What uber-economical banger?

Kitchster_uk

Kitchster_uk

Kitchster_uk

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
5,060
Location
The remittance desk
Well, I just got promoted at work ( :D ) and thus should be over-joyed. However....

I work about 4 miles from home and the GTO isn't an issue for the 40 miles to and from work plus another 50 or so miles leisure driving at the very respectable 18mpg I seem to return. Havoing just got a job 25 miles from home, 3 gallon of petrol a day isn't viable, even after pay rise. I am therefore thinking about something to run about in. The criteria are as follows:

Nothing dinky - Corsa/Punto/Paxo are off the menu.
I want an engine in it. Maybe a derv, maybe a petrol, we are aiming for post 35 mpg.

I've thought of:

Mondeo Mk1 - cheap n cheerful
Xantia diesel - spawn of satan 's ugliest child but hey, 55mpg.
Rover 600 - fun with turbo???
Volvo tank
Saab 9000

Any other suggestions? I don't wanna spend more than £500 as I'm moving and getting marrried and want to keep the loon-mobile.

Cheers
 
2 litre Mondeo, cruise at 75, 40mpg.

But do the maths, you are not going that much further than me every day and it's only costing me another 30 quid a month or so in the 530i.
 
My mate had a saab 9000 that refused to die. Rad car.

He was given it and ran it for about six months without spending hardly a penny on it, only your normal consumables like bulbs and whatnots, and he didn't look after it in the slightest. I can't remember why he got rid of it, I think he just wanted another car, but it may have failed its MOT. No idea what on, if it did.
 
Xantia without a doubt, you’ll pick up a newer model with more kit than any of the others, and if you go with a diesel engine you’ll get a nice refined engine (if you can find it the 2.1 turbo diesel is brilliant, but unfortunately it’s quite rare). Plus even on the base models you get air con and velour seats.

If I was you I’d look out for a 1997 1.9TD LX, for £500 you could probably pick one up with around 100,000 miles. Before buying a Xantia make sure you check the suspension, poorly maintained hydropneumatic suspension will cause you trouble, but as long as the spheres and LHM fluid have been changed when needed you should be fine.
 
Last edited:
austinpowers said:
The Isuzu engine, non of this low blow gm rubbish ;)
Click to expand...

Yup - it's an absolutely fantastic engine.

Service it semi-regularly and it'll go on well past 300k with no problems.

50mpg on the motorway too.

*n
 
penski said:
Yup - it's an absolutely fantastic engine.

Service it semi-regularly and it'll go on well past 300k with no problems.

50mpg on the motorway too.

*n
Click to expand...

Yep, my uber tight-fisted boss raves about this engine. He had an Astra estate with one and rated it highly in terms of MPG. Apparently when above-moderately thrashed it'd return ~45mpg. Can't be bad. Bomb proof too.
 
danza said:
Yep, my uber tight-fisted boss raves about this engine. He had an Astra estate with one and rated it highly in terms of MPG. Apparently when above-moderately thrashed it'd return ~45mpg. Can't be bad. Bomb proof too.
Click to expand...

My 'rents old one used to drop to 40mpg.

...If you CANED it.

*n
 
The Isuzu engine in my Astra was great,used less than a litre of oil between 20k services upto 138k when the turbo failed, but thats the turbo not the engine...

Mine was the Dti 16v version, but still mananged 39+ with me driving it :D
 
austinpowers said:
The Isuzu engine in my Astra was greatl,used less than a litre of oil between 20k services upto 138k when the turbo failed, but thats the turbo not the engine...

Mine was the Dti 16v version, but still mananged 39+ with me driving it :D
Click to expand...

Yup - the extra eight valves lose you 1mpg ;)

*n (getting pervy thoughts about a 1.5TD Nova with a 1.7 16v transplant...)
 
i abuse a 1.7td cavalier on a daily basis, stuck in town traffic, 2nd gear for 2 hours a day it gets me 41mpg.. it also seems to get 41mpg when being thrashed along a motorway :)

as said, the Isuzu engine is way better than the vauxhall unit, it's more reliable, faster, smokes less and drinks less.. it makes around 85bhp standard but if you're a bit of an animal you can modify the boost system to get closer to 1bar from it, which'll give you about 110bhp

word of advice though, if you're taller than 6foot get a high spec one.. mine's an LS model (borderline poverty spec) which means i can't adjust the height of the steering wheel, which means that after an hour sat in the thing i start to get backache

:)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom