H7

I need another car to do an 80-mile daily roundtrip commute (combination of A roads and city driving) 'cos I can't afford to do it at 20mpg

Any suggestions? I guess I'm looking at diesel or autogas for best consumption but whatever it is needs to have good seats 'cos I don't want a bad back . Also, don't want to spend a fortune on buying it, so anything up to £10k second-hand considered.

Danny Fisher

Pug 306 DTurbo

Dan

Brun

I was gonna suggest that myself!

H7

Thanks guys. Sounds like a consensus! Any problems I should look out for?

Reffro

If you want the best ride to soothe the aching back a citroen xantia would be a good bet. But not much in the style stakes. Though I did see a 98 'S' reg 70k miles with history go for 2,000 quid at the aucitons yesterday...........

Mr evolution

you can also get a nice easy 130 bhp conversion for the 306 diesel's from most pug tuners. Gets you to sixty pretty quick in a diesel

Dracoro

So you're gonna spend 10k on another car that's a lot of petrol for 10k.

H7

Well, I do around 35k miles a year and my VR-4S gulps Optimax at around 20mpg . Optimax is around 79.9p/litre around here (£3.62/gallon) so I'd be the thick end of £6k a year on fuel to run this car exclusively. I know from the experience of running a Legacy RS-B (at around 25mpg) for 80k miles over the past 2½ years what it costs and also, more importantly, what loading it up with miles does to the residual value. If I can reduce the miles on the VR-4 by around 20k/year, then I'm likely to increase its potential residual value by around £5k over the 2½ years I'm likely to own it. That, coupled with the fuel saving of running a diesel and the relatively small money I'm likely to lose on a second-hand Pug (or whatever) made sense to me. If I'm missing anything, please let me know

[Edited by H7 - 8/13/2002 10:25:47 AM]

Reffro

The only thing to add I would say is to not spend more than £5k on whatever second car you are considering. The money you save in the lower depreciation on the VR4 (£5,000) would be lost if you spent £10k on a second car, as it will depreciate by the same £5,000 after you've put 40,000miles on it.

If you are going to do this, the second car should be cheaper than the amount you could save. This will guarantee you saving some money at least. Whatever you make back from the sale of the £5,000 car is your overall saving on the cost of depreciation. The fuel cost savings will also help go to covering the insurance costs for the second car, but if you buy cheaply enough the insurance should be buttons. Remember your no claims bonus is on the VR4, and cannot also be applied to the second car.

[Edited by Reffro - 8/13/2002 10:56:46 AM]

H7

Good advice, Reffro! Thanx m8.

Why isn't my NCB on me, rather than the car . I can only drive one at a time . Any insurance brokers care to comment?

[Edited by H7 - 8/13/2002 10:59:41 AM]

NotoriousREV

For an older fast-ish diesel, check out the Rover 220SDi, 0 - 60 in 9.5 and very quick at higher speeds (for a diesel) and still gets 50mpg. The only downside is that it's a Rover

father_jack

Forget diesels - you could get a brand new Suzuki swift for 5k with 3 years warranty - leccy windows and central locking. They do over 50 mpg. No reliability hassles, MOTs or costs over 3 years. Will probably get back half what you paid in 3 years time too.
Other option is a Mini One, twice the price, but £100 for 3 years servicing and top residuals.

Reffro

Suzuki's are no good on the comfort side of things I'm afraid father jack, H7 has or doesn't want a bad back. One last thing I will say on this, if you have any spare time on a Saturday and can get to North London, meet me at the auctions one day and you can see some awesome bargains and get used to the lingo they use and the pace of the sales, maybe get yourself a cheap orphan to abuse and save yourself some cash in the long run.
H7 you want to talk at length on the good the bad and the ugly of what would be involved, drop me a line at refropatton@hotmail.com with your telephone number, and I can bend your ear for as long as you can stand.

[Edited by Reffro - 8/13/2002 3:32:20 PM]

mattstant

can confirm the old d turbo has excellent seats as i used to have one

father_jack

My ex' Swift was fairly comfy I thought.
Could always put a Recaro in it for a couple of hundred quid - look pretty bloody stupid tho.

Paul78

I've been reading this with interest as I posted a similar thread a few weeks ago, and have in the interim period found a 3Dr S Plate in Black 1.9TD with 28 000 on the clock, full Pug history for £6500 from a dealer. They will do a straight swop for my my g -friends 1.6 Zetec Focus on a W - plate with a/c etc in Black ( 37 000m ).. What do you think guys ?????

Doing approx 100miles a day.

Cheers,

P

( Don't you love this forum )

Reffro

Paul78 I'd sell the Focus privately, and go back to do the deal for cash. That deal looks far to biased towards the trader again drop me a telephone number to my e-mail address and I can give you some advice if you like.

Paul78

YHM Reffro

bros2

Get an old Saab 9000. Not diesel, but my runabout cost £1350 (excluding the mental brakes) and does 35mpg, which is pretty close to the diesels. Where they really score is round town rather than open roads.

The Saab won't really depreciate any more (it's got 138k on it now) and it's still reasonably fun to drive. Get a good one and you'll love it - fantastic seats, loads of room, dead reliable. But don't get a turbo, cos then you'll only thrash it, thus obviating the potential fuel saving.

bros

Zero7

H7,

I was in a similar situation not so long ago, hence I choose a BMW 5 series, I was doing 140 miles a day, no problem, total comfort, nice car for long m-way trips, v.good chassis for country roads too. Well it's for sale now as I've changed jobs, if your interested let me know. Plus I did a 189 mile trip the other day from Newcastle and averaged 34 mpg, not bad for a 2.5 litre.

H7

Zero7,
Thanks, but I think I'm looking for something that'll give me 50+ mpg in reasonable comfort. I appreciate the offer of the BM and running a non-turbo 2.5 litre does have its attraction, but I think I need to stick to the main reason for thinking about another car and go for frugality . Thanks for the interest though

Reffro,
YHM

Rich D

iTrader: (12)

Well, if you're going for a Pug diesel (good choice) then get a 2.0 HDi engined one as oppossed to the 1.9 turbo, as the HDi is a cracking engine and has more power/torque, but quieter & smoother.

The last of the 306's were basically GTi replica's with the HDi diesel in and came with 1/2 leather seats, aircon, ABS, leccy windows, etc... (fully loaded) and you will get a mint one from a dealer with warranty for within your budget.

Was looking at these for my Mum, but she ended up with the 206 diesel (1.9) instead as I found one cheap. Engine is not as good as the 2.0 HDi though.

Actually, you could get a 206 HDi for that money too...


[Edited by Rich D - 8/12/2002 10:54:22 PM]