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Even on a 10 hour trip down from Elgin to Droitwich we sat on the motorway @ 70mph for a good few hours and the best then was 45mpg.
Are you carrying breeze blocks? Took son down to Glasgow, so three adults of us in car and all loaded too, about 46 and 48 mpg for both legs of the trip. What the hell are you doing ? !! seriously!
And that's the Mk. II Octavia, not the more recent with blue technology..
Legnum - Jap Import of the Galant - plenty change from 5k to spend on the petrol for it.
Got to be the VR4 version though. I was having a mild disagreement with a mutual friend about manual vs automatic. I think manual, he thinks auto. He's wrong.
Still: £2-3k, 280+bhp, 0-60 in 5.5s, acres of space in the boot - it's a good shout. Horrendous on fuel though.
Our 4motion tiguan that has the aerodynamics of a brick will average 50mpg on a long road cruise.
As someone else said here - 4 to 5 long trips a year. I'd be looking to a hire car.
I have a diesel that does 15K a year. Although almost all motorway trips - never had a egr/dpf issue with the last 3 cars.
For the local stuff we have a 2.4 Honda accord MK VIII. Seems fine even with short trips and is OK on longer trips too. Sounds like you need a N/A petrol.
Volvo XC60, 2litre 302bhp
http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/g2292/10-cars-with-the-highest-specific-outputs/
[quote="Chewkw"]
Ya, whatever you buy, buy automatic gear ...you on crack?
Last thing you want on a second hand car is an auto if you don't want large unexpected bills.
V70 2.4 petrol here, 54 plate owned for 5 years and abused by the wife for her business.
Awesome continent crossing comfort, dirt cheap to buy used, reliable apart from being heavy on suspension components, genuine parts are sensible priced and the car is easy to spanner on.
Averages approx 26-27mpg doing short trips and mid 30's on a m-way run.
we think thats the reason for his random non sensical outbursts such as the above ghostlymachine.
A 6cyl BMW touring, your budget will most likely be pre lci so no injector issues.
ghostlymachine - Member
Chewkw »
Ya, whatever you buy, buy automatic gear ...you on crack?
Last thing you want on a second hand car is an auto if you don't want large unexpected bills.
What to go wrong?
trail_rat - Memberwe think thats the reason for his random non sensical outbursts such as the above ghostlymachine.
Not a random outbursts as I just prefer automatic gear.
Most cars in the far east are automatic gear now and they are as reliable as other gearing systems.
Pros and cons - personally I'd go for an auto too.
If you're only doing short trips with the odd long one thrown in, then just get small/cheap/reliable hatchback.
Obviously you'll have loads more money to spend on fun things; they're better for the environment, nicer/more fun to drive (especially on short journeys), and they don't have that tragic "cool/macho dad" image problem either.
I'd get an automatic beemer estate.
[quote="Chewkw"]and they are as reliable as other gearing systems.Definitely crack. They are about 20% less reliable across the industry, during the life of the car. Not to mention significantly more expensive to fix or replace. And while reliability is improving, repair costs are increasing.
Having had a DSG box for almost 4 years, I'd be peeved to go back to 3 pedals and a puddin' stick.
ghostlymachine - MemberDefinitely crack. They are about 20% less reliable across the industry, during the life of the car. Not to mention significantly more expensive to fix or replace. And while reliability is improving, repair costs are increasing.
Which is largely offset by the lack of the need to replace clutches every 50-70k miles.
FWIW I have an A3 3.2 DSG, I mean what could possibly go wrong? Long runs give just over 30 MPG, I average 26-7 MPG & I enjoy driving 😛
They are about 20% less reliable across the industry, during the life of the car.
Interesting, but is a clutch considered a consumable, and so not covered by those figures?
Edit: what 2unfit said
you'd be right as clutch plate is a consumable.
its just that they last till the rest of the car fails most folk and the other % are just too short sighted to fix it.
molgrips is your guy to speak to when your VAG autobox goes bleugh - he can repair your control box 😉
50-70k ...... i see why you like autoboxes.....
Sounds like the same scenario as wen I had this...........
[IMG] 
[/IMG]
Great car
Focus ST Estate
That 45 mpg was a fully loaded car with nothing on the roof and Sat at 70mph on cruise control with the wife driving.
ghostlymachine - Member
Chewkw » and they are as reliable as other gearing systems.Definitely crack. They are about 20% less reliable across the industry, during the life of the car.
