Best family friendly car with a bit of poke for 12k?

coupe69 · 22 Jan 2020 at 19:55

As title, what would the fine chaps and chapesses of motors recommend for me?

I travel roughly 10-12k a year a mixture of motorway and A roads with a bit of town driving chucked in now and again.

My current car is a 12 plate Skoda Superb 2.0 170 diesel (mk2 pre-facelift) which has been great and fits everthing I could possibly want in it, but feel like it's time to change to something not quite so "old manish"

12k is the budget with perhaps a bit of wriggle room for the right car. Would like something to fit the family in, the wife, 2 young kids and myself, plus enough room to fit a weeks worth of holiday gear.

Initial thoughts are, Octavia VRS estate, Golf GTD estate, Ford ST estate or maybe go a little leftfield with something like a Volvo V60 R design?

Do I need petrol or diesel? any input is welcome

James82 · 22 Jan 2020 at 19:59

5 series?

mikeyw85 · 22 Jan 2020 at 21:00

Doing a milage like that would usualy justify a diesel.

The Mazda 6 touring is available with a ~173bhp diesel. Good look and well put together car, and you could get a 2016 car.

DereksDontRun · 22 Jan 2020 at 21:37

it's only 10-12k miles - so, I'd be choosing a petrol over a diesel these days.
should be able to get a mk3 VRS Octavia 220 for that, possibly 230?

Dis86 · 22 Jan 2020 at 21:52

mikeyw85 said:
Doing a milage like that would usualy justify a diesel.

The Mazda 6 touring is available with a ~173bhp diesel. Good look and well put together car, and you could get a 2016 car.

Wut? Break-even point is about 15k per year.

mikeyw85 · 22 Jan 2020 at 22:47

Dis86 said:
Wut? Break-even point is about 15k per year.

Depends what MPG you're getting doesnt it.

A petrol car with a little bit of poke isn't going to do much more than 30mpg. Where as plenty of diesels with a bit of poke will manage near enough 50mpg. So you're not going to need to do that many miles for the diesel to be cheaper. And when you talk about break-even points, that presuming the diesel costs more to buy in the first place. Every mile you do, a diesel is about 4p cheaper, based on 35 vs 50 mpg.

Dis86 · 22 Jan 2020 at 22:53

mikeyw85 said:
Depends what MPG you're getting doesnt it.

A petrol car with a little bit of poke isn't going to do much more than 30mpg. Where as plenty of diesels with a bit of poke will manage near enough 50mpg. So you're not going to need to do that many miles for the diesel to be cheaper. And when you talk about break-even points, that presuming the diesel costs more to buy in the first place. Every mile you do, a diesel is about 4p cheaper, based on 35 vs 50 mpg.

You're neglecting the massive matter of increased maintenance.

mikeyw85 · 22 Jan 2020 at 23:02

Dis86 said:
You're neglecting the massive matter of increased maintenance.

What massive matter of increased maintenance? I know the average repair bill on a deisel is higher than a petrol, but it's also quite possible to own a diesel car for 2-3 yers and nothing go wrong with the drivetrain/exhaust at all. If you're saving £40-50 a month in fuel, that more than compensates for any slight differences. Unless you're very unlucky. But you could be very unlucky with any car.

Dis86 · 22 Jan 2020 at 23:29

mikeyw85 said:
What massive matter of increased maintenance? I know the average repair bill on a deisel is higher than a petrol, but it's also quite possible to own a diesel car for 2-3 yers and nothing go wrong with the drivetrain/exhaust at all. If you're saving £40-50 a month in fuel, that more than compensates for any slight differences. Unless you're very unlucky. But you could be very unlucky with any car.

The statistically significant one...That maintenance.

Also £50 per month? Take the focus. The 150bhp petrol will net you 47mpg. The diesel equivalent 57mpg. With 10000 miles per year this would save you £170 per year. Or £13 per month at current prices of 125 per l for petrol and 130 diesel.
That's wiped out with one congestion zone charge.
One dpf replacement wipes out 7-13 years of fuel savings.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2018/jan/27/diesel-cars-cheap-reliable-petrol

Source on maintenance costs added.

coupe69 · 22 Jan 2020 at 23:45

Just FYI, I'm currently getting around 50mpg out of the Superb. My drive to work is 11 miles, 5 miles of A road followed by 6 miles of motorway, which is currently 50mph average speed and obviously helping the fuel economy!

I do go on longer trips which would enable re-gens, but I often do several weeks of work and back (and other shorter runs) before doing that longer run.

I have seriously considered moving to a petrol, but it wouldn't be a Focus 150BHP! More like a Skoda VRS 2.0 TSI or maybe a Golf GTI that does more like 30-35mpg, however ideally I wanted an estate.

Dis86 · 22 Jan 2020 at 23:51

coupe69 said:
Just FYI, I'm currently getting around 50mpg out of the Superb. My drive to work is 11 miles, 5 miles of A road followed by 6 miles of motorway, which is currently 50mph average speed and obviously helping the fuel economy!

