Cheap motorway runner advice

[Mike]

So OcUK Forummers, help me out with some motoring advice.

Scenario; I live in Newcastle Under Lyme and have a weekend Cabin at Windermere in the Lake District that I spend every weekend at.

This is a 250 mile round trip.

My current motor (which I'm keeping) is a Porsche Cayenne S and given the current climate the £350 a month in fuel just to do the lakes run on top of the extra 12,000 miles a year is something I want to avoid.

While I'm in the lakes I have a couple of boats I spend my time with, I can get around into town etc via boat and have no need for a car while I'm there. My brother lives there but is in easy walking distance.

So, the obvious plan is to buy some sort of cheap, cheap car (hundreds not thousands), good for motorway running, insure it TPO and just use it for the M6 run. Cheap enough so that if it goes wrong it can just go to the scrapper.

If I can cut the fuel bill to 1/3 of what it is now and given the savings in servicing and tyres I reckon I can save £300 or £400 a month without much trouble, hence the idea.

Problem is, I know **** all about the types of cars to look at or I might get for my money. Any ideas and input much appreciated.

 

[[TW]Fox]

Mk1 or Mk2 Mondeo Ghia X for 300-400 quid. Cruise, leather and AC. Cheap to fix, reliable, will do 35mpg. Job done.

Although frankly if you are well off enough to have a Porsche Cayenne and a holiday cottage in Windermere one has to ask whether its worth slumming it in a banger to save 200 quid a month. 250 miles a week is hardly huge, is it?

 

[Mike]

It's a question of expense management, in a climate of rising costs and dwindling income if I can save £300 or £400 a month (which I can counting tyres etc as well) then I'd be silly not to, I don't particulary care what I spend 90 mins sitting on the motorway in.

EDIT - and my Cayenne is currently quite low mileage and I'd like to keep it that way as much as possible.

 

[Jez]

I dont think this is really going to work out mate.

That saving of £300-400pm will get eaten into very quickly, you will have a whole new set of road tax, insurance, MOT's, servicing, etc etc. You will end up saving around £100-200pm granted, but with a whole load of hassle of running and maintaining the banger, let alone actually driving it as opposed to the cayenne.

 

[[TW]Fox]

EDIT - and my Cayenne is currently quite low mileage and I'd like to keep it that way as much as possible.

This is another reason I hate low mileage cars - it puts you into a state of mind where you are almost scared to use it because 10k on top of 20k nukes the value loads more than 10k on top of 80k. My Dad was like it a bit when he first got the 530d as it had 20k on it. It's daft but its hard to get over.

I think of it the other way, the more miles you put on your Cayenne the better value its purchase has been. You didn't work as hard as you did to sit on the M6 on a 10 year old Mondeo, did you?

 

[Lum]

Is that Cayenne diesel or petrol?
If it's petrol, maybe an LPG conversion would be worth considering?

 

[mattyprice4004]

Focus diesel mark one, these can be had for little cash these days, or something like my rover 400 diesel - 60mpg+ on a run, and not a bad place to be.

Mine cost me £750

 

[jamoor]

This is another reason I hate low mileage cars - it puts you into a state of mind where you are almost scared to use it because 10k on top of 20k nukes the value loads more than 10k on top of 80k. My Dad was like it a bit when he first got the 530d as it had 20k on it. It's daft but its hard to get over.

I think of it the other way, the more miles you put on your Cayenne the better value its purchase has been. You didn't work as hard as you did to sit on the M6 on a 10 year old Mondeo, did you?

WOW I never actually knew people do this, I never consider the mileage one bit when driving around in my car, what's the point in buying, taxing and insuring it if you won't use it

 

[MarkDavis]

That's mad. Buy a Porsche Cayenne to drive around a banger costing a few hundred pounds.