How long is the life of a car with automatic gear?
Are you going to keep your car for ever? Let's say it is a bit like "consumable" unlike a non-classic car.
You lot are changing cars like changing mtb gearing ... so are you going to keep the car forever?
Like I said in the far east everyone drives an automatic gear car so if it is not reliable they will drop it like a sack of potatoes without thinking twice. Bear in mind income is low over there and they cannot afford to change/invest in a car every 5 years or so.
My boy racer mate, formerly a car mechanic, advised me the automatic gear box must be changed once it reaches certain mileage even when the oil looks clean. This is to ensure the life of the gearbox remains good.
Ask her to disengage the handbrake next time.
Whats the budget Renton?
The Flying Ox - Member
I'd go with option 1, OP.
£5k will get you a nice Passat R36, fast enough for anyone and they sound lush.
Unfortunately you won't get one under £10k, I've been looking at them for a while as a cheaper alternative to an RS4 Audi. The estates seem to be rarer than the saloons and command a premium, they seem to be about £12k with reasonable mileage and I think they're DSG only which would worry me as the car got older.
The Octavia VRS is probably the best choice sub £10k, although there are potential issues with the timing chain tensioner that destroys the engine. I don't know enough about the issue or if it has been resolved by a revised tensioner, so the BriSkoda forum would be your best bet for research. I've got the pre-facelift version with the older engine with a cambelt rather than chain. It's not the most exciting car, but is fairly quick and comfortable. I can get mpg in high 30s on a longer run, but it's pretty bad on short journeys, mid to high 20s at best, although the newer cars are supposed to be about 10% more economical.
If you're buying new, the Seat Leon ST looks good, but I can't comment on how they drive.
Only on stw will someone ask about "fast" cars and get a suggestion of a 1.4 octavia. And then a suggestion that 5k will buy a "good" r36.
The answer to your question op is that if you can figure out how to work your gears and get more than 45mpg on a run then get an auto. In which case I'll recommend a BMW 330i. I had one. Loved it.
Frankly, I'm surprised we've managed to get to page 2 without any mention of a vaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!!!
😀
Daveyboywonder...... We both know how to drive thanks very much and this isn't our first diesel.
In fact in our old 60 plate Mazda 6 2.2 we always got above 50mpg no matter how we drove it.
I went from my 330 to my t5. It's a much more relaxing driving experience.
Get a van.
Sane here Renton. I had the same 2.2 in my old Mondeo ST and thrashed the living daylights out if it for 35000 miles and it rarely showed less than 50mpg.
Only on stw will someone ask about "fast" cars and get a suggestion of a 1.4 octavia.
That'd be me then. Perhaps if the OP drew a Venn diagram of requirements, budget and driving patterns (plus opinions on maintenance, fuel economy) it'd be clearer. One man's fast is another's perfectly adequate. I was merely saying than in terms of quickness, 1.4 Octavia is - not lightning quick, but more than adequate on roads round here.
FWIW if the OP states - "We are only doing very short journeys of around 5 miles per day and longer at the weekend but also need a big car for when we travel south to the midlands 4 or 5 times a year."
then a 'fast' car seems a bit out of place, no? ach...
cant see any mention of what the offending car is either.....
also interesting OP
"Due to a change in circumstances we need to swap our diesel estate for a petrol version so as we don't suffer with the egr and dpf issues that seem to plague modern diesel cars.
We have a couple of options....
1, sell our car and pay off the loan and buy an older estate car with the rest of the money (about 5k)"
So im going to sell my car that might go wrong in its old age - and spend 5k and own a car that nearly at the age/milage where it might go wrong......
IMO 5k is the magic number to get a car that comes with baggage - at less than 2k i will walk away from big issues - at 5k the fast family estate is not new enough to have a warrenty worth the paper its written on and its too expensive to walk away from it when theres an expensive issue.....you might get lucky - but going by the OPs previous car related posts and his luck when looking - it will likely blow up at 3 months and 1 day .....
Daveyboywonder.... The 2.2 in the old st mondeo is completely different to the version in my car and wasn't strangled by emmisons kit like mine is.
