Advice needed please - Need to purchase a car

[bodminman]

Hi there,

Currently the missus has a newish Suzuki Swift and I have a moped.

 

However two things have happened recently that have pushed me towards getting a car to replace my moped. 1) When going into town on Monday (via country lanes) some idiot came flying around a corner on my side of the road and whilst manouvering to avoid a probable crash, I still came off the bike and inherited some bruises. Could have been far worse! 2) The missus is pregnant so will need more space than the Suzuki offers. Especially at weekends when we want to all (2 adults and a seven year old) want to go shopping or even just for a day out!

 

So I want to get a motor that will do my daily commute of 20 miles (although in the summer I may still use the moped) and some weekend mileage.

 

My issue really is working out whether of not a diesel is worth getting based on this amount of mileage!?! What do you think?

 

Also, the cars I'm looking at are:

 

Vetra 2.0 Dti

Peugeot 406 HDi Estate

 

Both offer good mpg, are cheap to maintain and can easily picked up for about £1k.

 

Any advice from the fellow Geekers would be greatly appreciated!

[Guest Guest]

With them sort of miles I'm thinking its six and two threes on whether a diesel will work out cheaper. I can't really see it being a bad thing so personally I would pay more attention to what condition the motor is in. If you can to change the cam belt or get tyres all round for example, any potential saving by it being a diesel will be wiped out.

 

If you can get a diesel i the car you want and in the condition to want then go for it but if you can't just get the petrol, unless you have a heavy right foot it really wont make much difference.

 

What about the mondeo? Again cheap car to buy and maintain.

 

//Edit. Read that at 20 miles each way to work. I'd probably sway towards a petrol if I'm honest but as said just go for a good condition car and it really isn't going to make any difference.

Edited February 17, 2012 by Guest

[bashy]

Question when does the milage begin to swing towards diesel?

[bodminman]

Question when does the milage begin to swing towards diesel?

 

I heard somewhere that it takes about 10 miles of driving for the economy of diesel to come through. I also heard that for every 6k miles you'll save just over £100 in fuel if you have a diesel!

[36Degrees]

I heard somewhere that it takes about 10 miles of driving for the economy of diesel to come through. I also heard that for every 6k miles you'll save just over £100 in fuel if you have a diesel!

 

It depends very much on the make and model. I looked on Parkers to get specific MPG figures for various cars and then used an Excel spreadsheet to calculate the savings based on MPG and the then cost of petrol and diesel per litre. When I then factored in the purchase price of the petrol and diesel equivalents of what car I wanted I ended buying another petrol car.

[3s-gtech]

406 HDi is a good old lugger, same with the older XUD engined 1.9 and 2.1 DT. Better car than the Vectra IMO.

[Steve21]

I heard somewhere that it takes about 10 miles of driving for the economy of diesel to come through. I also heard that for every 6k miles you'll save just over £100 in fuel if you have a diesel!

 

Silly question, but is that 10 miles "per drive", or in total? e.g. Does it need to be a single trip of over 10miles If that makes sense.

 

Thanks,

Steve

[bodminman]

I've just done a rough calc based on a 1.8 Vectra petrol against a 2.0 Vectra diesel and although you're paying approx 7% more per ltr/gal for diesel, the diesel 2.0ltr should be returning about 19% more mileage to the ltr/gal.

[bodminman]

Silly question, but is that 10 miles "per drive", or in total? e.g. Does it need to be a single trip of over 10miles If that makes sense.

 

Thanks,

Steve

 

The diesels return the economy when the engine is warm and I'd heard that it takes about 10 miles for the engine to start warming up. Therefore at the warming up point at around 10 miles of driving you should start seeing your average mpg increase. Hope that makes sense!