Best Diesel For Under £2000

mr tommo

mr tommo

mr tommo

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Work are looking for a new runaround, an £800 Nissan almera was purchased at christmas just to get us through the busy period due to unforseen circumstances.

Want to spend under £2000.

Must be a diesel as it will be doing just over 30,000 miles so the saving would be quite big compared to a petrol.

Not really sure what to look for, something under around 70,000 miles would be prefferable because it will only be used for this coming year, then will be replaced for a new contract hire vehicle.

Any Ideas?

Btw the Almera is awful!! :p

Although *touches wood* Nothing has gone wrong with it yet.
 
Not an expert in this area but the Pug 406 diesel seems like a popular choice.

You do the same annual mileage as me and when I worked out the cost difference of running a diesel over a petrol the difference was around £600. You'll need to remember though that service intervals on diesels tend to be shorter and doing 30k miles will probably involve a new set of tyres so factor these costs into your sums!
 
Yup in the cheaper price range Peugeot Diesels cannot be beaten, and if you can get a HDI model make sure you choose that. You get about 11mpg more than the previous generation of XU engines, and they were good to start with!
 
Im having some trouble finding a late diesel 600.
Your link to wiki states that its used in the 200 and 400 ? Are they as reliable as the 600?


As for the 406, I will have a look in a min, what other puegeot's are in that price bracket?

Thanks guys btw.
 
mr tommo said:
Im having some trouble finding a late diesel 600.
Your link to wiki states that its used in the 200 and 400 ? Are they as reliable as the 600?
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They are ok, but generaly considered to be not as well built as the 600, though they are obvioulsy a bit quicker due to lower weight.
 


Manual, 61,000 miles, IN BRITISH RACING GREEN,2 OWNERS FROM NEW,LAST OWNER FOR 8 YEARS,WITH ONLY 61000 MILES AND FULL SERVICE HISTORY,THE CAR COMES WITH 12 MONTHS M-O-T AND 4 MONTHS ROAD TAX,EXTRAS INCLUDE REMOTE STEREO ELCTRIC SUNROOF AND ELECTRIC FRONT WINDOWS. AND DONT FORGET 50 MILES PER GALLON, VERY GOOD CONDITION. £1,195. ONO

Yay or nay?
Is it likely to be reliable? (not expecting crystal balls here, but in general as a car model)
Are parts still readily available?


The extra power pips it for me over the peugeot as I will be driving it for the majority of the time.
 
Yay or nay?
Is it likely to be reliable? (not expecting crystal balls here, but in general as a car model)
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What do you mean by reliable? The engines are very strong, if you service it at recommended intervals it's very unlikely to let you down for another 100k miles. However, the car is comming up for 10 years old, so you have to expect that some parts will likely need replacing during your ownership, e.g. exhaust parts, brakes etc.

Are parts still readily available?
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Yes, no problem getting parts, service bits will be stocked by all motor factors and any specific Rover parts can be bought through xpart distributors.
 
Stonedofmoo said:
It's a Rover :p ;)
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Groan ;)

You can get quite a lot more Xsara than you can 306 for your budget, most that i've seen are over your mileage but it shouldn't really be too much of a concern on a properly maintained one.
 
I would buy a Xantia HDI for about £1500 and leave £500 in your pocket for maintenance. You could easily spend £500 maintaining a car that you do over 30k a year in. The HDI is economical, cheap to buy, fairly easy to do basic maintenance on and mega comfy. Check that the passenger footwell is not wet when you look at the car. If it is then walk away because the heater matrix is knackered. When you buy the car, change the coolant. The heater matrix gets knackered because the coolant is not changed enought(basically).
 
Thanks mattpc, just looking them up now. £2000 was max really anyway so anything under is great. :)

I take it SX is one of the top trims?
 
mr tommo said:
Thanks mattpc, just looking them up now. £2000 was max really anyway so anything under is great. :)

I take it SX is one of the top trims?
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SX is the middle of the range trim; it goes LX > SX > VSX / Exclusive

The Xantia HDI is a great car for this kind of money, but I'd also look out for the 2.1 TD VSX, as you’d get a nicer engine and a few more toys, including the computer controlled Hydractive suspension, the only trade off would be slightly higher fuel consumption.
 
You don't want a 2.1 TD VSX.

Firstly, they are all at least 10 years old. This, in itself, is fine. My Xantia was 10 when we parted company. But the VSX has a complex computer to control the hydraulics. The French don't really do electronics.

Secondly, the 2.1TD engine is, phsysically, huge. Even the simplist of jobs on this engine are a nightmare because it only just fits in the engine bay.
 
CypherPunk said:
SX is the middle of the range trim; it goes LX > SX > VSX / Exclusive

The Xantia HDI is a great car for this kind of money, but I'd also look out for the 2.1 TD VSX, as you’d get a nicer engine and a few more toys, including the computer controlled Hydractive suspension, the only trade off would be slightly higher fuel consumption.
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Yep forget the VSX. I didn't mention the exclusive because it is unlikely to be in your price range. My SX had mega comfy well supported seats with left arm rest that flop down over the handbrake for added comfort, aircon, rain senseing wipers, 6 cd changer, electric mirrors, windows, hydraulic clutch, rear spoiler. LX is ok but the seats will defo not be as nice. 2.1TD is ok, it's quite a nice drive but some of the parts for that engine are not easy to get hold of and fuel consumption is better on the HDI. My punt is go for SX and for £1500-2000 make sure you find a good one. It will be much better than buying a dog of an exclusive or VSX. Mileage is not so important- condition and history are everything.
 
[TW]Fox said:
You don't want a 2.1 TD VSX.

Firstly, they are all at least 10 years old. This, in itself, is fine. My Xantia was 10 when we parted company. But the VSX has a complex computer to control the hydraulics. The French don't really do electronics.

Secondly, the 2.1TD engine is, phsysically, huge. Even the simplist of jobs on this engine are a nightmare because it only just fits in the engine bay.
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Pfft, where's your sense of adventure Fox.

The Hydractive computer is actually very reliable considering that it's made by the French; it's fairly simple so there isn't all that much that can go wrong. Probably the biggest reason for failure is actually mechanical, due to leaking / failed electrovalves.

I personally think that the Hydractive system makes such a massive difference to the suspension that it's worth the extra risk of something going wrong. Although you're probably right, for someone who just wants an A to B car it's probably not worth the hassle.

As for the 2.1 TD, it's no harder to work on than the HDI, and in my next-door neighbour’s experience it's probably more reliable too.
 
mm some people slate the HDI but I loved mine. I wonder if they are somewhat intollerant of neglect. Mine was always serviced on the dot and I had full history over its 150k. I wonder if some of the worst dogs were just horribly neglected? It also always seems to be the 2.1TD enthusiasts that slate the HDI the most. I have driven both and whilst I like the 2.1TD I would still have the HDI provided it was in 110Bhp form
 
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