fiesta diesel, age to suit budget.

Reliant Robin… cheep cheep 🙂

2.5k would get you a diesel 5 series with cruise control in good condition on about a T plate

polo, ibiza or fabia sdi – slow as anything but v. high mpg

Seat Ibiza 1.9 TDI. The 2003-2008 ish ones are the best of that category IIRC.

You can get a lowish mileage Mondeo 2.0tdci 130bhp with cruise/climate 50k ish miles for £2.5k ish.

I bought one purely for the purpose of doing a stupid long commute. Swallows bikes 50mpg at 80+ mph with the cruise on.

If your doing lots of motorway miles you wont get a much more relaxing car to be in for the money.

at that sort of money, you’ll be wanting a late 90s diesel repmobile. The mondeo of that age is VERY robust, but has an old-tech engine that won’t get more than 45mpg in normal use. The equivilent Vectra is less good dynamically, and slightly smaller in estate guise, but has a far more modern engine, which is nicer to use and has better mpg.

The mondeo isn’t available with Cruise Control – I fitted an aftermarket kit to mine

I’d reccomend picking up something with just enough MOT to get you through, then scrapping it afterwards. alternatively, if you’re willing to spend £1000 for purchase and insurance for 100 days, have you looked at a longer-term rental from avis et al? 12k at 40mpg would be £1800. 65 mpg is around £700 less – might well be worth investing more up front to offset costs of fuel – it’d also be a nicer place to sit, and sure to not let you down in the mean time

Ford are tight as hell with options, very few Fords around with cruise ime since it only comes on the top spec car with leather etc.

Budget Cruise control is always an option however as employed by a mate (it involves a specially crafted House Brick).

IMHO you don’t have to spend much more than 1K to get something that stands a chance of having some value in it when you come to sell it but don’t buy from a dealer at that price – in my experience post office windows etc are the best places to buy for that sort of price

Eh ? Mondeo’s are pretty good with specs. I just looked on autotrader and there are plenty of 54 plate + models LX or above that have cruise as standard. The TDCI engine is also smoother and quiter than my wifes 59 plate VAG.

Is the budget not £2.5k?

Personally I would prefer to be in a bigger car with more metal around me. Having test driven a new Ibiza lately they are not half as refined on a motorway as the Mondeo which cruises at 2000 revs at 75mph.

Thought the budget was 1K or a+b in the original post which of course equals “cheep cheep – like the budgie”

Right – dunno about Mondeos, but one reason I didn’t get a Focus was exactly that, I couldn’t have cruise without everything else.

My Ibiza did 57mpg in summer doing 80mph everywhere.

That’s just not true…as molgrips mentioned the 1.9TDi in many VAG models is used in small and large cars and various states of tune.
The 130 in my Ibiza sits at 1800rpm in 6th and it’s not pulling around any extra bulk (like it would in a Golf or Passat).

As suggested I’d look at either Polo/Ibiza/Fabia diesel with the 1.9TDi.
The 100 bhp one in the Ibiza is plenty quick enough and you should see very good mpg. I went for the 130 and get 55mpg as a matter of course. Recently I’ve been driving a bit more carefully and am nearer 60mpg+.
This is the best I’ve had in mine, recently:

(That’s 68.9mpg if it’s not too clear) – and yes I shouldn’t believe the trip computer because it tells terrible lies, but even if it’s 5% out, that’ll still be 64mpg.

Is that actually accurate though stumpy01?

My old focus said it was doing 60mpg, but if you measured the amount of fuel you put in and the miles covered it was actually 50mpg.

edit: just read the last sentence of your post. My trip computer was a bit more than 5% out. More like 15-20%

People seem to be failing to spot the fact that you won’t get a VAG car that has a PD or later series diesel engine for under a grand inlcuding insurance.
Having had a quick mooch on Autotrader I think its probably diesel 306/307 or maybe a 106 as the safest bet to come in under the intiial constraints.
there are a few things the French now how to do very well and one of them is build a slow but bomb proof diesel engine.
Like all things mechanical if an idiot owns it then it will always get broken but thats why you’re better off buying privately at this price.

Really cheap? An old Peugeot 405D / TD – no more than about 50mpg from that though, or perhaps a Focus MkI TD (might get 55 from this). Easily get a good one of these for less than £1k.

All down to condition – don’t buy stupidly cheap or you’ll end up with repair bills, which make your ecomony mission rather pointless.

oh yeah……..

Erm, it ain’t pretty and insurance will probably broach the £1k barrier, but this is <£1k……
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201106379523436/sort/priceasc/usedcars/fuel-type/diesel/price-to/1000/model/ibiza/make/seat/page/1/radius/1501/postcode/pe68la?logcode=p

Because I like sex with the missus?

save the cash, and have sex with someone else’s missus