Cheap Diesel

Firestar_3x · 19 Oct 2011 at 11:17

I wish people would view cars as a luxury again not a necessity or god given right, it would make the roads a much nicer place to drive...

The issue i suppose is if money really is that tight and £50 extra in tax is a justifiable saving to you then should you really be running a car anyways?

[TW]Fox · 19 Oct 2011 at 11:23

Gtiracer said:
But to be fair £1100 is still £1100 which I know I couldn't afford to just throw away, but only the OP knows if it is worth it to him and how long he would keep the diesel car etc

It's not thrown away though, as you gain the better engine.

rojones · 19 Oct 2011 at 11:39

Firestar_3x said:
I wish people would view cars as a luxury again not a necessity or god given right, it would make the roads a much nicer place to drive...

The issue i suppose is if money really is that tight and £50 extra in tax is a justifiable saving to you then should you really be running a car anyways?

Im not sure many people view cars as being a god given right, but when you consider outside of major cities in thie country public transport is essentialy non existent and only useful to people who have no job and can travel any time of the day and not worry about how long it takes to get anywhere.

For example im about 18 - 19 miles from my work place and it takes 30 mins tops in my car to get to work. There is not a single Bus / Train whatever that i can catch that gets me to anywhere near my work place. I could maybe find a bus route via multiple busses that could get me near in something like 2 hrs.

I would happily give up having a car if public transport could get me near my place of work within a reasonable time.

Rant over

Dr Who · 19 Oct 2011 at 12:16

Our 59 reg A3 does over 60MPG average, and I loathe it

It is uncomfortable, un-ergonomic, and soul-less but I still use it over the Scoob on a long journey as I can get very close to 70mpg on a good run.

The older version got about 10mpg less iirc, but well over 50.

[TW]Fox · 19 Oct 2011 at 12:33

rojones said:
Im not sure many people view cars as being a god given right, but when you consider outside of major cities in thie country public transport is essentialy non existent and only useful to people who have no job and can travel any time of the day and not worry about how long it takes to get anywhere.

The key point that people miss when they claim a car is not a luxury, it’s a requirement, is that people on the whole (Exceptions to every rule) choose where they live. I also live in an area where the nearest bus stop is quite a walk and therefore having a car makes things much much easier. But I choose to live there, too.

With the exception of places like central London, and the nice parts of central areas of larger cities, generally speaking inner city living is cheaper than suburban or rural living. This is because it's much more undesirable - the houses are smaller, closer together, there is a lack of green space, its generally not as nice a place to live as the nicer places out of town. However one thing inner cities do have is passable public transport.

But because lets face it, most of us don't want to live in an inner city urban environment, we make the choice to live further out. What we cannot then do is forget the fact we made this choice and start saying we do 100+ mile a day commutes by car because we 'have no choice'. We do have a choice - we exercised it in the first place by choosing where to live. It is correct that some people don’t choose where to live - they have housing allocated by the council or housing association perhaps - but these people are extremely unlikely to be allocated housing in nice leafy suburbs or nice villages with no bus service so that doesn’t really count.

Just because the other alternatives are sucky or not as nice as our current situation doesn’t mean we have 'no choice' nor does it mean a car isn't a luxury. A car is a luxury - and if its required for your current lifestyle, its likely that your current lifestyle is a tad more luxurious than those in the less nice areas of big cities with ample access to public transport, as well.

I'm sure I will now get flamed as this is never a popular opinion.

JamesRJ · 19 Oct 2011 at 12:42

One of the most sensible posts I have heard in a long while ^

Gtiracer · 19 Oct 2011 at 12:46

[TW]Fox;20344853 said:
It's not thrown away though, as you gain the better engine.

Depends what the driver prefers I guess and if the extra premium is worth it to him or not

[TW]Fox · 19 Oct 2011 at 12:55

Gtiracer said:
Depends what the driver prefers I guess and if the extra premium is worth it to him or not

The fact he bought a Cupra Turbo in the first place implies he sees a car as a bit more than a simple tool for transport from A to B.

A hot hatch is for some a hobby as well as a car. A diesel supermini is a car. So in this scenario the £1k a year buys you a 'hobby', potentially, which may change whether its worth the money or not.

