What should i get? 07/08 diesel for high mpg

HyperSonic

HyperSonic

HyperSonic

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Joined
18 Oct 2002
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564
Location
Lincoln
Hi guys, hope you can help me get through the mire that is used cars :confused:

At the minute i'm driving a petrol 1.6 focus style (as in the title - it has shocking milage) - but as i do a lot of motorway driving i'm looking to trade it in for a diesel (doing at least 1000 miles a month on the motorways in 100+ mile stints)

i'm basically looking for the best mileage i can get in a similar sized car without having to put any more cash to it than i'll be getting for selling the focus (i imagine around £4750). Must have some boot space and room enough for 2 car seats.

i've seen Renault Megane 1.5 DCI 07/57 plates for £4400 and they're apparently good for 60+ mpg, are they any good in reality?

any other recommendations?

cheers guys - i think i'll need it :p
 
1000 miles a month is 12k a year.. do you do lots of other mileage as well?

The trouble with buying stuff like £4k diesel Renaults is that you'll rapidly start spending your savings on repair bills instead. Whereas your Focus is mechanically very simple and cheap to fix.

Motoring costs money - often by moving to do another car all you really do is shift the balance of costs rather than reduce them.
 
i do other mileage too, but the bulk of it is made up of these trips - say 15-16 k a year.

are renaults particularly bad older cars? the ones i have seen only have 50k on the clock - will be cheaper tax and insurance too
 
a friend of mine has a 1.6 focus and does a lot of motorway miles too. he gets over 400 miles to a tank and is probably getting 40mpg-ish out of it. seams to be pretty economical, so i cant see you saving a huge amount over 12k swapping to a diesel. What are your figures like?
 
mysticsniper said:
You can pick up a Skoda Fabia 1.9 TDI PD 130 VRS 5dr Diesel Hatchback for £4.5k with 45k on the clock. Not sure about the high mpg thou ;)
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Or alternatively theres the PD100 versions of the 1.9TDi fabia or even the rediculously economical 1.4TDi all of which would cost less to buy. I'm currently averaging around 57mpg since ive had my PD100 polo on similar mileage per year so I'd imagine a Fabia would get similar
 
wildman_33 said:
Or alternatively theres the PD100 versions of the 1.9TDi fabia or even the rediculously economical 1.4TDi all of which would cost less to buy. I'm currently averaging around 57mpg since ive had my PD100 polo on similar mileage per year so I'd imagine a Fabia would get similar
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might see if i can get the fabia 1.4TDi greenline, seen some going for 6k (saw one for 5k, but probably gone)
 
I wouldn't want to do 15k miles a year in a 1.5Dci Megane, that's for sure.

Nice enough car if you do 6K or less a year, but beyond that they are a bit flimsy, road handling/noise isn't great and the 1.5 DCi engine will feel underpowered (assuming the 80BHP version).

I had the 1.9DCi 130 for 3 years and although little went wrong (needed a new clutch in year 2 @ 80k miles), I paid £3100 for it and got near enough that trade-in for it after 3 years. I also only did approx 7k miles a year in it (yes I know, doesn't warrant a diesel etc etc, I had my reasons).

Although the car did me well, I got it for a good price and really cannot recommend it for that kind of mileage, you want somewhere comfy and refined, the seats are flimsy and the cabin rattles, go for an older/less specced larger car imo.
 
HyperSonic said:
might see if i can get the fabia 1.4TDi greenline, seen some going for 6k (saw one for 5k, but probably gone)
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If you saw one that was £1,000 too cheap (which is still more then your budget) it was almost certainly a nail.

Don't aim at a car that's outside your price range. All that'll happen is you'll either end up spending more then you wanted to or you'll end up with a car that's going cheap because it's a dog.
 
Why are you only looking at small hatchbacks?

I get better MPG out of my Passat than I ever did with the Megane! Even though it's heavier and has more power!

Insurance is about the same for both.

You do quite a few miles per year, I would want to be in a nice car.

I also wouldn't assume that smaller engined car always = much cheaper insurance premiums.

Personally I find there is little difference between say a 1.5 Megane and a 2.0 Passat for me. Try it out and see before assuming that's the only way you can go.
 
K.C. Leblanc said:
If you saw one that was £1,000 too cheap (which is still more then your budget) it was almost certainly a nail.

Don't aim at a car that's outside your price range. All that'll happen is you'll either end up spending more then you wanted to or you'll end up with a car that's going cheap because it's a dog.
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agreed, it just looked too good to be true, it was actually around £1500 cheaper, with nothing in the ad to explain why.
 
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