So looking to get a car as mine has died during the MOT.
Has anyone got any recommendations for a diesel estate. Think along the lines of Honda accord, Mazda 6, Audi or VW.
Is there anything else i should be considering that I’m overlooking?
Cheers

Obvious mondeo is obvious.

In the spirit of STW I’m going to say a petrol one. I’d rather put up with lower mpg for better odds of avoiding expensive repair bills for that money.

That said a mate has a solid 1.9 diesel Fabia estate for about 1k if that’s of interest?

Skoda Octavia 1.9 tdi all the way,had mine 5 years and it’s great

I love my passat highline with heated leather seats. 05 plate with 215k and still going.

Something reliable and relatively easy and cheap to fix, preferably with a VAG 1.9TDi engine in and no DPF. (Read B5.5 shape Passat, but find a good one, there’s plenty of dogs about).

Steer clear of cars with DPF’s or engines with known faults for your budget, otherwise buy a car with a petrol V8 as it will be cheaper to run should you be unlucky!

How many miles are you doing? Petrol is relatively cheap right now, I’m in the “unless you’re doing mega milage buy a petrol” camp these days I’m afraid… Cheaper to service, way less to go wrong, costs me £5 a week more in juice for my current milage like for like, but that’s a lot easier to manage than a big bill should a DPF need replacing or a turbo lunch itself!

I recently bought an 07 Renault Megane 1.5 diesel estate for £1700.
Cant fault it. 44mpg average.

Milage is under 6,000 per year but hate seeing low mpg on petrol.

As far as cheap diesels go, I’ve had a couple of 1.9tdi passats which were great! But I agree with the petrol comments, I just bought a 1.8 octavia 4×4 estate as a bike carrier and its great. smoother, quieter, and still 32mpg.

Milage is under 6,000 per year but hate seeing low mpg on petrol.

Unless you’re only using it on a few days a week it doesn’t sound like a diesel would often warm up properly. They’re not keen on that, petrol all the way IMO.

6k pa and you’re considering diesel?! You’re nuts.

£2k will get you a much nicer petrol car than a diesel, which will have a bazillion miles on it (OK the engine should take it but what about the clutch, suspension etc)

Get a large petrol engine. No one wants them = cheap.

I’d love to only do 6k per year. Busso V6 or bimmer straight 6 all day long.

Fuel is one of the most tangible costs of motoring, but it’s far from the most significant.

Petrol is far simpler at lower mileages like that and will be cheaper to buy as well as fix.
When our annual mileage on the main car dropped from 25k to about 12k we went petrol as the current diesel was facing dpf and turbo intake faults. Sold it for much the same we paid 18months previously due to the demand for diesel versions.

Got the same thing as bothybiker, assuming his is the turbo. Possibly not much more straightforward with turbo, haldex and parts specific to the model (custom stainless exhaust is cheaper than pattern part). However, it was very cheap. Tempted to Stage 1 map, but that costs nearly as much as the car is worth and it may not take too well as it is high mileage. 32mpg is good, wife can get 40mpg out of it on the motorway.

Mk3 Mondeo, failing that a Mk3 Mondeo or just get a Mk3 Mondeo

Rover 75 diesel and spend the other thousand on some bike stuff

Mondayyyyohh, Monday-ay-ay-oh, I want a 2k estate and I want one now (with apologies to trio).

Yup, petrol Mondeo all the way. Had a Mk2 2005 plate. Bought last year for £1400 with 80k. Did 30k in one year, narry a problem, great car and mahoosive boot. Get the 2 litre petrol though as mine was 1.8 and a tad underpowered.

As others have said, given the mileage you’re doing you’d be nuts to get a diesel. Likely to cost you way more in the long run..

What about this Honda Accord estate 2l petrol and it even has a tow ball fitted so you could put a bike rack on it easy enough. at this price you’d get the car and a years tax for your budget.

thekingisdead – Member

6k pa and you’re considering diesel?! You’re nuts.

I don’t do massive miles but I like big honkin diesels to drive, it’s not all about fuel savings. Or tax savings. Or, often insurance savings too- when I checked quotes my 2.2 155bhp diesel cost less to insure than the slower 2.0 140bhp petrol. Presumably because it’s a total granddad car.

