springbok

Well after nearly 9 years of having my W plate UK 2000 Turbo, the mpg had started to grind too much.

I used to do contract work abroad, so the Impreza was only used 3-4 months of the year. As such fuel economy wasn't an issue.
I'm back in the UK now in a "normal" job. I travel from Plymouth to Bristol for work now roughly 4-5 times a month.
So the quest started for a replacement with better mpg, and the outcome surprised even me.
First looked at A3 TDi's, the older ones are pretty plain looking but OK for a motorway muncher.
I tried an A3 sportline with all the gadgets. I found it quite "crashy" even on the motorway, not what I'd call a comfortable cruiser.

And this is where I surprised myself and started looking at 3 series BMW's!!!! I know not another one :-)
Anyway long story short I ended up with a 07 320D SE as below. Also tried the M sport version but it felt crashy to me, similar to the A3 sportline.
It only had 4,800 miles on the clock, not even run in for a 07 plate.
It was immaculate, no scratches or dings apart from one very very small mark on the number plate. It really was in "as new" condition.
At the time it was the lowest mileage 07 in the country and luckily the dealer was only 20 miles away from me.

I have had it since Oct 09. It does what I need for me, and that is get from A to B on the motorway without having to crawl along and return a good mpg.
We did a run from Plymouth to Blackpool and back 3 weeks ago. Taking it easy (family trip) and including a fair amount of 50mph average cameras, it managed 50 mpg with ease.
My current long term mpg is 47 mpg (75% motorway), and trust me that isn't driving like miss daisy :-)

Who knows maybe an evolve remap / switch will be on the cards sometime this year, that'll take it from 163 to 200BHP, not far off what the standard UK turbo gave me.
Other than that the RFT's are coming off when they are below limit for normal tyres.




As well as getting rid of the Impreza, we had a knackered R plate Renault Scenic as a "shopping trolly".
We chopped this in on scrappage as it was really knackered, MOT was due in April and it needed a lot of work. We paid £1800 for it 4 years ago, spent £400 on repairs. So getting £2K for it now on scrappage against a new car was the best option for it.
Wife decided on the new shape VW Polo which we picked up last week.
It's a nice little run about, only a 1.2 engine but fine for around town etc. Really like the exterior looks and the interior is very nice for a car in this class.

Matteeboy

Splendid car! Agree with the M Sport thing - too crashy for most although non RFT tyres do help.

Scoobychick

iTrader: (1)

Hello Grahame We're also going down the diesel route - a Skoda Octavia vRS CR TDi is currently on order with delivery expected May/June It has 170bhp and we'll be looking at 45-ish mpg hopefully (49mpg combined claimed by Skoda). Lovely A secondhand BMW 320D was on my original shortlist (as was a Disco D3) but our company, in their wisdom, decided that we couldn't opt out of the company car scheme so we had to have a brand new car.

Mick

iTrader: (1)

New polo looks great - esp in red

Did you try the new fiesta to compare?

Cheers

Mick

springbok

Hey Chick how's it going.
I saw your thread on your search for many different cars, did you test drive every make in the end?
At least your Octavia has some WRC street cred.
That photo you had of the new shape Octavia on the forecourt looks like it should have 2 blue lights in the grill

springbok

It does look smart in the Flame Red colour.
It reminds me of the MKI and MKII Gti's in Tornado red.
Red with a bit of black trim in a VW is always a winner IMHO.
Although the candy white option seems to be popular in the Polo at the moment.

My wife did test drive the Fiesta back to back with the new Polo.
She liked the drive of both and the looks of both externally.
Externally though the Polo will grow old gracefully, where as the Fiesta will look quite out of date in 4-5 years IMHO.
The interior is so much better on the Polo, more grown up and sensible I guess.
The Fiesta's centre radio buttons are designed to look like a mobile phone keypad, and look nasty to me.
The seats were rock hard as well compared to the Polo.
That's Old folk (38 and 40) for you I guess


To be honest the Polo would have taken a lot of beating for my wife as we have had MkII and MKIII golfs before.
When she jumped in the Polo she was "at home" as she described it, so at that point the Fiesta had no chance.

Mick

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for posting

Interesting write up and useful comments.

Scoobychick

iTrader: (1)

Hey Spring It's going well

That's one of the reasons I'm happy with the Skoda, because of its rallying credentials Skoda also just got a 1, 2, 3 finish on Rally Argentina in the IRC albeit with the Fabia S2000, but still, if it means I can buy a Skoda umbrella it's cool with me