economical car for 45 mile daily commute

[hillbilly2]

make sure you drive one of those bluemotion things, a guy work got a golf bluemotion and it drives him mad, he can't wait to get rid of it, utterly gutless and just crying out for a 6th gear, it's horrible to sit in at 70, 5th just isn't high enough.

Is it a Golf 5 or 6?

 

[Simon]

Keep the current car

 

[realscot]

If your finding a 1.6 Leon petrol expensive on fuel, then diesel really is the only way to go. It will probably get you around 10+ mpg more depending which you choose. You could always adjust your/your missus driving styles a bit to be more economical.

 

[Ev0]

Keep the current car

This tbh, 45 miles a day isn't much, the 1.6 isn't exactly a gas guzzler.

 

[Kenai]

Is it a Golf 5 or 6?

Mk6

 

[Spamalot]

OP, you're not going to 'save' any money. All you're going to do if fool yourself in to thinking you're saving cash when it comes to buying road tax and putting fuel in the thing. I recon over three years an old Mondeo petrol (say £1500 worth) would cost half (yes, 50%) of the total cost over ownership over the Polo bluemotion!

Who the hell want a tiny, gutless polo anyway?!?

 

[Simon]

If your finding a 1.6 Leon petrol expensive on fuel, then diesel really is the only way to go. It will probably get you around 10+ mpg more depending which you choose. You could always adjust your/your missus driving styles a bit to be more economical.

You can adjust driving styles in any car.

A diesel will take a long time to pay back the extra £1000 you want to spent to 'save money'.

 

[Kenai]

45 miles per day, so lets call that a round 11,000 miles per year.

40mpg petrol @ 122.1ppl = £1526.46
60mpg diesel @ 126.2ppl = £1051.81

So you'd save £474.65 per year. Take into account tax and insurance and it would be 2 years before you even broke even on your £1000 investment.

That said, if your wife is currently spending £200 a month on fuel (£2400 per year) then you're either already doing waaay more than 45 miles per day already or you're getting nowhere near 40mpg from your current car. From the sounds of it, this 45 mile commute is going to be an increase so if you're already spending almost double what my calculations suggest you should be spending driving more than do now, something appears to be amiss.

 

[James_200sx]

Stop being silly and keep the leon. Petrol is cheaper then diesel. Why not try hyper milling.

 

[Spamalot]

So you'd save £474.65 per year. Take into account tax and insurance and it would be 2 years before you even broke even on your £1000 investment.

Nice logic, one thing your forgetting is that you'll get a large chunk of that £1000 back come resale time (especially when you take in to account how these little bits of **** hold their value).

 

[Morba]

Will your wife be spending £200 a month while she is on maternity? It's unlikely if that's work mileage

 

[[TW]Fox]

Keep the current car

This.

It's a 1.6 Leon for goodness sake not a Subaru Impreza.

It's cheap to run and economical - and don't make me laugh about road tax savings.

 

[Kenai]

A more valuable car will also depreciate faster than a less valuable one though, don't forget that, it's not as if spending £1000 means £1000 more back when you come to sell it.

What you get back for the car is also a moot point when the entire exercise is being done in aid of freeing up money for an incoming baby.

 

[Deleted member 66701]

45 miles a day is nothing.

I used to commute 48miles a day in my Scorpio Cosworth/Lexus LS400. About £50 a week roughly. It's only 8kish commuting miles a year.

Rather spend another £20 on petrol that have to commute in some ****box!

 

[Morba]

Are we talking both ways or single journey? I was taking it as 1 way.
If that's 45 round trip then forget about changing unless you downgrade lots to pocket some cash.