I could save £700 a year in fuel by driving a 1.1 litre 106. But I happily pay that £700 extra for the enjoyment driving my current car gives me. I'm not 'wasting' the extra £700 I spend on fuel or 'throwing it away'. I'm gaining an experience for it.

Jono8 · 19 Oct 2011 at 13:18

[TW]Fox;20345671 said:
The fact he bought a Cupra Turbo in the first place implies he sees a car as a bit more than a simple tool for transport from A to B.

A hot hatch is for some a hobby as well as a car. A diesel supermini is a car. So in this scenario the £1k a year buys you a 'hobby', potentially, which may change whether its worth the money or not.

I could save £700 a year in fuel by driving a 1.1 litre 106. But I happily pay that £700 extra for the enjoyment driving my current car gives me. I'm not 'wasting' the extra £700 I spend on fuel or 'throwing it away'. I'm gaining an experience for it.

I completely agree with you, but you have to factor in whether he feels the saving is worth it and what priorities he has in his life right now. the very fact that he is thinking about doing this perhaps show that he doesnt want to be spending money on cars.

In my case, i changed cars because i knew i would gain at least £1500 on tax,petrol and insurance, if not more, annually. I also wanted something that was less likely to throw up any big bills or unreliability issues.

Do i miss the 5 pot growl and the torque of the ST? yes ofcourse i do , but at the moment my priorities have changed and i cant justify the costs and potential costs of owning a performance hatchback.

CeeBee2 · 20 Oct 2011 at 00:07

Matt82 said:
and what car does average 52mpg?

Mine. As I said, I have a 2.0 X Type diesel that gives me 52mpg average. Mostly commuting on A roads on a 50 mile round trip.
My repair costs over the last 12 months have been £0. My tax £130. My insurance £205. Even allowing for a slight margin for error on my computer I am still spending considerably less on fuel than when I ran a petrol engine. If i am 'only' saving £500/year, as some are saying, it is worthwhile. If you think otherwise I am quite happy for you to send me a cheque for that amount. No! I thought not.
I suspect that a lot of people on this forum would prefer a Saxo, with a massive exhaust that sounds impressive, to a diesel regardless of what it is like to drive and run.
To me, changing to diesel is one of the best motoring decisions that I have ever made.

Gtiracer · 20 Oct 2011 at 01:02

[TW]Fox;20345671 said:
The fact he bought a Cupra Turbo in the first place implies he sees a car as a bit more than a simple tool for transport from A to B.

A hot hatch is for some a hobby as well as a car. A diesel supermini is a car. So in this scenario the £1k a year buys you a 'hobby', potentially, which may change whether its worth the money or not.

I could save £700 a year in fuel by driving a 1.1 litre 106. But I happily pay that £700 extra for the enjoyment driving my current car gives me. I'm not 'wasting' the extra £700 I spend on fuel or 'throwing it away'. I'm gaining an experience for it.

As already said whether it be throwing away or gaining an experience at the end of the day its down to the OP and what he would prefer. otherwise he wouldn't of mentioned diesel car if he wasn't considering it to be worth it would he?

[TW]Fox · 20 Oct 2011 at 08:15

CeeBee2 said:
Mine. As I said, I have a 2.0 X Type diesel that gives me 52mpg average. Mostly commuting on A roads on a 50 mile round trip.
My repair costs over the last 12 months have been £0.

You would be rather neive to project £0 repair costs into the future, mind. Especially on a car with Fords TDCi engine.

If you think otherwise I am quite happy for you to send me a cheque for that amount. No! I thought not.

What a bizarre and strange thing to say. So because we wouldnt send a stranger on the internet a cheque for £500, it means we dont actually think £500 is not a significant enough saving to justify a diesel engined car?

I suspect that a lot of people on this forum would prefer a Saxo, with a massive exhaust that sounds impressive, to a diesel regardless of what it is like to drive and run.

Err yea, obviously.

uchuff · 20 Oct 2011 at 10:04

kash786 said:
I'll be saving on insurance aswell, the Cupra is a group 16, just had a renewal notice through for £800 , I paid £500ish last year.

On this, a lot of insurance companies try it on come renewal time. Unless your circumstances have changed since last year (explaining the rise) you can probably ring around and get a quote for the same price, probably even get your current company to match if you are happy with them.