OK so diesel does have increased potential for large costs but I save enough on my tax and insurance every year compared to the v6 petrol equivalent, to pay for a turbo or a handful of injectors or a remap…

Have you considered a 3l BMW petrol Touring?

Clicky to BMW Touring on eBay.

I’m 35 and pay £165 a year for insurance and £270 for Tax.

Recently bought myself a 3l tdi v6 Saab 9-5 estate for a grand. Spent another grand on timing belt, clutch replacement and full service

Should be good for a good few years now at least

Its got all the gizmos, heated seats, cruise control, and you can get a bike in the boot without the seats down…infact you can even leave the parcel shelf on there.

Comfiest car I’ve ever been in..

6k pa and you’re considering diesel?! You’re nuts.

This, many times over!

Milage is under 6,000 per year but hate seeing low mpg on petrol.

😆

Get over it!

at 6k pa, your typical 2L diesel estate that averages 45mpg is going to cost you about £600 in fuel for the year. A typical 2L petrol estate will average about 35mpg, the fuel for which will cost about £780.

The petrol will cost you all of £3.50 per week, or 50p per day if you like, more in fuel cost than the diesel…

If your turbo goes, you could be looking at 4-5 years worth of fuel savings (at £180 a year) to fix a diesel. If a DPF needs replacing, you could be looking at an even bigger bill still!

Just in case the point needs reiterating… BUY A PETROL!!!

£2k buys a lot of petrol car, but very little diesel. Until you’re doing mega milage, and the fuel savings top £10-15 per week (or someone else is footing the bill should the car go tits up!), petrol cars make far more sense now than they’ve ever done!

I don’t do massive miles but I like big honkin diesels to drive, it’s not all about fuel savings.

Until very recently I often said exactly the same thing. The lazy torque on offer from many big diesels is quite addictive compared to driving a smaller petrol engine that does a similar MPG. The answer though is simply buy a bigger, better, petrol engine instead, and drive it smoothly. A 3L petrol Beemer can still average the right side of 30mpg with relatively little effort, and is a nice torquey, lazy lump as required, but give it a prod and it wakes up and revs eagerly round to the redline. The diesel equivalent will give a more instantly gratifying hit of torque low down, but the show’s over much sooner, and the fuel cost savings will only start to pay for themselves against increased running costs at the wrong side of 15k miles pa…

So all the talk is towards petrol, but I’ve had diesels now for the last 18 years, never done less than 25k a year in them, and ran the cars/vans for at least 100k and have had none of the problems mentioned. Now don’t be saying I’m lucky because I’m not. I’m well know amongst my friends as being Mr Unlucky when it comes to cars, but all the problems have been electrical or mechanical, but nothing I would directly attribute to diesel. I actually like a big lazy oil burner, and I find modern petrols utterly gut less. Anyway mini rant over, now let’s get this guy the best 2k Skoda Octavia money can buy.

mboy – Member

If your turbo goes, you could be looking at 4-5 years worth of fuel savings (at £180 a year) to fix a diesel.

Cost me about £350 btw- could have done it cheaper but that was for a supplier with a decent rep. And a 530i (since that’s realistically what you’re looking at, for a £2000 3 litre BMW estate) is tax band K so £110 more per year in tax than mine. So barely over a year’s tax and fuel (certainty) to replace a turbo (fairly low possibility). And IIRC was a fair bit more to insure to boot.

People blow diesel costs out of proportion and I totally understand why but being realistic (sticking with the mondingo here just because I know it) a £2000 car is going to be about 90-100000 miles. So it’s in the window for diesel specific (*) dmf, turbo, injectors but doing 6000 miles a year it’s by no means certain to run into any of those. Meanwhile, any car at this age, petrol or diesel, could face equivalent bills from suspension, clutch, and other routine age-related mechanicals. The picture ends up not being so different when you step away from the scare stories and inflated costs.

(* not actually diesel specific but again, in this car range, realistically a petrol won’t have a dmf)

PS I could totally go for a bit of rwd though

2.0 petrol Focus estates cost buttons

Ended up getting the first one i saw – Honda accord . 2.2ctdi. so swanky with electric heated seats etc. Its such a grown up car .