Another what car should I buy thread (£6-8k)

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Background - My work used to be 5 miles away but has relocated and my journey is now 23 miles each way. I dont do many other miles, just to kick boxing twice a week and town etc so say 14k miles a year.
I have just bought a house which will cost quite a bit more per month.
We have a 5 month old baby and my wife is at the end of maternity pay.
Suffice to say I need to minimise my motoring costs.

Now I have read quite a few threads on here where the advise demonstrates that changing to diesel or a few more mpg does not actually save much money overall and I fully understand that but here my problem...

My current car is a 5.7l CV8 monaro doing about 14mpg; it will do 18-20mpg if I am careful but I hate driving like that. It runs on LPG most of the time (about 85%) and LPG is around 57% the cost of petrol so overall I estimate that I am getting the petrol equivelent mpg of 22-24mpg.

On the plus side it is very reliable, comfortable, fast and sounds great. It suited me well as I am large at 6ft 17st and I liked it was a bit leftfield.
In the Winter it takes a while to warm up and defrost windows etc and I guess it wont be great if it snows.

Would I save quite a bit changing car?

My wife has my old 2.2 07 titx tdci mk3 mondeo (bluefin so maybe 175bhp) which is the family car. I could therefore take that back and get her a smaller car or leave her with that and get something different. My preference is to get something else for a change, and replace here car if she wants a smaller one which she has hinted at but then I would need a family size car.

If the way forward is for me to get a more economical car, I am looking more for comfort now than performance although a balance needs to be found as I think I would find under 150bhp frustrating. Heated front screen would be nice (is this only ford?) and more gadgets the better although gps not neccesary. 4 door would be prefferable as I may need to take baby occasionally. Cars that spring to mind as interesting (but I know nothing about) would be bmw 3 or 5 series, Octavia VRS, or even a well specced newer focus or mondeo again but probably petrol this time.

I would probably get about £7.5k for mine and would use this to fund the new one so similar amount.

Whilst writing this I am thinking it would make sense to keep the wifes car as its diesel and she does bugger all miles??

What should I do?

cheers
 
Seeing as you know the Mondeo which is a nice enough car on its own it's got to make sense to keep and run that. Yes the fact it's diesel means there are potentially higher bills than with its petrol equivalent but you've already got the car and presumably know it's a decent one.

Sell yours for say the £7.5k and pick a small car up for somewhere between £3-5k then bank the rest
 
The mondeo is decent although its done 80,000 now so may be we should sell it before it starts causing issues? The EGR valve is faulty but we have just run it with the engine light on for a year so I maybe would get that fixed.

If I did get my wife a new smaller car what suggestions do you have? (I guess I would need to ask her as well I know!). would need to be 4dr and focus size
 
The mondeo is decent although its done 80,000 now so may be we should sell it before it starts causing issues? The EGR valve is faulty but we have just run it with the engine light on for a year so I maybe would get that fixed.

If I did get my wife a new smaller car what suggestions do you have? (I guess I would need to ask her as well I know!). would need to be 4dr and focus size

The car you buy for 6-8k could have issues as well..
 
1. Fix EGR on Mondeo
2. Sell Monaro
3. Use Mondeo yourself
4. Buy "Focus sized" car for wife, how about...a Focus? You can spend £3k and get a perfectly nice, reliable car.
5. ????
6. Pocket £4k.
 
1. Fix EGR on Mondeo
2. Sell Monaro
3. Use Mondeo yourself
4. Buy "Focus sized" car for wife, how about...a Focus? You can spend £3k and get a perfectly nice, reliable car.
5. ????
6. Pocket £4k.

This what im thinking now, thanks. I didnt know a focus is the focus sized car to get! Any particular engines, trim or face lift i should be looking for at about 3-4k?
 
If she's not doing many miles might as well get the 2.0 petrol if it's not much more to buy.
 
Does the Mrs do many miles? Would she drive your Monaro if you used the mondeo as a daily? Shame to get rid really! I think keeping your mondeo is the smart move whatever happens.
 
Does the Mrs do many miles? Would she drive your Monaro if you used the mondeo as a daily? Shame to get rid really! I think keeping your mondeo is the smart move whatever happens.

She detests driving it and calls it the monster car. It is very loud too which I found appealing but she hates. It also surprisingly big, longer than a 5 series estate. The main reason is baby though, needs to be a 5dr for her.

How about these?
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201245491573113/
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201244490655068
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201244491227435

not looking for estate but would probably be useful with baby stuff?
 
You don't need an estate car for 1 child - you have the Mondeo for longer journeys/trips where you may need to take more things :)
 
I did exactly what westy said ... sold my monaro cv8 and put quite a bit in my back pocket although .. I got my gf a new car and I had hers and also got myself a mr2 turbo just to blast around in
 
Pulsar - How do did u insure the mr2 thinking that u can only use no claims on 1 car?

What are the best alternatives to the focus at 3 to 4k?
 
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Won't be much better than your Monaro on fuel. Mine costs me about £2.5k/year in fuel for just 8k miles.

Btw try some 3-door cars out too. Some people I know reckon it's easier getting a child into a car seat in a 3-door car as you can position yourself in front of the seat.
 
Pulsar - How do did u insure the mr2 thinking that u can only use no claims on 1 car?

What are the best alternatives to the focus at 3 to 4k?

The month I sold the monaro was the month insurance was up anyway so i just started new policy on gf's old car. When I got the mr2 I just took out new insurance.
 
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