Plenty of folk over on talk Ford complaining about poor mpg on the mk4 mondeo with the 2.2 being the worst engine.
Trailrat the car is a 2011 mondeo titanium x sport 2.2 tdci.
I have no regrets getting rid of the petrol smax we had previous to this but since we have had this car the mpg seems to be getting worse.
Plus now there is talk of diesel being phased out it seems the ideal time to move to a newer far more efficient petrol engined car.
The question is which one ??
[quote=renton ]now there is talk of diesel being phased out 🙄
well if we are talking newer fords -
worth noting i got 54mpg out of a 2litre petrol focus AUTO over 2500miles.
was very impressed with it - much smoother auto box than the old auto slushboxes and less jerky than the ZF in the parents range rover - much more like that in their old Merc.
How ever there was no booting it , making progress or fast accelerating overtaking maneuvers - all of which have more effect on the mpg than the engine or gear box ime......
MPG is getting worse ? when was it last serviced ? or has your driving style changed ?
I had a 2.0 ecoboost smax with the powershift gearbox before the mondeo and that used to get circa 28-30mpg with no booting it whatsoever.
Car is due a service now but even 6 months ago when we went south last it was very poor then.
when was it last serviced by you ?
as in when is the last date YOU PERSONALLY can guarantee it was serviced.
The engine i had was a conventional 2.0 petrol - non of this ecoboost shite.
It was serviced by Ford to keep up the full Ford history on 14/12/14.
All mondern Ford petrol engines are ecoboost or econetic.
Got to be the VR4 version though. I was having a mild disagreement with a mutual friend about manual vs automatic. I think manual, he thinks auto. He's wrong.Still: £2-3k, 280+bhp, 0-60 in 5.5s, acres of space in the boot - it's a good shout. Horrendous on fuel though.
Agreed...on all of it...I was getting 22mpg before I was attempting anything spirited...
"All mondern Ford petrol engines are ecoboost or econetic."
assuming your in the uk. mines was a 2.0 Ti-VCT- what ever that means .... but there didnt look to be any turbos under the bonnet - i did look out of curiousity. NAS spec.
how ever my MPG figure is UK gallons converted.
Ah so it was serviced before you bought it. Suspicious cat is suspicious.
(my cars mpg always declines when i get close to a service interval - it really doesnt like a clogged up air filter)
Renton, when you have done your long fully loaded drives have you raised the tyre pressures to fully laden.......you will be surprised just how much this will gulp fuel in additional drag if you haven't.
I too would also suggest that the gearbox/engine are not being used to its best......how much acceleration/deceleration/planning for overtakes.....is she booting it to overtake constantly then braking as opposed to maintaining a constant throttle or squeeze and ease into an earlier gap?
Are you using cheap supermarket diesel? Try a few tanks with Nitro Plus.....
Failing that get a small VW Up for daily stuff and catch the train for your long trips 😆
I rather think that you should just keep it and live with it, after all in the last (admittedly) 2 years you've had a S-Max, Mazda 6 and Mondeo. What was wrong with any of them?
start sticking 300ml of 2 stroke oil in a fuel tank of Shell optimax derv and give it a good thrash. Also make sure it has a genuine Ford fuel filter on it and if in doubt change it. Also pull the MAP (manifold pressure) sensor and give it a clean-2minute job.
My Tranny van gets a bit coked up if used for the 8 mile commute for awhile, a good 3000rpm mway run soon has it cleared out. Have been running 2stroke oil for about 8 years in my Defender and 3 in my TDCI transit with good results.
Never understood the 'old car must be trouble and expensive so best get a new one' thing.
I've always run older cars (5-15) years old if you choose well and get them regularly serviced then they are very reliable. Sure an older car will need a little more TLC each time it goes into the garage but I've yet to call the AA out yet in nearly 20 years of motoring.
Just plain weird how people get scared by service bill of a few hundred pounds when something needs doing on an older car, so try use this as justification to waste £1,000's in depreciation and interest payments on a brand new car. Or they say, 'yes but the newer model does 8mpg better than my older car so it's cheaper to run' but they probably drive less than 10,000 miles a year yet then use this as justification to waste the same £1,000's. Oh and VW just proved us wrong on this one anyway.
Understand if people want a new car, but just say it "I want a new car", don't try to justify it on cost grounds because frankly, that's insane!