Suggestions for quality economical motor

wonder_lander · 2 Apr 2006 at 12:26

Current car is 1.8T 02 Reg Passat SE with 82k on it.

This car was bought as a stop gap I was getting a BMW X5 for £5k as a thankyou from a family member. Unfortunately a snowy road and double barrell roll led the X5 being written off so that's no longer on offer!

Having had the Passat for 4 months now I've decided to take a look around at what else is around as it's proving quite expensive to run.

Things I like about the Passat.
Nice quality feel
Comfort
Not bad to look at in standard form
Climate Control, heated seats and door mirrors!

Things I want to improve on:
mpg. I do 100 miles a day from J15 of the M6 into Warrington. Currently get 30 - 31 from a tank. This means about £50 every 4 days
service intervals - the passat needs doing every 10k which obviously comes up quite quickly

I'm not a badge snob amd have obviously considered a mondeo so what else.

Car does 25k mile per year and I'll be keeping it for the next 3years, insurance isn't an issue as I'm old

Budget is around 5 - 6k

[TW]Fox · 2 Apr 2006 at 18:20

Something like a Passat TDi if you like your Passat or a Mondeo TDCi. Difficult budget this - won't get some of the nicer new competitors to the Mondeo and Passat like the new Accord and the Mazda6.

Before you do it though, do your sums. I would be very suprised if you make massive savings by changing car - I'm assuming that by expensive to run you mean its costing a lot in fuel becuase most of the other costs of running a Passat 1.8T would apply equally to another car of the same size and I cannot see insurance being an issue for somebody like yourself.

The other day, for example (When working out certain scenarios for a few months time), I calculated that the difference in fuel costs running a 30mpg petrol v a 40mpg diesel over 24,000 miles would be approximately £600. Worth changing car for? Only you can answer that

Axeboy · 2 Apr 2006 at 18:24

Agree with Mr Fox...

Probably best keeping it.

Other options however:

Seat Toledo TDi
VW Bora TDi
Octavia TDi
406 2.2/2.0 HDi

wonder_lander · 2 Apr 2006 at 19:26

Your 600 per year figure looks about bob on from looking at it quickly.

Apart from the fuel though I was hoping that a diesel would have slightly longer service intervals, my previous 406 HDi was every 20k

[TW]Fox · 2 Apr 2006 at 19:54

wonder_lander said:
Your 600 per year figure looks about bob on from looking at it quickly.

Apart from the fuel though I was hoping that a diesel would have slightly longer service intervals, my previous 406 HDi was every 20k

Traditionally it's been the other way round. I'm very suprised the 406 HDi is 20k, I was pretty sure it was half that.

See what I'd do is perhaps consider an older 525TDS, drop it on some 18's and fit a Sport pack... oh dear, I'm becoming worryingly Penski-like :eek:

Plus the 525TDS is a bit... old-school-diesel.

v0n · 2 Apr 2006 at 19:54

[TW]Fox said:
The other day, for example (When working out certain scenarios for a few months time), I calculated that the difference in fuel costs running a 30mpg petrol v a 40mpg diesel over 24,000 miles would be approximately £600. Worth changing car for? Only you can answer that

You calculated it wrong then.
A 30 mpg car to cover 24,000 miles would need 3637 litres of fuel
A 40 mpg car, to cover 24,000 miles would need 2728 litres of fuel

That's 909 litre difference. Or About £850. Or roughly £71 a month in fuel bills.

I chose diesel, not because I thought it would sell it for more after I'm ready to part with it, but because I knew the fact I had extra money when choosing a car didn't mean I would have £70 every month to feed it's petrol alternative...

[TW]Fox · 2 Apr 2006 at 19:56

v0n said:
You calculated it wrong then.
A 30 mpg car to cover 24,000 miles would need 3637 litres of fuel

Going by fuel price at my local garage.... £3237 (89.9)

A 40 mpg car, to cover 24,000 miles would need 2728 litres of fuel

£2537 (93.9)

Which is £699. So half way between our respective figures

v0n · 2 Apr 2006 at 20:03

Difference between petrol and diesel where I live is 0.02 pence unless there is some sort of fuel crisis. Plus you'd expect large diesel to do more like 47-50 mpg. But yeah, that's the figures - 60-70 quid less on fuel every month, longer service intervals (for me, switching to petrol almera would mean 3 garage visit instead of twice a year) and stops more often on my long journeys as fuel tank capacity is the same for petrol and diesel models.

Enfield · 2 Apr 2006 at 20:05

I have no idea as to how much a Passat TDi costs but my dad has one (company car) on a 04 plate.

It doesn't have that quality feel to it but it feels well put together with no rattles but has the usual wind noise that creeps in through the window seals.

The seats are very uncomfortable. After about 30 mins my backside begins to hurt. Went to Blackburn with him not long ago, (I live in Hampshire so it was a very long way) and I will never do that again lol - the pain :eek:

He doesn't seem to have a problem with the seats though, (maybe I just have a boney arse

) and it can get 600 miles out of a full tank of fuel. :eek:

Demon · 2 Apr 2006 at 20:36

I think it also depends on your driving style, and commuting route..

It's all very easy to pluck figures out as examples, as they can be tailored to your argument very easily, although I agree Fox's aren't a million miles off.

But looking at the difference between a 1.8T 02 Passat and the TDi 130 on combined figures, it's 14MPG difference, another 40% on top of the savings listed..

And then Petrol/Diesel Prices fluctuate, as can be seen, just 1 or 2 pence per litre increase can make a big difference..

You are looking at saving around £700-£1000 a year easily if you are commuting 100 miles a day + leisure mileage...

As mentioned, your budget and criteria do make alternatives difficult.. you can get a Passat 02 TDI 130 with 50K for 5695 on autotrader, yours should be worth 4.5K looking at prices on there as well, so just over 1G to change, and you would recoup this in 18 months easily, if not sooner.. then after that it is saving you money..

If that's correct, it seems if you are going to be commuting for the next 2-3 years at least, then it does make sense to change..

9designs2 · 2 Apr 2006 at 20:47

I would suggest keeping with the VAG group, and getting one of there diesels.
Depreciation on a Toledo is high so some great "bargains" to be had. I had a 99V plate. for 3 years. 1.9tdi 110bhp, rock solid car, once I put it on Cupra 16" wheels.

I also do 100 miles a day, after it was nicely run in, IE around 50K miles :eek:

would easily clear 600 miles on a tank.... over 50mpg
Service interval every 10K for oil, major service falls every 20K.

Changed it to a Leon Cupra Tdi 150, wanted a bit more performance when I changed, it's only done 20K, so still loosening off, mileage is around 550 a tank, but then I do "drive" it a little different

wonder_lander · 2 Apr 2006 at 21:31

I don't mind moving the budget if it's worthwhile to trade up just don't really want to be pushing too near to 10k

It's about 3p more expensive for diesel here so that plays apart.

Looks like I'll hold onto the Passat for a bit and see what happens...thanks for the advice guys, given me something to think about!