Large cars with high mpg?

I’m thinking about a new car and really fancy something spacious but I want good fuel economy (say 50+). Can anyone recommend something? Probably going for a 2-4y old model up to 9k.

There’s a brand called Skoda that seems popular around these parts….

Citroen C5 Estate, 2.0 VTR diesel, got 44mpg avg – mainly motorway driving and few bits around town. Didn’t hang around, was huuuuuge in back seats and boot, and the 1.6 diesel gets better economy I think?

Mazda 6 2.2 diseasal.

Mondeo. My mk4 2lt diesel gives 53 on a motorway run and mid-40s around town.

And it’s hooge. And comfy.

Yep, as above, a Mundane-o has to be on your list.

Prius, but I guess will be out of your budget.

+2 for Mondeo Estate ive got a Mk 3 and pa in law a mk4 both mid 40s around town and 50+ on a run and yes they are hooge

Prius, but I guess will be out of your budget.

Prius, large? 😯

Passed bluemotion. Mine gets 60mpg on A road and city commute. Sleeps 2 with kit.

Citroen C5 Estate, 2.0 VTR diesel, got 44mpg avg – mainly motorway driving and few bits around town. Didn’t hang around, was huuuuuge in back seats and boot, and the 1.6 diesel gets better economy I think?

I have had 2 1.6hdi c5s and the get over 47 mpg and that is mostly town driving tbh.

My mk3 mondeo does 44mpg long term average (bit less in winter with more traffic jams and heater on more). Thats with 120k on the clock. On a law abiding long motorway trip it will hit upper 40s on normal tyres (ie not fuel saver things). Would guess the current one is better.

Having said that ze germans are leading the way on the whole blue green eco efficiency thing from the stats.

If you can afford it a 520d (efficient dynamics) has got to be worth a look but not sure how pricing would be. Or Octavia / superb greenline might be cheaper.

Mondeo diesel does that

My 1.6 C-max does 42mpg*, and it’s petrol, so cost £3k less and doesn’t have injectors/flywheel/DMF waiting to fail.

*it’ll do the claimed 52 if you drive like a granny at 56mph.

Ignore any quoted figures, there’s a stat somewhere that they’ve (roughly) gone up 40% in the last 10 years whilst actual MPG’s gone up 4% (numbers made up, but that ballpark).

My MG Midget 1500 did 52mpg on the motorway!

Honda 2.2 CDti, Accord. Mine’s 7 years old and can still do 50mpg.

I dread to think of owning a Mondeo, snobbery I guess, but I can see the advantages. Has anyone got a Mazda 5?

Interesting to see the 520 being suggested as I hadn’t thought of BMW before.

The fuel figures for the 520d are….optimistic to say the least.

Avoid Mazda6 2.0 D 143 hp engine as it has serious DPF issues. It only seems to be that EURO4 engine variant as the newer 2.2 diesel doesn’t suffer from same crap design

320 diesel estate ?

Mondeo diesel here- mahoosive, comfy, works well, 180bhp and genuine 50mpg (occasionally drops as low as 45, sometimes gets as high as 60, but the average is 50 with no consideration at all to fuel economy. You could get a very, very nice one for your budget.

Most diesels will if you drive them well. Just drove from Cardiff to Warwick – all motorway, part of it in heavy rain, 58.6mpg on the computer (which is accurate). 2.0 140bhp auto Passat saloon. I can usually beat 60mpg, bit disappointed. I did nothing more tricky than set the cruise control to 70mph the whole way.

Larger saloon cars seem to be cheaper than Focus/Golfs, they seem less desirable, people want smaller cars or the names they’re most familiar with. I paid less for my Passat than a Golf would have cost. The bigger ones have a higher standard of finish and build, and standard kit too.

I dread to think of owning a Mondeo, snobbery I guess

See what I mean?

Prius, large?

They are decent, actually. Bigger than a golf, not far off a Passat. The boot is a lot smaller though, but it’s really big with the seats down due to the body shape. Definitely worth a look if you can afford one. 140bhp so perfectly driveable. Will return much better economy in town and traffic than a diesel, and somewhat better on the open road.

Northwind – Member

genuine 50mpg

Is that calculated or trip computer?

I wouldn’t have said “genuine” if it was just the trip computer 😉 The dash’s actually pretty accurate, to be fair, no more than a couple of mpg off. (the “range remaining” thing on the other hand is a random number generator)

That’s pretty good for a car that size. I get low 50s out of my ’95 Micra but that weighs less than 850kg.

