Economic family diesel for a year

mranderson · 22 Mar 2013 at 07:46

Just need it for a year to avoid adding too many expensive miles on the new car. 50mpg would be great. Not looking to spend more than 5k and probably something without millions of miles already

. Any suggestions?

rodenal · 22 Mar 2013 at 07:51

not here

Tbh though, spending £5k on a second car which is diesel doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, your daily would have to be icredibly expensive to justify that surely?

mranderson · 22 Mar 2013 at 08:00

Will be doing around 200 miles/day and although my petrol car does 30mpg it has very low mileage and if I add 50k in one year I am sure it will depreciate significantly.

rodenal · 22 Mar 2013 at 08:04

Fair enough, I don't think I would want to do 1k miles a week in any car diesel or otherwise that wasn't warrantied though. For me a £5k diesel would be taking just as big a chance with your wallet.

You'd probably need two sets of tyres in a year alone on my car at £480 a set, 3 or 4 services at £200 a time etc

I'd almost be tempted to pick up an old vag SDI for not a lot of cash and run it until it dies

Minstadave · 22 Mar 2013 at 08:12

Any Passat/Jetta with the 1.9TDi lump should do the job.

mranderson · 22 Mar 2013 at 08:20

Minstadave said:
Any Passat/Jetta with the 1.9TDi lump should do the job.

Is this engine still in production?

rodenal · 22 Mar 2013 at 08:24

No, but you'll get one for the budget (or less).

Minstadave · 22 Mar 2013 at 08:31

mranderson said:
Is this engine still in production?

Nope, it's been replaced by the 1.6TDi. But at 4-5k I can't see this is an issue.

Joe T · 22 Mar 2013 at 09:14

Not many £5k diesel-engined motors will have is still in production without fairly major tweaks at the very least.

mranderson · 22 Mar 2013 at 09:15

Seen a couple Jetta's (the Passat is probably to big) so will give them a test drive. What about the French opposition (lagunas, c5's etc)?

rodenal · 22 Mar 2013 at 09:30

Don't waste your time. If you were to go as far back as the old 406 td lumps these are better but will all have spaceship miles.

mranderson · 22 Mar 2013 at 10:14

Not going as far back. Need to be sure that they will pass an MOT. Any thoughts about the diesel C5's. A neighbour is selling his 2009 model with the 1.6 engine. 74k miles and asking 7k

rodenal · 22 Mar 2013 at 10:16

Don't waste your time it's got all the things you need to worry about with modern diesels and a reputation for lunching turbos- in all seriousness you'd be better off with the likes of a civic over the c5 but with with smaller wheels than mine (I was only joking about selling it to you though, this isn't a sales pitch)

[TW]Fox · 22 Mar 2013 at 10:17

This is bonkers mileage - is there no alternative to doing it?

mranderson · 22 Mar 2013 at 10:30

Train would have been ideal but ends up being more expensive.

blueboy2001 · 22 Mar 2013 at 13:33

A C5 might not be a bad shout here - but not the current model because they're too heavy which makes them slow and not very economical - the 1.6 diesel is painfully slow.

A 2007 C5 would give you 50MPG for around £3k for a decent one. The diesel engines are pretty reliable, just check all the electrics work. They're nice and wafty too.

mattyprice4004 · 22 Mar 2013 at 13:42

mranderson said:
Is this engine still in production?

Why would you want it to still be in production if you want to drop up to 5k on the car?

It's obviously going to be something last-gen if you're spending a third of the price when new.

mranderson · 22 Mar 2013 at 13:59

mattyprice4004 said:
Why would you want it to still be in production if you want to drop up to 5k on the car?

It's obviously going to be something last-gen if you're spending a third of the price when new.

Mainly to check specs and maintenance costs. I think it is more difficult to find spare parts for older engines.

[TW]Fox · 22 Mar 2013 at 14:04

mranderson said:
Mainly to check specs and maintenance costs. I think it is more difficult to find spare parts for older engines.

10 years after production finished sure but not on this sort of car.

Uriel · 22 Mar 2013 at 14:06

VW Passat Bluemotion (1.9 or 2.0 tdi Bluemotion) or Skoda Superb 1.9 tdi Greenline maybe? The RealMPG register on www.honestjohn.co.uk suggests these are capable of a genuine 55-60mpg average and both should be comfortable.

Improved fuel economy at that annual mileage could mean you' have budget for an extra grand or two on the purchase price (I doubt you'll find a Superb Greenline for £5k). Make sure you have a reasonable repairs and maintenance budget though.