New car for Mrs Big Chris - petrol or diesel?

Big Chris

Big Chris

Big Chris

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I'm sure this has been asked a million times already on here, so once more won't hurt with our particular set of circumstances.... :)

The wife has had a new a car every 6 months for peanuts through my job for the past few years (I work in IT for a fleet management company) but as I'm changing job soon we need to buy her something.

She has a 60 mile daily commute at the moment, but we're looking to move as part of my new job next year and that will likely go down to 40 miles a day - all on A & B roads. She's had diesels up til now purely because they've cost the same for us as petrol cars and get better fuel economy. Now we're buying & maintaining ourselves though - I'm wondering if petrol may be the better option?

Considerations:

  • £6k budget (can stretch this by £500 but ideally not).
  • Needs to be safe & reliable as we have a 6 month old baby and she'll be taking her to nursery every morning.
  • Reasonable boot to take a pram & associated baby gubbins.
  • She's not really fussed about performance, as long as it's not completely rubbish.
  • Planning to keep it for a good while all being well so preferably not lunar miles.
So far the best I can see is the mk3 2011 Ford Focus 1.6 petrol. I've looked at Astras too but can't see how it wins over the Focus for similar money.

Diesels obviously cost more to buy, and with turbos, DPFs etc to go wrong over a petrol engine, am I right to avoid them even though they'll return better fuel economy for her commute?
 
That's exactly what I was going to suggest :p a 2011 mk3 Focus with the basic 1.6 125bhp engine. No turbo's or Dpf's to worry about etc just basic cheap motoring. It should still achieve 35mpg at least.
If you buy private they can be had for 5.5k.
 
The little 1.0t would be a better engine if you can grt into one for the money, but I'd guess you would be at the bottom of the market and trim levels tbh.

That sort of thing looks fine, the newer Ceed is a good car for general use too, but again I think you're about a grand short in any case
 
What's the point of a potential 1k turbo bill in a few years time for an extra 5mpg over the 1.6 tI Vct engine which goes on forever.
The 1.0T is very hit and miss ive seen plenty of threads on Ford sites of engines going pop at 40k and even turbo's going at similar mileage.
Not worth the grief on a cheap runaround.
 
It's a much nicer little package tbh - every car with a turbo will eventually need it replaced so you absolutely would be taking that risk, though it's hardly going to grenade itself every 10k miles. The cost would also be more like half that above if youre sensible about replacing it

I get all flavours of focus and similar cars on hire regularly and other than clattering at idle the 1.0t is by far the best engine in that circa 115-130ish bhp bracket regardless of fuel type .

Having said that I really wouldn't get hung up on it if there are more na cars in good condition to choose from
 
Thanks all, Focus seems like the pick of the bunch. Are we right to be avoiding the diesel, even with 40+ miles a day on the cards? I've read some worrying things about the 1.6 TDi Ford engine being prone to expensive failures which has possibly made the decision for me anyway.

I've also been looking at the C-Max which has a bigger boot and a bit more space for the same sort of money.
 
I'd avoid the 1.6 diesels but the 2.0 is a better unit (Peugeot) and seems to have few issues - the only one I can think of is the DPF glowplug which is a simple fix. I was able to get an average of 53mpg over 4000 miles of mainly motorway driving. 40 miles a day will not be a problem for the DPF, funnily that's exactly the journey I do.
 
Big Chris said:
even with 40+ miles a day on the cards?
Click to expand...
Is that also 40+ miles per day on Saturday & Sunday ?

Also I would look up some real owner reviews of any petrol ford focus you maybe interested in as some engine options can be very thirsty on fuel..
 
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energy said:
I'd avoid the 1.6 diesels but the 2.0 is a better unit (Peugeot) and seems to have few issues - the only one I can think of is the DPF glowplug which is a simple fix. I was able to get an average of 53mpg over 4000 miles of mainly motorway driving. 40 miles a day will not be a problem for the DPF, funnily that's exactly the journey I do.
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I can't get into a 2.0 diesel for £6k. I'm seeing the post 2011 shape cars in the 1.6l petrol for this money though at around 30/40k which is why I'm considering them.

Dr Who said:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2011-Seat...443658?hash=item543ced64ca:g:rSsAAOSwnbZYFHFt

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Seat-Ibiz...e950eae&pid=100005&rk=6&rkt=6&sd=361799443658
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Too small. She's got an Ibiza at the moment and the pram doesn't fit in the boot, she has to fold the seats.

chaparral said:
Is that also 40+ miles per day on Saturday & Sunday ?

Also I would look up some real owner reviews of any petrol ford focus you maybe interested in as some engine options can be very thirsty on fuel..
Click to expand...
Unlikely she'll be using it much at weekends as I do most of the driving when we're together. I've read that people aren't getting the quoted MPG on the petrol engines, but I'm wary of the number of people I've read about that had the 1.6TDi engine and had turbos etc go bang resulting in large bills.
 
I wouldn't recommend an older naturally aspirated engine over the more modern, smaller, turbo'd engines. They are usually faster, much better on fuel and just all round superior. TFSI all day.
 
Lokken86 said:
I wouldn't recommend an older naturally aspirated engine over the more modern, smaller, turbo'd engines. They are usually faster, much better on fuel and just all round superior. TFSI all day.
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If you're referring to the Ford EcoBoot petrol engine, we can't afford it sadly.

It's still niggling me that 40 miles a day is diesel territory, and I've found a 1.6TDCi C-Max for £6.5k... just worried about big bills if something lets go.
 
Big Chris said:
Too small. She's got an Ibiza at the moment and the pram doesn't fit in the boot, she has to fold the seats.
Click to expand...
Just a heads up..

The focus is meant to have one the smallest boots in it class....;)

For example
VW Mk7 golf boot = 380ltrs
Ford Focus Boot = 316ltrs

But Note: These are the specs from the lastest models (I Don't know what the older model boot sizes are)
 
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