chocolate_o_brian

iTrader: (22)

In the next few months (once a couple of debts like central heating system and overdraft are paid off), I'm looking at replacing my current car - 2003 1.4 Polo TDI. It's been a brilliant little car, carting me round the country on holidays, visits etc. but as the Mrs is now working we'd like to treat ourselves to something newer.

The criteria is as follows;

Must be diesel
Preferably manual
Upto £9,000
Not astronomical mileage
Upto 3 years old (maybe upto 4/5/6 years for prestige brand - Ie German)
3/4/5 door is fine
Not keen on new French cars or something 'bland' - I like fun cars to drive
Bhp/torque isn't important as long as it equals/betters the 'neck snapping' 75bhp I have currently

So I'm just looking for suggestions to add to my list;

Mazda 2 1.6D Sport
Skoda Fabia Monte Carlo 1.6TDI
BMW 3/5 series? Possibly bit older than 3 years


Look forwards to some other suggestions or something I've missed.

Also as it's not brand new I would be looking at a warranty on the car should the need arise.

Cheers

ditchmyster

iTrader: (7)

04/05 newage wrx wagon circa £4k with £5k change for mods and fuel.
You know it makes sense.

cuprajake

iTrader: (11)

Leon cupra Tdi

chocolate_o_brian

iTrader: (22)

Must be diesel and frugal, sorry

WRXrowdy

iTrader: (2)

Why must it be diesel and frugal?, plenty of small engined turbo petrol cars around today, all giving good economy and removing the worry of dpf and dmf failures.

Edit: quick look on autotrader found a nice Seat Leon (can't add the link)
at lawson-cars.co.uk 1.2tsi in red with body kit, black roof and wheels, 11 plate with 28k on clock bang on budget.

Scoobydoo Ste

iTrader: (3)

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classifi.../170?logcode=p

Tidgy

sod the dirty diesel,,,,9k will get you a realy nice E46 M3,,,, hahahaha

chocolate_o_brian

iTrader: (22)

Not interested in petrol as no matter how you drive it, it doesn't give the long run mpg a diesel does. Plus the dervs have extra torque, again better for lazy long runs at 1,000,000mpg.

Just prefer the dervs guys

Looking heavily at Bimmers currently, sure there's plenty of other options still

Thanks

Saxo Boy

I've got a 2010 common-rail Leon FR TDI. It must be worth around 9k now and is very nice to drive, handles really well, is nippy in a straight line and good on fuel. Well worth looking at.

ditchmyster

iTrader: (7)

This never makes sense to me, plenty of modern petrol engined cars return 40+mpg to the gallon even my 14yr old rover 25 gets 42mpg normal driving and 50 mpg on a run @ steady 70mph. Diesel cars cost more to buy have shed loads of faults and diesel is more expensive at the pump. All for an extra 15 mpg if your lucky, if your really unlucky and have one or god forbid all three of the standard well documented faults you could find yourself trying to find £3k out of thin air, it's a risk i'm not prepared to take.

You only have to look at jeff and his astra diesel £700 on dmf within the first few months, he'll have to cover some serious miles to recoup / arrive back at break even never mind actually being ahead pound wise.

I keep saying it but i'll say it again, many years ago one of the car magazines did a comparison using petrol vs diesel mondeo's and the break even point was 100k miles and that was the old mondeo that didn't suffer all the modern faults.

Now you may well think it's great getting 70mpg in your little polo but transpose that over to a £9k bmw and just one small problem can see you with a bill that will make you cry and seriously affect your finances.

But hey it's your life buddy.

ditchmyster

iTrader: (7)

Quick search of auto trader pulls up these two for comparison, look at the difference in age and mpg figures.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classifi...9000?logcode=p

.
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classifi...9000?logcode=p

The second one gets to 60mph quicker has got more bhp, cheaper tax and higher top speed and the fuel is cheaper at the pump.

dpb

You can actually coke a diesel to death also, if you're on short runs...

chocolate_o_brian

iTrader: (22)

Re. last sentence on my OP, I'd be looking at some kind of comprehensive warranty too, cheers.

Two main factors as already said, better mpg and higher torque figures. Maybe my driving style doesn't like petrol cars, I dunno but I find it very easy to get rough stated mpg figures from a derv and never get anywhere near for a petrol.

I did (politely) ask for suggestions and not a petrol vs derv debate, which as is the way of car forums, usually seems the way in which to go

Thanks.

dpb

Ali B will have the best advice on which model engine etc. ( not ). To go for

ditchmyster

iTrader: (7)

Just offering my opinion based on 31years working with cars and driving all sorts upto and above 1000 miles a week for about 25yrs and thought i'd offer you some food for thought.

Since you mentioned BMW it made me curious what the difference would be between the same model diesel vs petrol hence the quick search on auto trader which actually surprised me so thought i'd post it for you.

Wasn't trying to turn it into a debate about petrol vs diesel just offering a different perspective as I find it's quite easy to get tunnel vision on such matters and end up not seeing the wood for the trees and in theory the diesel option is based on economics.

