The Focus 2.0 TDCi isnt the most powerful but we have that engine in a hulking great Galaxy and it moves really well, must be brilliant in the smaller and nimbler Focus. We get 35 around town (due to my wifes driving style mainly) and was seeing 46 on a 70/80 run, I would imagine the Focus would do a few mpg more.

I have learnt now not to buy cars on performance figures, go and drive them and see what you think, a couple of seconds on the 0-60 might seem important but its part of a package, remember sometimes the higher performing models have bigger turbos, which have more lag and as such most of the time arent as nice to drive even though they are faster, also with the remaps, yes great but sometimes you need to budget for a clutch on top of the 300/400 quid of the map, I am all for remaps and am not a doomsayer (my Saab is mapped to 250/288) but its not always free power. I wish I had gone for the Fabia VRS, now I am stuck with a petrol car which I would get peanuts for !

Also, I think that a 3.0 litre BMW Diesel isnt the economy option unless its compared to a 3.0 BMW petrol, ok it may do 40 mpg if you are carefull but if you are using the power all the time it isnt going to be that economical, remember as well that these massive torque figures are pretty rough on tyres.

Also, Diesel is more expensive, add in the fact that if it "only" does 30 mpg knocking about like a 330D it will become like big engined petrol cars, due to a shift in our expectations 30 mpg no longer looks viable and hence we might to see bigger depreciation for bigger engined and less efficient diesels.

I personally would err on the side of caution at the moment and go for something more moderate, the Audi A3 140 diesel is a great car, plenty of grunt, I expect the 170 is the same but a bit quicker.

 

E46 330d touring for me,i'm on my second one now,(had a saloon before but needed the space with the little one coming along). The only other diesel car i would change for in my price range would be the new e90 335d or maybe the 535d....Fantastic cars.....Alan...

 

I just think that most buyers wouldn`t notice the car that Skoda could have produced if they`d wanted to.

 

has anyone read the reviews?
excellent refinement and economy.
doesn't hang about either.
impreza will be released soon same engine but with 200 bhp.

 

I'd second most of the people on here and say go for the 330d, get a 204 bhp e46.

Has anyone had any disasters remapping their e46 330d? I have a 52 plate 330d with 100k really want to remap mine after a mate had Superchips remap his 335d - which is now unbelievably powerfull.

To reply to the post about how fast are 330d's mine is only the 184 bhp and i tanned a wrx. Got behind an sti and that was obviously a completely different kettle of fish.

 

Well mine's currently for sale as I'm going to hopefully get an e90 or e91. It's not the cheapest, nor does it have low miles, but it's currently returning 47.2mpg and it's only because I'm doing 3000 miles a month that I'm selling.

BMW : BMW 330d Sport

You'd save yourself £5k too.

Matt

 

Good luck Matt, looks a great car.

 

Haven't tried I'm afraid - though I was going to until I saw the difference it was going to make on my insurance. For a relatively modest increase (if you can call 204 > 260 bhp 'modest'!), the hike in premium was unexpectedly high. Might be worth checking (assuming you plan to tell them at all, of course).