I do go on longer trips which would enable re-gens, but I often do several weeks of work and back (and other shorter runs) before doing that longer run.

I have seriously considered moving to a petrol, but it wouldn't be a Focus 150BHP! More like a Skoda VRS 2.0 TSI or maybe a Golf GTI that does more like 30-35mpg, however ideally I wanted an estate.

A quick diesel will suffer too. I used to average around 40mpg in my 640d. It also needed a egr valve replacement...

mikeyw85 · 23 Jan 2020 at 00:00

Dis86 said:
The statistically significant one...That maintenance.

Also £50 per month? Take the focus. The 150bhp petrol will net you 47mpg. The diesel equivalent 57mpg. With 10000 miles per year this would save you £170 per year. Or £13 per month at current prices of 125 per l for petrol and 130 diesel.
That's wiped out with one congestion zone charge.
One dpf replacement wipes out 7-13 years of fuel savings.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2018/jan/27/diesel-cars-cheap-reliable-petrol

Source on maintenance costs added.

We were talking about punchy family cars. To me that's 180bhp diesel or 200bhp petrol.

Be realistic about mpg figures. Go to a website like honest johns real mpg. Audi A4 1.4tfsi = 40mpg. 2.0 tfsi = 35mpg. 2.0tdi = 50mpg. 47mpg from a pokey petrol engine in a car that's a few years old is impossible.

Another example, one the OP is considering, Octavia vRS. Petrol 36mpg, diesel 50mpg. That's £40 at 1000miles/month.

The Guardian peice... I'm trying to find what the "more than 3 times more likely to break down" is based on. The artical also mentions that Audi, BMW and Skoda deisel's break down less than their petrol counterparts, so it's not so straight forward.

mikeyw85 · 23 Jan 2020 at 00:24

That said i'd always get a petrol vRS over a diesel, unless i was doing astronomical milage. I can't think of a better car than that, all things considered.

Only others I can think of are something like a BMW 328i, A4 2.0tfsi or Mondeo 2.0T,

[TW]Fox · 23 Jan 2020 at 08:39

Dis86 said:
A quick diesel will suffer too. I used to average around 40mpg in my 640d. It also needed a egr valve replacement...

The trouble is that these days petrol cars are just as complicated so it's 6 of one half dozen of the other. The days of petrol cars being simple and hassle free are over, most are turbocharged with direct injection etc

Dis86 · 23 Jan 2020 at 08:49

[TW]Fox said:
The trouble is that these days petrol cars are just as complicated so it's 6 of one half dozen of the other. The days of petrol cars being simple and hassle free are over, most are turbocharged with direct injection etc

Nothing wrong with a bit of direct injection that a full head removal and walnut blast won't sort...

weathmatth · 23 Jan 2020 at 10:22

mikeyw85 said:
Doing a milage like that would usualy justify a diesel.

The Mazda 6 touring is available with a ~173bhp diesel. Good look and well put together car, and you could get a 2016 car.

I personally would go petrol at 10-12k miles a year, anything over 15k miles a year then i would go diesel.

brendy · 23 Jan 2020 at 10:35

Audi S4 Avant B8, slightly shallow boot but with revo 1+ you wont care, if careful you can hit 30mpg but realistically mid 20s is usual fayre but so so so much fun.

Psycho Sonny · 23 Jan 2020 at 10:58

mikeyw85 said:
Doing a milage like that would usualy justify a diesel.

The Mazda 6 touring is available with a ~173bhp diesel. Good look and well put together car, and you could get a 2016 car.

really 10K a year? 27 miles per day which is possibly a 13 mile trip (15-20 mins one way).

diesel is for 20k+

a petrol hybrid would be more suitable for his mileage.

ahenners · 23 Jan 2020 at 20:47

Octavia VRS should suit those needs rather well. I have a 63 plate 220 petrol covering 15k a year. It's fairly cheap to run, easily able to get 40mpg+ on longer journeys, and nothing has gone wrong in the 50k I've put on it since buying just over 3 years ago. We have 2 young kids (under 4) and we've had no problem fitting everything in holidaying in the UK - Center Parcs mainly with some tent camping on occasion too. It's a great balance of quick, enjoyable, practical and sensible.

mikeyw85 · 23 Jan 2020 at 20:52

Psycho Sonny said:
really 10K a year? 27 miles per day which is possibly a 13 mile trip (15-20 mins one way).

diesel is for 20k+

a petrol hybrid would be more suitable for his mileage.

It's purely down to how much money you think is worth saving.

When buying new, if a diesel costs £40 a month more than a compartitive petrol, you might find that at 1000 miles a month, diesel saves you £40-45. So, 12k miles a year would be about the switch over point.

If buying used, and you spend as much on a diesel as a petrol, it really comes down to how much money you'd want to save in fuel before you think owning a diesel is worth it.

Part of the reason i mentioned diesel is that there's so few petrol car's to looks at.