Spec me, cheap to run daily

[Uncle_Gravy]

Not a fan of doing these kinds of threads as it's a great excuse for a good old fashioned OcUK Motors ripping session, and rightly so.

So i'm looking to downgrade my Current car 2.4i Honda Accord to something much cheaper to run, I have spouted that my car can indeed do 40+ mpg but you have to work for it, plus cost of maintenance/servicing makes me wish I had my old 1.2 clio as that was pennies to run haha.

Drove my old girls new shape 0.9T Nissan Micra into work today and without trying the trip is indicating near enough 60mpg (I know the trip computers are mighty generous with their readings, but if I drove my car normally i'd be lucky to see mid 30s on the trip)

-£3k max
-Petrol
-I will be doing 12k miles a year, Which includes small blasts of M4/dually, mostly town and city driving.
-As fuel efficent as possible for the criteria/cheap to run
-I'd like it to have "some" poke to it, so something that can do the 60 run in less then 10seconds
-Would like to keep it lightweight to aide in decent poke and decent fuel economy, so hatchback preferred.

So far the only car I can think of that meets the criteria is a 1.2tce Renault Twingo, So be interested what you all come up with.


Please go easy on me :')

 

[Rilot]

The Accord is going to be pretty reliable isn't it? At £3k you are going to be trading a reliable car that isn't great on fuel for a total unknown quantity that could be a money pit.
Personally, at that budget I'd keep the Accord.

I wouldn't go anywhere near a Renault. How about a Jazz? Mega reliable, tons of them around and good on fuel.

 

[MrRockliffe]

Probably want something with a turbo if you want sub 10s to 60. For a fiesta, only a 125ps version of the 1L ecoboost will do that, and you'd be looking at 5K+. Having said that, the standard 100ps ecoboost is plenty quick enough on a motorway.

Any of the Jap cars interest you? Not sure if any of them meet your criteria of nippy

 

[Howard]

The Accord is going to be pretty reliable isn't it? At £3k you are going to be trading a reliable car that isn't great on fuel for a total unknown quantity that could be a money pit.
Personally, at that budget I'd keep the Accord.

I wouldn't go anywhere near a Renault. How about a Jazz? Mega reliable, tons of them around and good on fuel.

Agreed.

Although if pushed to make the change, I think I'd rather have a diesel engine in a bigger car than a petrol engine in a tiny city car.

 

[sovietspybob]

Could get a suzuki swift sport for that money? You might be able to just get in to a mk3, we have a 2012 and it's a decent little car and i think worth around the 3 grand mark now, probably more like 45mpg though (the trip computer says 50+)

 

[Psycho Sonny]

an old petrol civic. however 60 in less than 10 may be an issue.

you cannot get everything you want on a £3K budget.

with your budget being so low and you wanting to save money on fuel i therefore think speed should be the least of your worries.

 

[Uncle_Gravy]

Believe it or not, my Accord (2009, 8th gen) is not as well built as our old Accord (2003, 7th gen), few rattles few squeaks, I believe i've got the drive shaft issue that seems to plague the 8th and causes a very violent vibration under acceleration, no clue how much that is going to cost, probably a lot.

Then there is maintenance/servicing costs, an independant wanted upwards of £400 to do a full service which I thought was bonkers considering it costed me less to service my old 3.0i Z4, main cause of that was the spark plugs were like £130 for the set, crazy.

I need to get some tyres after the new year, they're not cheap, I'm looking at £100 a tyre for something half decent.

Tax is on the high end of the scale.
It all adds up.


Basically my justification for this downsizing is i've spent most of my dosh on crap over the years with nothing to show, I have nothing backed away financially for myself and now i've got to the stage where I really should do something about it, I'm in a fortunate position where I still live home with parents and don't have many bills to pay, so i need to capitalise on that while I still can. So i'm making changes to my life to help me out in the future, and changing the car that's only going to be commuting to and from work is one of them.

Enough of my rambling.

Fiesta Ecoboost, I did check and was hoping to see some of them making it within budget but they're not quite there yet unfortunately.

I had a Jazz for a day while the old accord was in for a recall, Considering it was over 10 years newer than my old mk2 1.2 clio, it was a horrible dull thing to drive, rolled in the corners, really did not spur any confidence, The only good thing I could have said about it was, it was deceivingly spaceous inside and a perfect car for a OAP.

Never driven a Swift but always toyed with the idea of trying one out, Need to research how good they are on fuel.

with your budget being so low and you wanting to save money on fuel i therefore think speed should be the least of your worries.

I do understand this, But I thought I was being quite generous with the whole less than 10s to 60 thing, I normally see people with similar budgets and criteria ask for sub 8! But! As i've researched, it is bloody hard to find something that's actually close to what i'm after, thus why i can only think of one car, so maybe I have to scrap that criteria off the list.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

it's £3k though. if you really want power, reliability and mpg you need to up your budget considerably. £3K is scraping the barrel. personally i'd just keep the current car if it's reliable because 1 bill on any new car will wipe out all the mpg savings and then some.

 

[Vita]

Toyota Yaris or corolla.

 

[Uncle_Gravy]

Personally i'd just keep the current car if it's reliable because 1 bill on any new car will wipe out all the mpg savings and then some.

I know this is the logical solution, and I must be honest I probably will just end up keeping the car anyway as I do enjoy driving it, the 2.4i engine is fun to rev out, the armchairs in there keep me super comfortable.