(My old BMW trip over-read by 50%; 24mpg) 😳

My Passat dash display is also accurate.

I have a Volvo 1.6d V70. Easy run back down the M3 (65mph)to Southampton last weekend to compensate for the fast run up. 60.9mpg on the computer (Say 58mpg ish).

Last tank I achieved 700miles on 13.8 gallons – 50.7mpg. This was made up of around 400miles of motorway, 200miles of lumpy A road in Northumberland and 100miles of town / A roads in Southampton.

I have a friend who told me his auto estate petrol car was achieving 40mpg but when you work out the tank / range and cost it works out closer to 30mpg.

What would thatcher have chosen?

sbob – Member

That’s pretty good for a car that size.

Yeah, think it’s largely a combination of sensibly high gearing and a really unstressed motor tbh- that takes away some of the tendency to rev it high, since it’s doing good work in the more economic midrange anyway.

It did take me a while to realise it had a 50 litre tank though, for ages I thought it was 55 and so 10% less efficient than it actually is 😛 I’m dead clever.

I guess saloon cars get slightly better mpg than estates. I get 55-57 (cruise control 70) on motorways and 40 around town with my passat estate. I know for sure if I changed to thinner tyres mpg would improve but I like the way fatter tyres look.

Ford Mk4 Mondingo estate is scarily huge, I really like them … but something is not right with them. Be it over optimistic mpg stated by manufacturer or overall design of interior. It looks good dont get me wrong, but for me it just doesn’t age well.

Don’t get too hung up on economy. If you’re spending 9k, an awful lot more of your money is going on depreciation than the amount you’ll save with an economical car. Which is why molgrips is talking sense about bigger cars actually being better value at a certain point in the s/h market. If you look properly at overall running costs, a petrol may actually make more sense for the reasons tinas mentions.

I’m hesitant to jinx myself, but I recently bought a 4+ yo Mondeo estate for £4k. Granted it has a lot of miles on it, but it still feels pretty new and will have to have a lot of large bills to wipe out what I’m saving in depreciation. That’s a diesel – I would have preferred a petrol, but suitable cars don’t seem to be available s/h at my price point.

I often get 52 mpg driving country roads/ dual caridge way into town in the 2l diesel be toureg. Lovely car to drive and swallows up 3 bikes with weeks kit and 3 people in comfort.

What would thatcher have chosen?

My skoda octavia 1.6 diesel gets 65-70 mpg on the dash everywhere, I imagine the superb would be similar. It is very, very dull however so consider yourself warned.

my octavia L+K 2.0 diesel can get high 40s around town, late 50s on a longer trip driving like a grandad. ironically my mate has a VRS and also drives like a grandad and regularly gets 60+. this is on the trip computer, so no idea just how accurate they are.

VW Touran diesel, 7 seats (fold down to give huge boot), 60mpg plus on long trips, mid fifties average.

Had my mazda6 2.2 for 2 months now and love it. Managed 50 mpg on a busy m1 run up to Sheffield, and averages around 45mpg. Pretty quick for a diesel and far more spec than any of the German brands. Will also be about 2 yrs younger for the same money as the German equivalents. And yes I spent a long time researching before parting with my cash.

I find I can always beat the cruise control mpg, it compensates too much for slopes….mines a pd golf tdi….besides which I find using cruise makes overtaking more tricky…

Just got back from Warwick. On the way up it was really wet, got 58.4 mpg. On the way back it was drier and no wind, stopped at Michaelwood services on the M5 and it was reading 67.4mpg! That’s 80 odd miles, with the cruise set at 70mph. Hit torrential rain and bad traffic, but it was still on 63mpg when I got home.

I do run energy saving tyres, and I also filled up with Shell V-Power diesel cos it was only 3p/l more than normal.

In the real world of brim to brim tank fill econmony figures I used to get 60+ out of my Passat TDI PD.
The best out of a tank was 64mpg. Not bad for a 1.5T estate car.
Mine is only the 100bhp 5 speed version, not sure if they did the 6 speed with 100bhp , most of those were 130bhp models.

The newer models ( B6) have DPF’s and tighter emission controls so are a little more strangled. Plus you have the common faults with elec handbrakes , Seimens injectors going wonky , oil pump failure in early models.

.

Insignia diesel? Can get nearly 70mpg out of mine loafing down the motorway at 65.

Have a look on here does not seem to tie in with some of the figures being branded about on here
http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/realmpg/