Need New Car.

rmuir · 22 Dec 2006 at 18:47

Right guys n gals new car time!!!

Been looking at cars for months now and have posted as such before. I now have a much clearer idea of what i want/need from a car.

My situation is this:

Probably going to be doing between 600 - 1k miles a month what with commuting to work and general day trips here and there. My current steed ( Rover 416i ) returns 32.5 mpg in general.

I have looked at a billion cars ( least it feels like it ) and most recently considered a 3.0v6 CDTi 04 Vauxhall Vectra.

My list of potential purchases are Mondy, Vectra, Focus, 407, Golf, Bora, Passat. Tho i realise that at my budget of max 9k there is an endless list of potential buys.

Basically i want a reliably, diesel hatch/saloon that will see my 5-6 years with no trouble at all. The car needs to be cheap to service/maintain.

I look forward to your help!

thedazman67 · 22 Dec 2006 at 19:11

Mk3 Ford Mondeo TDCi if your looking for a diesel the petrol variants are also good.

thedazman

matrhos · 22 Dec 2006 at 19:26

You can pick up a nice low mile '55 Vectra SRI 1.9 CDTi 150bhp for around £10k if you hunt around. If you're after a Vectra then the new facelifted ones are better inside and the new engine is actually fairly brisk and refined. Should return a lot more MPGs than the 3 litre diesel you are looking at. Its already taken a huge depreciation hit and should hold on to at least a third of its £9-10k price over the next 5 years at 12k/year.
If you can't stretch to £10kish, then the 1.8 petrol vectras are much cheaper (as everyone wants the diesels now) and will still return mid to high 30s.

blueboy2001 · 22 Dec 2006 at 19:31

A Mondeo TDCi will be cheapest to run long term. Chain driven engine means no expensive cambelt change which all of the others on your list will need during the ownership. Ford dealer servicing is usually very cheap and there are plenty dealers about, and they don't need any expensive airy-fairy oil like VW's.

Do you want a diesel for reasons other than fuel savings? 600 miles a month is nothing - I do more than that in a week quite often. You'll pay about £1500-£2k more for a Mondeo TDCi 130 against an equivalent 2.0 petrol model.

If I was doing 600 miles a month I'd have an ST220 on the path without question. They're good for about 28mpg overall.

[TW]Fox · 22 Dec 2006 at 20:28

With such low mileage, don't bother with a diesel the savings are simply not worth it.

Moeks · 22 Dec 2006 at 20:41

Indeed, and all of a sudden the an E39 523i springs to mind

rmuir · 22 Dec 2006 at 23:11

[TW]Fox said:
With such low mileage, don't bother with a diesel the savings are simply not worth it.

how so? get under 400 miles from a tank currently. Diesel Vectra would get me over 500 miles to a tank, for example. With my projected mileage i reckon thats a straight up saving.

While considering to get a decent mpg from a petrol im gonna have to drive fairly conservatively.

The mondy seems to be getting the nod, heard of some common rail injector probs with these, how common is this?

My dads been on the blower tonight. He 'may' consider selling me his 05 plate vectra cdti 150 for 'about' 9k. Looks like a good potential offer to me.

[TW]Fox · 22 Dec 2006 at 23:16

rmuir said:
how so? get under 400 miles from a tank currently. Diesel Vectra would get me over 500 miles to a tank, for example. With my projected mileage i reckon thats a straight up saving

Have you actually worked out what that 'straight up saving' is?

Lets assume you drive without caring about economy and get 40mpg from a diesel and 30mpg from a petrol.

You would spend £78 a month on petrol and £62 a month on diesel.

15 quid a month, thereabouts. Why base a decision on the way you spend NINE THOUSAND POUNDS on whether you can save the price of a pizza every month?

rmuir · 22 Dec 2006 at 23:34

I worked out the straight up saving as something like 30-40 quid a month. I see what your saying fox. But i reckon driving without caring about ecnomony would get me figures of 26-28mpg in a petrol and 43-45 in diesel.

Whats the average mpg for a mondy 2l?

[TW]Fox · 22 Dec 2006 at 23:38

Even 30 quid a month is NOTHING when you are spending 9k on a car. I mean, its what, 360 quid a year? Big deal, its not even 5% of the purchase price!

MuvverRussia · 22 Dec 2006 at 23:43

That saving isn't taking into account the fact that diesels are often (considerably) more expensive to buy than their petrol counterparts. If you took this into account, you'd probably be a lot better off with a petrol if you're only doing 600 miles a month.

rmuir · 23 Dec 2006 at 10:02

Right.... worked out diesel would save me 40 quid a month, which over the proposed term of ownership, 5 years, saves me approx 2400 quid.

MuvverRussia · 23 Dec 2006 at 10:18

Worked out the additional cost of buying the diesel and maintaining it?

rmuir · 23 Dec 2006 at 10:20

MuvverRussia said:
Worked out the additional cost of buying the diesel and maintaining it?

Yep that was total cost of car over 5years, buying, servicing, insuring.

PMKeates · 23 Dec 2006 at 10:20

rmuir said:
Right.... worked out diesel would save me 40 quid a month, which over the proposed term of ownership, 5 years, saves me approx 2400 quid.

What MPG figures and you using? As that seems rather a lot.

rmuir · 23 Dec 2006 at 10:25

average 30mpg for petrol, 42 for diesel.

I can see where folks are coming from on this, honest. I have looked into Mondeo 2.0, 2.5 whereupon i find folk saying how harsh they are on fuel. What am i honestly looking at mpg wise for a 2.0/2.5 mondeo?

[TW]Fox · 23 Dec 2006 at 10:43

rmuir said:
average 30mpg for petrol, 42 for diesel.

Using those figures I make it £59 a month for diesel and £79 a month for petrol. This is a saving of £20 a month, or £240 a year, or just £1200 over the total 5 year period in FUEL alone.

This does NOT take into account the typical higher purchase price of a diesel. Given they can often be several thousand pounds more expensive for the equivilent age/spec car..