If your set on diesel that's fine by me, hope it all works out for you.

Tidgy

from a performance car site, did you realy expect anything else?

chocolate_o_brian

iTrader: (22)

Hopefully

Cheers.

One point - the two links... one was for an 11 year old derv and one for a 6 year old petrol. Dervs have come on leaps and bounds recently so I'd be interested to see a comparison of say 2009-10 cars of the same age petrol vs diesel. After 2006 were the tax classifications changed more so or was that 2001? Genuine question.

Performance diesel as a treat perhaps?

Tidgy

hahaha, e60 5 series? think some of them are twin turbo diesels

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classifi...ries?logcode=p

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classifi...1500?logcode=p

or even a 3 series?

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classifi...9000?logcode=p

ditchmyster

iTrader: (7)

I was making the point of the economics of the situation as I know your economically minded based on previous posts and thought that was the main reason for choosing diesel along with the 1000,000 miles to the gallon post I thought i'd point out that it's not only about the mpg.

Yes the dervs have come on and so have the petrols, my main point with posting the links was that you can get a petrol 4 years newer at the same price as the diesel version so one would assume that the same is true at the higher end of your budget.

Then add to that the tax being £35 cheaper on the petrol and performance statistics 0 to 60 being quicker in the petrol version by about 1 second as well as the higher top speed, then there only being 2/5 mpg difference over a gallon of fuel which again is negated by the fact that petrol is cheaper than diesel at the pumps, therefor the economics of a diesel don't make sense to me at least, especially when you add all the possibilities for some very costly repairs.

But as you say you prefer the torque of the diesel and it's better suited to your driving style as well then your decision to go for a derv is not solely based on the economics, so my mistake.

I was just trying to save you a few quid and get you into a much newer car.

ditchmyster

iTrader: (7)

And i'll counter with this one, look at the milage 37k and the mpg, oh and it's newer too.



http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classifi...Cnew?logcode=p

Cheaper on tax, better on fuel, faster 2yrs younger and less than half the milage, so just remind me what the benefit of going diesel is again.

dpb

But you can't compare like for like petrol / diesel for a certain year

You've a certain amount to spend, presumably

ditchmyster

iTrader: (7)

My point being for £5k you get a much newer car, but see the above post and all the links, top end of budget £9k still gets a newer car with better performance, mpg, lower tax band, cheaper fuel and no roll of the dice with dmf, dpf, lgg, scc,rmd, rcm,api.

Edit to add this line from the op; "Look forwards to some other suggestions or something I've missed."

dpb

I'd have gone for the petrol engined bimmer over the diesel in your link Ditchy like a shot

ditchmyster

iTrader: (7)

Me too.

chocolate_o_brian

iTrader: (22)

Points taken on board, Ditchy and PDF, thanks

Tidgy - you're a bad, bad man

Only thing which worries me on a car that cost £60+k new and is 8 years old is an impending big bill/running cost. Again warranty? Whereas a car that was £25-30k new may not be so bad running costs or consumables wise.

I'll broaden my horizons on Autotrader later but it'll still be derv.

Tidgy

hahaha

tbh do some digging mate you may find costs arnt as bad as you think, plenty of bmw specialists around nowadays that are far cheaper than deler. Although dealers are not to bad on price for some things.

chocolate_o_brian

iTrader: (22)

Ideally I'd like 2009-10 (even upto say £10,000 inc. my car as px), and don't wanna go older than 6 years, so 2008. Probably keep what I buy for 4 years.

ditchmyster

iTrader: (7)

https://www.scoobynet.com/subaru-444...l#post11440447

chocolate_o_brian

iTrader: (22)

A lot of Subaru for the money there. Doesn't interest me as I've done the silver wagon thing as my last Impreza (mapped to 284/317 by Bob).

Someone will enjoy that, not me though.

jameswrx

iTrader: (4)

I've been around and worked in various areas of the motor trade most of my working life and I do agree with Ditchy in a lot of what he's said. But then again you can also apply the same logic to the whole 'cheap' car vs 'sporty' car debate. I've got mates who aren't allowed the model of car they want because their mrs' say there too dear to run. I did this with a work mate who wanted a clio sport, his mrs would only let him get a diesel as it was 'cheape to run' So they spunked £6k on a crappy clio diesel, paid more for the fuel which it admittedly was frugal at taking, had problems with various things as a lot of modern diesels do (maf, injectors chuffing) and it's worth about a grand now. If he'd have been allowed to spend £2k on the clio sport he would have put more fuel in and tax but when you compare the money lost on buying the car and extra fuel cost etc he'd have still been better off with the sport in The long run.

I work on diesels and they seem good to a point then when things go wrong they seem to need one thing after another. Take the old BMW's for example, bullet proof for a few years then the injectors pack up, fuel pumps, swirl flaps then the gearbox.

My transit has been ok for 130k but he last one just grenaded the engine at similar mileage.