Ford Fiesta 1.6TDCi Econetic

[Firegod]

Hello

I need some advice on what to do with my car. I do a 15 mile round trip Monday to Friday for work. All of it is done in start/stop traffic, pretty much as soon as I leave the house and again when leaving the office.

The MPS is returning 22MPG. I fill up when I have around 1/4 of a tank left (as I always worry that I may get stuck and conk out but never have done), so over the month I'd say I spend about £150 on fuel. Tax is band K, so I believe that is £260 VED for the year. So add that up, it's costing me roughly £2k over a year to run the car.

So perusing the various car manufacturer sites today (whilst keeping one eye on the BTCC ), I have seen various options. Honda do a nice Hybrid CR-Z, Toyota do a Hybrid Auris (and the new Hybrid Yaris looks quite nice but isn't out yet). Renault do the Eco DCi 88 Clio and Ford do the ECOnetic Fiesta/Focus.

I've picked out the Fiesta for the thread title as it has me interested. I'm liking the idea of 60mpg+ for urban driving and zero VED. It's not too expensive to buy, when compared to say the Honda CR-Z. And I read the review from Auto Express and they have given it 5 stars.

I just don't know what to do; I need some advice. I know I do very little mileage, but all my driving is done sitting in traffic. Am I looking too far down the scale, should I try and hit a happy medium for a car that does maybes 30-40MPG and is also petrol? Are Hybrid cars where I should be looking full stop instead of an all out diesel car? After all, diesel is 5p more expensive per litre but if I'm looking at tripling my MPG is it worth it the extra at the pump?

I know there are two things that I would miss if I were to change. First is power as most of these cars seem to float around the 80-90bhp mark. The second is the spec. The MPS has a great spec, but again, if I look at the CR-Z once you add on the options it's quite expensive!

Some links below for info:-

Fiesta ECOnetic - http://www.ford.co.uk/Cars/Fiesta/FiestaECOnetic

Toyota Hybrids - http://www.toyota.co.uk/cgi-bin/toy...ly-landing&id=HSD_Logo&zone=Zone+News&sr=Mall

Honda Hybrids - http://www.honda.co.uk/cars/hybrids/

Renault Clio - http://www.renault.co.uk/cars/model/new-clio/clio-94g.aspx


Thanks.

 

[PeterNem]

Quite an easy set of calculations to do. How much is your car worth, what would a new car cost, how would you make up the shortfall, is the shortfall more than the difference in running costs over a few years?

You might find that if you do the sums there is pretty much zero case to change unless you're buying an older car (but then you'd do well to factor in increased maintenance costs).

 

[[TW]Fox]

It's only costing you £2k a year to run a car like a Mazda3/6 MPS and you think thats a cue to spend 5 figure sums of money on some dreary eco diesel for your 3.5k a year commute?

How does this even begin to make sense?

 

[Firegod]

Quite an easy set of calculations to do. How much is your car worth, what would a new car cost, how would you make up the shortfall, is the shortfall more than the difference in running costs over a few years?

You might find that if you do the sums there is pretty much zero case to change unless you're buying an older car (but then you'd do well to factor in increased maintenance costs).

Thanks for the quick reply!

The MPS is on PCP (Personal Contract Purchase) so I would have to see what the settlement figure would be if I were wanting to sell privately mid-contract.

Another angle, which I didn't include in the main post would be to wait and trade the car in at the end of the contract. Mazda are releasing their new SKY-G and SKY-D engines which are meant to be more efficient.

http://www.whatcar.com/car-news/the-tokyo-motor-show/mazda-s-sky-engines-and-gearbox/244241

 

[Firegod]

It's only costing you £2k a year to run a car like a Mazda3/6 MPS and you think thats a cue to spend 5 figure sums of money on some dreary eco diesel for your 3.5k a year commute?

How does this even begin to make sense?

Hi thanks for the reply!

I'm not sure I understand, is it more economical for me to keep the MPS? Not sure if it helps but I would plan to do do the whole PCP scheme again with the new car, so I wouldn't be buying it outright. If that makes it better? Like I say, I know I do very little mileage so if it's best to keep the MPS then that's great!

Just wanted a sounding board for my thoughts.

 

[PeterNem]

The subtext to my post (which was delivered in a much more blatant way my Fox) was that I'd not waste your time.

By the time you knock off days off and weekends your commute won't be much more than 3,500 miles a year. It costs you 2k now. At best you might get it down to 1500? 1200 if you're lucky? You'll likely more than offset that gain with the cost of changing cars.

