80 mile a day commuting car for £2-3k?

PMKeates said:
I ponder the usefulness of a 1.8 litre engine that doesn't manage 40 MPG :o
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I have to say, I'd have expected at least 40 mpg (combined) from my commute, as it's roughly a 50/50 split (by time) between town and motorway driving.

I'm still on my first tank of petrol and the estimated distance for the tank (and the average mpg) do still seem to be trending up. So it could just be an issue with the onboard computer calculations, as I reset everything when I bought the car.

Will update in a week or so once I've had time to get some decent figures.
 
To be fair, while better economy would have been nice, I just wanted a decent car for my commute, that wasn't going to run up huge maintenance bills, or cost me a fortune to insure.
 
PMKeates said:
Unfortunately I think the older Ford petrol engines are pretty uneconomical :(
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He's not wrong. The 1.8 was essentially an utterly useless engine, similar economy to a 2.0 block but without the power.

The 1.6 offers so much more, lighter, better mpg, and not that slower, if slower at all.
 
I had been looking for a 1.6, but happened to find a decent 1.8 within budget. As the old car was dead and since scrapped, I wasn't about to be overly picky on things like a few mpg.

As far as I could tell, there are two versions of the 1.6:

Code: 
Engine			Pwr 	Torq	Urb	ExUrb	Cmb	0-100 km/h
			(HP)	(Nm)	(mpg)	(mpg)	(mpg)	(s)
1.6 L Duratec		100	150	32	51	42	11.9
1.6 L Ti-VCT Duratec	115	155	32	52	43	10.8
1.8 L Duratec		125	165	30	50	40	10.3
2.0 L Duratec		145	185	29	52	40	9.2

I'd guess that the Ti-VCT is the 'all-rounder' to go for, but tbh it doesn't look like there's a great deal (in terms of mpg) between any of them.

I would have gone for one of the newer 'eco' engines, if I could have afforded it. But for the money, I'm pretty happy with what I got. I certainly wouldn't call it a 'useless' engine. :p Maybe 'unneeded', in terms of the line-up, but hey-ho.
 
Yeah, should be.

Edit - I realise I've got dragged slightly off topic in reference to my own car, rather than necessarily what the OP will be looking at.
 
I would have thought a £2-3k MK2 focus would be a bit ropey. For your budget I would be getting a low mileage mint facelift MK1 focus. And those figures quoted above won't apply...

But the 1.6 had around 100bhp, capable of 40mpg on a run or mixed driving with a non-heavy right foot. I still love the MK1 facelift shape, and may even one day end up back in one (when I come to buy a house).

Look at the "special" editions (MP3, Edge etc.) They are based on the very good Zetec model, but with some added extras on top such as leather seats, and nicer alloys.
 
Yeah I realised I was being dragged off the OP's topic of a 2-3k budget, hence my (ninja) edit above.

In that price range I'd also be looking for a decent mk1 version and so the figures above wouldn't apply.
 
tom_nieto said:
3. Keep S2000 for fun and buy a motorway hack.
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My thoughts with my car, keep the S40 T5 and run something nasty until it breaks. Thinking 1.0 fiesta or something.
Insure it 3rd party and just not give a hoot.

Something crap at £500 - £1k and then just kill it.
 
Thing is, I still need a bit of poke hence favouring the PD130. My commute is mainly windy country roads and there are times when stuck behind tractors and lorries, the poke of the ATR has been useful.
 
The Ibiza is a Polo platform car isn't it, rather than Golf sized? I'd probably not want to regularly commute long distances in a car that small, Golf/Focus sized is about as small as i'd want to go personally.
 
I find my ATR pretty comfortable. :)

Something like that BMW screams money pit at me? I don't want running costs except to put fuel in it and service it. That's it.
 
MilanoChris said:
I find my ATR pretty comfortable. :)

Something like that BMW screams money pit at me? I don't want running costs except to put fuel in it and service it. That's it.
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An E39 is pretty much a normal car. As long as it's mechanically sound it will work, and anything that breaks will just be a normal repair as it would be on any other car. There's nothing magical or special about them, and they are, on the whole, pretty reliable.
 
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