VTEC to Turbo

Your thought would be appreciated on this one (any related thoughts that is!)

I am soon (all going to plan) going to be buying a place 54 miles from where I work.

(108 miles a day, 540 miles a week, 2160 miles a month, 25920 a year)
(If I was to run the Impreza it would cost roughly £100 a week in petrol alone, not to mention the costly servicing).

Because of the move I am going to need a second car to commute to work.

Running an Impreza with the above mileage would bankrupt me and kill the car sooner than I would like (now its going to be a weekend car).

My latest thinking is to get a cheap £1000 or less, Pug 106 1.5 diesel with about 55k to 60k on the clock (Are they 65mpg?).

I'll have to start another insurance policy so will not have any NCB hence a small car is needed (This will also be the girlfriends run around when I'm not using it) Insurance will be roughly £350 tpft.

The mileage will all be done on Motorway (A1, M25, A127).

Has anyone got any horror stories of these (PUG 106 1.5 diesel)?

Doing the same thing and know of a good car to get?

Reliable and cheap to run are the key constraints to my search.......

Andy M3

I would have a 306 D-turbo myself or a 406 you may get a N plate for a grand.

EDIT - I am tempted to have one myself:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...554959275&rd=1





100k miles - cheap as chips

Gutmann pug

108 miles per day in a sub £1,000 car, good luck matey ..... I think you'll need to be lucky on that one.

I would try for a vectra or mondeo to be honest. Bit bigger but a good work horse

Gary

StevieG

Agree with the above, its not just about pure economy, we had an AX diesel and a neighbour had a 106 diesel, both very economical, but uncomfortable and noisy for more than 1/2 hour trips, wouldn't fancy doing 100 miles a day in one.

Andy M3

In addition to my earlier suggestion, i used to commute from Chesterfield to leeds everyday in a rover 600 SDI. That was a fantastic motorway car !

VTEC to Turbo

Keep the thoughts coming and thanks very much for the replies so far.

Due the the conjested traffic I'm not bothered about a car that will do high speeds quietly (ave speed will be about 50/60mph), I would like something bigger than a 106 but as I am starting a second insurance policy from scratch I may be forced to stick to a small car (I don't want to pay over £400 for the second insurance policy.

On a separate note, the sales adviser at Tesco Insurance told me that women could have their NCD on 2 cars where men couldn't... Pi55ed me off no end. Don't know if he was talking rubbish though, did sound a little dense. LOL

How long will a well maintained diesel run for, I've never owned one before so don't know, I would have though 150k +. I was thinking of getting a 60K car so that it had a few years in it and would still be able to sell it when I'm done...... Isn't 113k a little long in the tooth??

Brendan Hughes

Old Toyota diesel? Corolla or summat.

Reffro

I would seriously consider getting something like a used Citroen C3 HDi like I use. Group 3 ins, excellent fuel economy, lots of room inside, plus and this is the killer, lots of saftey features, ABS, EBD, four airbags.

I can get 540 miles out of a £35 of Diesel easy, so you'd look to save yourself £65 a week on go-go juice. Invest some of that saving in a loan for the car. Buy a car with warranty, as you are going to rely on this car to get you to work, having a old nail that breaks down is not the way forward, I know this from bitter experience....

I used to run old smokers to get me about, for the last 15 months I've had a C3, the C3 has cost less to run, as it hasn't needed repairing every 3-6 months. I answered a similar question the other day, and as I said there, I spend £140 pm in total running my C3, and that's everything paid for excluding finance.

Now I only do 1000 miles a month, so you'd need to add about £70pm for your additional fuel, and about £15pm on additional servicing. So I'd reckon you'd spend about £225pm on running costs plus any finance cost if you bought it on the tick.

Now compare that cost against running a old larger car, or even a 106. The 106 diesel will match it fuel economy and insurance cost, but lose out massively on performance, comfort and safety. A 406 diesel would be at least 33% more expensive on fuel at about £190pm vs £140pm for a C3, plus higher insurance costs, and servicing needed every 6k miles. For both older car you'll need to budget for anything that breaks and needs replacing to keep it running.

Even if you don't fancy a C3, have a look at a Fiesta TDCi or similar, the sums won't be much different.

VTEC pm your tel. number to me, and I'll talk you through all the sums if you like.

The Chief

MK3 Golf Tdi - loads for 1500 quid and 55mpg

TheBigMan

Vectra 1.8 16v LS.

Will do 450 miles per tank. Plenty of power and sooooo cheap to buy, run, fix, insure.

Munches miles quietly and comfortably.

The Chief

I'm after a cheap car myself, aren't they slightly unreliable though and always have engine management issues i.e. cutting out????

fatherpierre

I'd go VAG if your budget's that low and wouldn't touch a Vectra.

The old Mondeo oil burners are ****e but fairly reliable.

VWscooby

I agree that VAG is the way to go. A 1.6 Jetta or 1.8 Vento TD can be had for under a grand and are very reliable.

