700 mile a week commuter

WillyNelson

WillyNelson

WillyNelson

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Joined
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I might be looking at a new job, the only problem is the distance. Moving isn;t much of an option atm. What would be the choice of cars for a 700-800 mile a week commute, all motorway?

I've heard the Passat, Mondeo & BMW 1xx mentioned. Thoughts (apart from "that's an insane commute")?
 
surely renting a room close to work will work out cheaper.
700 miles in fuel + outlay for new car: that will be more than a cheap room in a shared house.
 
Volvo S80 or Citoren C6, something soft and comfy.

Mondeo is a great all rounder but still its a little hard on the motorway. The vectra used to be better than the mk3 mondeo on the motorway (nowhere else mind) so might be worth trying an insignia,

1 series, too small and even SE BMWs with 15in wheels have a fairly hard ride

Passat, never been a fan.
 
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The missus currently commutes ~500 miles a week in a Punto Grande

/hugs my Mondeo
 
I do at least 1000 miles a week for work, for the last 2 years. I started doing it in a Golf Mk4 V5 (2.3) as that's what I had then, but changed last year to a 56 plate Honda Accord 2.2 i-CTDi (6 speed).

The Honda has been superb (touch wood), it was cheap, it'll do between 55MPG and 65MPG depending how you drive it, and it's not a bad place to be for for hours a day (for £6k which is what it cost me).

I'd recommend one of those. Other colleagues of mine doing similar miles have stuff like Mondeo TDi, Laguna TDi, Audi A4 Tdi etc.
 
mk1_salami said:
Budget?
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That's part if the issue. I'm trying to work out whether I should take the job or not and one of the thing to consider is how much it'd cost to buy & run a car.

My current job is only 20mins away and we have a Focus that my wife uses.

Sone said:
Volvo S80 or Citoren C6... might be worth trying an insignia
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S80 and C6 are both on the large side, maybe the S60 though. I've ridden in an Insignia and it was nice & comfy. Seeing as it's the replacement for the Vectra repmobile it'd be worth a look.

uv said:
500 miles a week in a Punto Grande
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*shudder*

Vampire said:
56 plate Honda Accord 2.2 i-CTDi (6 speed)
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I've driven the Accord on a few long trips and it was very comfy. totally forgot about it though. Sounds like pretty good economy figures too.
 
I used to do a 600 mile a week cross country (quite a lot was twisty B-road) commute in a (2000) Fiesta Zetec 1.25l.

Not comfortable but doable.

I now use a (1999) Focus Ghia which is much nicer proposition. It's particularly comfortable on A-road usage since it seems to have fairly soft suspension. Should be fairly affordable to buy and run too.

TBH, any of the ones you've mentioned should be fine... that Honda sounds nice.

Just avoid really small cars. :(

gt
 
I used to do 600 miles a week a few years ago, used to have the previous shape Honda Accord 2.0 at the time.

To the OP, I'd only personally consider the new job if it was going to significantly increase your salary, for me work paid for the fuel and car but driving 2 hours there and 2 hours back wears a bit thin after a few months.
 
WillyNelson said:
That's part if the issue. I'm trying to work out whether I should take the job or not and one of the thing to consider is how much it'd cost to buy & run a car.
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Well, if you tell us how much more this job pays, we will tell you if it's worth buying a nice car for. :)

ie. if it's a 10k increase in salary, it'd probably worth it, if it's a 2k increase it's not.
 
Dont forget to base your calculations based on fuel at £1.30-£1.50 a litre. Because oil isn't going to crater again this year, thats for sure!
 
You'll ideally want a big diesel with really good economy figures for that kind of commute. My Dad has an '03 525D which is absolutely perfect for motorways and typically gets over 50mpg on a run. They should also be available to buy quite cheaply now as well. You could probably pick up a good example for around 3-5 grand.
 
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