106 Diesel. They have a 1.4 or 1.5 litre engine, so are in the lower tax bracket, and you should get something like 60mpg from it. They hardly rust at all and are quite roomy inside for such a small car, being a bit more modern than a Fiesta. The one thing to watch is the back suspension. If the back wheels are much off vertical it means that there is wear which is expensive to put right. With careful inspection a 106 (or its Citroen cousins, Saxo and AX) can be a much better proposition than a Fiesta.

I've done a quick calculation assuming 30mpg for your Pug, 45mpg for a Fiesta and 60mpg for a 106) with both petrol and diesel at £1 per litre. The 306 will burn £1500 over 10k miles, the Fiesta about £1000 and the 106 £750.

I've also found that worn petrol engines can get quite thirsty while worn diesel engines don't, and that driving style/conditions have much less impact on a diesel engine's mpg.