Eco-mile-eater Spec-me-do

TerryWogan

TerryWogan

TerryWogan

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Joined
9 Jun 2004
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UK
Hello everyone!

I'm looking for a car, £1000 max, with excellent fuel economy and comfort for motorway miles. I'll be doing 80 miles a day roughly if that's any help. What should I go for? Mondeo?
 
Mondeo's arn't the best for large miles - although TDs arn't too bad. You may be better off spending a bit more. How long will you be keeping up your mileage?
 
The older Mondeo TD's are not much better than the petrols with regards to economy and are very unrefined and lumpy so not something I would recommend.

My Mondeo will easily do 400miles from a tank of normal motorway driving, 2.0 Petrol Mk2.
 
Something french and diesel, possibly a 406 or similar. The mondeo TD is horrible, don't go there.
 
I know you know :) I was just mentioning it for the benefit of the people in this thread who are all suggesting diesels
 
paradigm said:
Are you playing the opposite game or something?

Mondeo is fine for high milage, and the TD is turd.
Click to expand...

High mileage means you can buy something:

a) Newer
b) Nicer to look at, be in, comfier.
c) Better fuel efficiency: A simple step up from a 30mpg average to a 45mpg average will save you around 1000 litres of fuel a year at 20k miles py. So if you're looking to keep your £1k car for 2 years, you could be better off buying a car for £3k or over, that has better economy.

This is even discounting the increased residuals.

Obviously this does require that you can find a decent fuel economy car for 3-4k, something I haven't looked at myself - perhaps you can't, and the mondeo's cheap servicing costs will bring the win.

My point is simply that bargain motoring is one thing - but when your pushing high mileage, you're spending so much on fuel that a cheap car becomes less of a relevant factor. You should be looking at all cars upto and including £4k IMO.
 
What are you driveling about? That has NOTHING to do with the fact you said a Mondeo is bad for lots of miles, AND that the TD is good. You're statement was 100% false.
 
paradigm said:
What are you drivelling about? That has NOTHING to do with the fact you said a Mondeo is bad for lots of miles, AND that the TD is good. You're statement was 100% false.
Click to expand...

Humm lovely thanks for that. I meant to say mondeo isn't necessarily good for large miles. Hence saying you may be better off spending more.

Perhaps I should stop drivelling, and then you could enlighten me on why the TD is so bad?
 
It has already been explained that the TD is agricultural, unrefined, and not even that economical compared to a petrol engined version of the same car.

The 1.8TD engine was NOT one of Ford's finest moments.
 
paradigm said:
It has already been explained that the TD is agricultural, unrefined, and not even that economical compared to a petrol engined version of the same car.

The 1.8TD engine was NOT one of Ford's finest moments.
Click to expand...

Good - I totally agree, the TD isn't great. But it still is more economical than the petrol.
 
But a petrol is cheaper to buy AND service.

Given that they are NOT that much more economical, and that the noise would drive you nuts on long journeys, is it worth it at all?

No.

TDCi, a completely different story, but they are well out of the £1k budget.
 
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