Is it a bad time for buying 2 litre engines and above?

smr

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smr

Soldato
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I just spoke to an honest and decent dealer who my dad bought his car off so I know there's nothing suspect about him and he tells me that he's "just not selling any 2.0 litre or above motors these days" due to the price of petrol...

Also after viewing some private ads I've come across a few where people have stated this 1.6 (for example) is the most popular on the roads these days because of the economy etc.

Is this really putting off, as I have said in other threads I'm currently looking for a new car and am dithering over a Mondeo mk3 or a lucky facelift model for 3k.. I'm wondering if it would be worth paying a bit more for a 1.6 Focus and saving money on the petrol in the long run as opposed to opting for a 1.8-2.0 mondeo.
 
How many miles do you do a year?

Unless your doing starship miles you will not save money - it just isn't worth spending more on an 'economical' car, because you never get back the extra you pay.

Plus it's gutless and you'll be miserable - it's never worth it.
 
I think a lot of people, rightly or wrongly are seeing Road Tax and Petrol prices soar and simplisitically linking engine size to more cost, not looking at actual MPG and CO2 values etc.. In which case, I'd say that the dealers experience is quite understandable..
 
Get a big fast car, will be cheaper than a small car with gutless engine and then put the money saved towards a few quid extra per tank ;)

+ Then you have a fast car too :)
 
Jono said:
But the price of diesel doesn't seem to be wanting to come down to the price of petrol anytime soon :(
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I no, ever since i changed to a diesel in January the price has just gone up and up and up. I have even looked at train to get me to work, but the first train to get me here is getting me here nearly an hour late!
 
smr said:
I just spoke to an honest and decent dealer who my dad bought his car off so I know there's nothing suspect about him and he tells me that he's "just not selling any 2.0 litre or above motors these days" due to the price of petrol...

Also after viewing some private ads I've come across a few where people have stated this 1.6 (for example) is the most popular on the roads these days because of the economy etc.

Is this really putting off, as I have said in other threads I'm currently looking for a new car and am dithering over a Mondeo mk3 or a lucky facelift model for 3k.. I'm wondering if it would be worth paying a bit more for a 1.6 Focus and saving money on the petrol in the long run as opposed to opting for a 1.8-2.0 mondeo.
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The dealers experience is probably true, if the influx of people on here like yourself saying they're going to buy a Ford Focus or whatever to save money on petrol.

But the problem is, the vast majority of the public are like headless chickens and dont think. They're taken in the media talk of "tax increases" and "gas guzzlers" and global warming etc.. and give very little thought to the actual costs involved.

use your head, do you research and found out the facts about your car. Find out its tax bracket, found out how much servicing costs and find out from owners what real world MPG they got. Vast majority of the public wont do this, which is why dealers arent selling many bigger engined cars

If you sit and do the maths, its not that much more expensive running a 2.0 mondeo than it is a 1.6 focus.
 
There's also - how you drive it..

Plant your foot on a low capacity engine and you'll be drinking fuel to get anywhere fast.. plant your foot on a high capacity engine and you'll be learning not to as (a) you'll be over the limit, (b) braking all the time and (c) drinking it.. so with a high cap engine you'll back off a little be smoother and probably return competitive MPGs..

The cost of diesel is fast making diesel uncompetitive compared to petrol now.. I remember seeing someone 'fill up' with LPG at about £27.. it would be interesting to see those figures and how fast the fuel resellers/government increase the cost of that too..
 
I'm surprised by the first post, should you pay MORE to get a 1.6 over a 2.0...that in its self just doesn't make sense.

Get the bigger, smoother, lazier engine and just enjoy it. It might be a few MPG worse, but it wont work out as much over the years.
 
Due to the way in which most of the public are stupid and never, ever think about something for more than 40 seconds and actually do the maths, the lower used values of bigger engined cars will probably offset their higher running costs.
 
[TW]Fox;11554730 said:
Due to the way in which most of the public are stupid and never, ever think about something for more than 40 seconds and actually do the maths, the lower used values of bigger engined cars will probably offset their higher running costs.
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I was about to say this, I think it's a GOOD time to buy higher capacity engines.

I'm looking to get 2.0-3.0 petrol powered car next year.
 
I do 10,000 miles a year... and I find it hard to see the difference between driving a 45mpg car and a 33mpg car. Probably what £100-200 across the whole year? I probably waste that much per year on buying branded Pepsi Cola rather than unbranded stuff...
 
NathanE said:
I do 10,000 miles a year... and I find it hard to see the difference between driving a 45mpg car and a 33mpg car. Probably what £100-200 across the whole year? I probably waste that much per year on buying branded Pepsi Cola rather than unbranded stuff...
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Depends on the cost of fuel, more like £250
 
Is it or is it not more fuel efficiant to have a 2 litre engine and have throttle to spare, or run a 1.4 with your foot to the floor all the time? I know this doesn't count around town but on a decent journey/combined mileage it may offset the better town economy.
 
I don't see that at all, I currently have a 1.6 petrol, which "claims" 40mpg all said and done and returns ~35, I'm planning, asap to buy a FTO with a 2 Litre V6 which "claims" ~31mpg and if it returns only 28, i'm still up as its going to cost 1/3 to 1/2 the price of what I can sell my current car for.

As said above, if its £250 of fuel difference a year from 45 to 33, then thats what, fiver a week? Not a massive gamebreaker in the big scheme of things, imho, of course.
 
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