This thread was really to scope out what cars are out there that may fit what i'm after, If I actually become serious and downsize.

 

[Gibbo]

If your happy with upto 40mpg on a run, don't mind something older and lacking toys but won't lose you much cash and though it will break down it won't cost much when it does maybe look at something like a very clean example of a Clio 172/182, plenty of poke, fantastic handling.

Otherwise get something newer, less power that can do 50-60mpg on a run but has around 100HP, still not so bad but not pokey or anywhere near as fun a Renaultsport car.

 

[Uncle_Gravy]

If your happy with upto 40mpg on a run, don't mind something older and lacking toys but won't lose you much cash and though it will break down it won't cost much when it does maybe look at something like a very clean example of a Clio 172/182, plenty of poke, fantastic handling.

Otherwise get something newer, less power that can do 50-60mpg on a run but has around 100HP, still not so bad but not pokey or anywhere near as fun a Renaultsport car.

Only car I can think of is the 1.2 turbo Twingo, 100bhp/114 ft-lb, weighs less than 1000kg, so it's got some poke to it for a small engine and should be good on fuel.

Always wanted a Clio 1*2, after owning my old mk2 1.2 16v for so long, Loved the car so much, it was nippy around the corners, Issue with that is i'd be gutted when some inconsiderate plank opens their door into mine in the works carpark, and usual 12k miles a year worth of wear and tear on the body work, My Accord used to be in such nice condition bodywise, now it's "meh" condition at best with all the little parking dings it's got.

 

[Gibbo]

Only car I can think of is the 1.2 turbo Twingo, 100bhp/114 ft-lb, weighs less than 1000kg, so it's got some poke to it for a small engine and should be good on fuel.

Always wanted a Clio 1*2, after owning my old mk2 1.2 16v for so long, Loved the car so much, it was nippy around the corners, Issue with that is i'd be gutted when some inconsiderate plank opens their door into mine in the works carpark, and usual 12k miles a year worth of wear and tear on the body work, My Accord used to be in such nice condition bodywise, now it's "meh" condition at best with all the little parking dings it's got.

It is all down to care, my Clio 172 Cup was immaculate, I sold it a short while ago for just short of £6000 to a collector, even he was like the inside arches are rust free which is a surprise, hence he paid the money for it.

You can easily find a very clean 172/182 with relatively low miles and perfect body work for your budget, you may even scrap a high miles 172 Cup, but I'd not recommend it as though for sure it won't lose money, maybe appreciate as a daily driver you do need air conditioning, hence my suggestion of ideally a Clio 182 would be perfect. You can also get the Clio 197/200 for same money, which have an incredible front-end, but for reasons unknown as its same engine the fuel economy is much worse which I presume is engine mapping and the fact they weigh around 1250kg, whereas the 172/182's were under 1100kg.

 

[sovietspybob]

A mate of mine had a 172 about a year ago and only sold that for around a grand after he didn't get on it with at all, it was nice and tidy with just over 100k on it. It is doable but having owned a 197 i wouldn't want a 172/182 myself as the 197 felt like it was starting to fall to bits when we sold that a while back at only 8 years old.

 

[Fluke?]

Yaris Sr 1.8? Doubt mpg is all that great though..

 

[rodenal]

I know it's easy to get hung up on mpg but our fiesta (which probably sits right in the price range you're talking about) isn't really worlds apart better than my Focus ST in relatively low speed, but flowing town type driving (i.e traffic lights, relatively long roads 30/40mph) - it'll struggle to achieve much more than 30mpg where the Focus is doing low 20's in a similar scenario. Give it a better run and it'll sit at over 40mpg where mine will be 30ish but you could end up in something you hate for little real world benefit depending on the car.

 

[bainbridge]

I'd keep the Accord. You obviously like it, once you get the driveshaft issue sorted tyres etc are consumables you'd get on any car. Unless you get something substantially newer which will give you more performance and mpg for less fuel I reckon you should stick with what you have.

 

[.:MBK:.]

Then there is maintenance/servicing costs, an independant wanted upwards of £400 to do a full service which I thought was bonkers considering it costed me less to service my old 3.0i Z4, main cause of that was the spark plugs were like £130 for the set, crazy.

If those are the same ones they use on the gen 8 Civic then upside at least is they are long life ones, 6 year/75k service item on the Civic from memory.

 

[Uncle_Gravy]

If those are the same ones they use on the gen 8 Civic then upside at least is they are long life ones, 6 year/75k service item on the Civic from memory.

Yeah, they are the long life super duper special ones, so that's a plus I don't have to mess with them for a long time.

I'd keep the Accord. You obviously like it, once you get the driveshaft issue sorted tyres etc are consumables you'd get on any car. Unless you get something substantially newer which will give you more performance and mpg for less fuel I reckon you should stick with what you have.

I do love the car, its super comfortable, its fun to throw around and the K24 engine loves to sing out to 7200rpm when I have that urge to be naughty.


Like I said few posts back, I'll most likely keep the car as I do like it, It was exactly what I was after when I needed a "new" car, I just made this thread to gauge what kind of cars are there for the budget that offer what i'm after if I do feel the need to get rid of the Accord.

 

[[TW]Fox]

On a 3k car the cheif determinate of running costs is going to be reliability rather than fuel consumption.

On this basis I would go for something like a Honda Accord.