 

[Firegod]

The subtext to my post (which was delivered in a much more blatant way my Fox) was that I'd not waste your time.

By the time you knock off days off and weekends your commute won't be much more than 3,500 miles a year. It costs you 2k now. At best you might get it down to 1500? 1200 if you're lucky? You'll likely more than offset that gain with the cost of changing cars.

Ahh OK I see what you are saying, more of a sideways step as I don't do enough miles. Well that's good news as I do love the MPS.

Thanks for replying to my ramblings and saving me from a mistake (inc Fox).

 

[[TW]Fox]

The fact you dont do many miles means you can justify a car like the MPS.

Save the ecodreary cars, which are horrible, tedious things which will ruin any enjoyment you get out ofd riving, for when you have no choice but to drive one

 

[Firegod]

The fact you dont do many miles means you can justify a car like the MPS.

Save the ecodreary cars, which are horrible, tedious things which will ruin any enjoyment you get out of driving, for when you have no choice but to drive one

Thanks Fox, I think I'll do just that.

Cheers chaps for the help.

 

[monkey_boy]

I think this thread should be locked and stickied as an example to all other OCUK threads so we can use it as a benchmark of awesomeness.

 

[Stormster]

But do you use the car for many other journeys or even for fun?

Makes you wonder why having such a good car is worthwhile if it's not really being used as intended performance wise? Which is why I can see your point about the Fiesta. Placebo effect more than likely but I'd probably think in a similar way.

Just a thought

 

[Lum]

a 15 mile round trip, so 7.5 miles each way.

These EcoMuppet cars wont even warm up the oil by the time you've gotten to work. They will never be able to do DPF regeneration unless you deliberately take it for a thrash down the motorway from time to time.

After 4 years of ownership you'll be looking at a £1500 bill for a new DPF and possibly quite a few other overly complicated fuel saving devices on the car will be failing too. This will wipe out any savings in fuel that you might make, and that's before you take the cost of "upgrading" into consideration!

I have one of these EcoMuppet cars (Mondeo 2.0 TDCi Econetic), it's a company car so I don't give a damn that in 4 years time it will be knackered. What I can tell you is that despite claiming to get 64mpg, it only gets 41mpg, and that's with a mixture of my 32 mile round trip commute and long motorway trips.

It's also dull as dishwater to drive, so I keep finding excuses to commute in my fun car instead.

 

[Firegod]

I think this thread should be locked and stickied as an example to all other OCUK threads so we can use it as a benchmark of awesomeness.

But do you use the car for many other journeys or even for fun?

Makes you wonder why having such a good car is worthwhile if it's not really being used as intended performance wise? Which is why I can see your point about the Fiesta. Placebo effect more than likely but I'd probably think in a similar way.

Just a thought

No not use for anything else; with petrol costing so much I don't want to waste it. I'd prefer to use it to get me to work and back to earn some monies. If I happen to be out and about though and there is a nice quiet bit of road, I may give it some beans now and again.

a 15 mile round trip, so 7.5 miles each way.

These EcoMuppet cars wont even warm up the oil by the time you've gotten to work. They will never be able to do DPF regeneration unless you deliberately take it for a thrash down the motorway from time to time.

After 4 years of ownership you'll be looking at a £1500 bill for a new DPF and possibly quite a few other overly complicated fuel saving devices on the car will be failing too. This will wipe out any savings in fuel that you might make, and that's before you take the cost of "upgrading" into consideration!

I have one of these EcoMuppet cars (Mondeo 2.0 TDCi Econetic), it's a company car so I don't give a damn that in 4 years time it will be knackered. What I can tell you is that despite claiming to get 64mpg, it only gets 41mpg, and that's with a mixture of my 32 mile round trip commute and long motorway trips.

It's also dull as dishwater to drive, so I keep finding excuses to commute in my fun car instead.

Thanks for your feedback, very much like Fox was saying about them being dull and horrid. So it's good to know I'm making the right choice.

Thanks all.

 

[Lum]

That wasn't quite my point. Dull and horrid is ok for a daily commute as typically they're dull and horrid regardless of car choice.

My real point was that your commute patterns aren't going to be kind to a modern "eco" diesel and will end up costing you an arm and a leg in repairs.

If you were planning to downgrade to a £500 Corsa B to save on fuel bills, that would work out ok.

 

[Simon]

The CR-Z is a fun car to drive, It's a new generation CRX with KERS