Oh, an also HIC will 'mirror' NCB so they can be used on both cars

turboman786

Pug 306 d turbo.....they are nice to drive, great handling, and you wont feel silly driving it (as you will feel silly in a 106!)

johnfelstead

Just started doing this myself. I am doing 65 miles each way which was a killer in my 200SX fuel wise. I just bought a V plated VW Bora TDi 110 Sport for £2600, it's mint, FFSH, one owner and feels very tight, it's done 96K miles. I am getting 54MPG average in a very comfy and decent spec car which should (fingers crossed) be reliable and not lose much value as the miles pile on.

NotoriousREV

I had a Toyota Carina E TD, cheap, reliable, economical and comfortable. A million minicab drivers can't be wrong

The Chief

What are the Mondeo's 2.0 petrol like to drive are they as reliable as the oil burners???

Adidas

You could have had the Capri for half that budget

VTEC to Turbo

Thanks, but no thanks mate. This has got to be something the girlfriend can park when she has it weekends. plus I don't like the Capri's (before my time

VWScooby - HIC, that is just what I wanted to hear, thanks for that, will give them a try.

Reffro - Thanks for all the figures and your comments, buying on finance isn't an option for me, I have a couple of loans that I'm still paying off from University, so my only option is to buy with savings.

If HIC can match my NCB. I'll be laughing, Full NCD will help no end and will mean that I can go for something a little bigger.

I've owned a Golf before and have been unhappy with it's reliability (own experience). All I have heard is good things about the 306 Diesels, so may go for one of these.

VTEC to Turbo

I've just herd that Elephant along with HIC will/may match NCD on a second car! (Don't know if both cars have to be insured with the same company yet)

Does anyone know of any other Insurance companies that will do the same?

Dream Weaver

Liv Vic may do.

HIC are terrible on post codes. For some reason they load my postcode by 75% (even though I live in a nice area), so they wanted £1400 tpft on my std 405 Mi16. Adrian Flux covered me for £350

Andy M3

Seems a good idea getting a deal like this. New cars are good as you need not worry about spending a penny on maintainence etc etc for years.....

BUT. When my Omega went into the dealer for a service i was loaned a 1.2 16v and there is no way it will do 50 mpg. I did reasonable amount of miles in it and managed about 33. I did rent a 1.3 diesel for 1 week as well - which was a much better car, and got about 41 mpg out of that. I don't drive econamically but i didn't rape it.......

VTEC to Turbo

Cheers

Got to be a diesel and I'd never buy a new car (well not for a long time to come at least) because I can't afford to loose money at the rate new cars do.

At least if I buy a car for £1K I can't loose anymore money than that (worst case). More than happy to service and maintain the car myself (discs, pads, shoes etc).

Reffro

In which case if you are handy with the spanners look at something like the Omega 2.5TD. Inline 6 BMW engine, 130hp, 40+mpg. The car aorund it might be tatty, but he engine is a pearl in sows ear.

Beware of the Peugeot/Citroen 1.9TD, they can run for ever, but they also have two nasty little faults. One, they like to do head gaskets, and when it goes it invariably warps the cylinder head. They are a DIY job to replace, but its not something for a beginner. Two, the heater matrix is about as tough as a chocolate teapot, and to replace it, is a dashboard out job, involving 8 hours labour, to replace a £50 part.....Make sure that what ever car you look at has been religiously serviced and has proper anti rust antifreeze in the cooling system. However I knew all this before I bought a 306 TD, and it was a minter, 95k with full service history, and every bill from new. It had the heater matrix replaced 10k miles previously, Imagine my surprise when 5 months later, the head gasket started to leak enough to blow the heater matrix, meaning a £750 bill to repair both on the cheap.

If I was looking for myself, I'd try and get something like the Omega, or even a tatty Merc 190D. But beware the insurance......

VTEC to Turbo

Reffro

Thanks for the tips will defo keep my eyes open for these faults . Do the Non Turbos also suffer from the same problems?

fatherpierre

I'd go for the 1.8 over the 2.0 if petrol's your choice of juice. It's meant to be the better engine if it's just MPG you're after.

TheBigMan

No. It's bollox.

IF the engine management light comes on it's so bloody cheap to fix.

Golden rule - avoid main dealers.

These things just work. If they go wrong, it's so cheap as they're so common. Vectra's, if driven properly last for donkeys years.

Taxi's are Vectra's, say's it all.

Reffro

Non-turbo's are much better. They still have the chocolate matrix, but they don't suffer from head gasket troubles like the turbo. Just make sure they have dropped the oil regularly, the coolant is clean and the cambelt has been changed in the last 3yrs. Cambelts have been a problem, best not to let them go much past 36k/3 yrs before a change, as they have been known to snap early.

For the answer to any other Peugeot/Citroen queries, best go to http://www.andyspares.com/discussionforum/

logiclee

Just look at the sort of cars that the people who drive all day drive.

Can't go wrong with a bullit proof Octavia TDi, it's the taxi drivers choice.

Just done an eighty mile run to the coast on A roads and averaged 62mpg, thats in a modified 1.9TDi elegance with 140bhp 200lbft.

You can pick up Octavia 1.9tdi Ambient models up for reasonable money, not much to look at but will have elec windows, aircon and cd.

Cheers
Lee