Advice Needed Please

2010 G

Lately I feel I'm at the pumps a lot more. The price of petrol is ridiculous mainly because of our f#uckin government. I'm thinking of changing to a diesel. I'm interested in a 2005/2006 Toyota Corolla 1.4 d4d, Ford Focus 1.6 Tdci and Opel Astra 1.3/1.7 cdti. Don't want to go over the 1.7 mark because of tax and insurance. Can anyone give me advice on each of these please. I'm looking for economy, reliability, road handling and low service costs. And which one would be best suited for hard driving from time to time.??????

bazz26

What kind of average mileage are you doing a year as the cost to trade-up could buy you alot of fuel if your mileage is small enough?

aidanodr

Hiya,

I have been rambling on in other threads about this - A car that ticks all the boxes in a way is the 2006 ON - Golf GT TSI 1.4.

This is a new engine that VW came up with which has both a supercharger AND a turbocharger. Can be bought as a 120bhp / 140bhp / 170bhp.

BUT it does about mid 50's mpg and has great torque - around 200nm for those hills in any gear.

VW got awards for it - top engine in 06 and 07.

So lower tax and also lower / reasonable insurance ( even the 140bhp ). Check quinn online.

If you wanted to go cheaper - though I am not sure of resale value - the Seat Leon also has the same engine ( Seat owned by VW ).

Aidan

Henry Ford III

aidanodr wrote: »

Hiya,

I have been rambling on in other threads about this - A car that ticks all the boxes in a way is the 2006 ON - Golf GT TSI 1.4.

This is a new engine that VW came up with which has both a supercharger AND a turbocharger. Can be bought as a 120bhp / 140bhp / 170bhp.

BUT it does about mid 50's mpg and has great torque - around 200nm for those hills in any gear.

VW got awards for it - top engine in 06 and 07.

So lower tax and also lower / reasonable insurance ( even the 140bhp ). Check quinn online.

If you wanted to go cheaper - though I am not sure of resale value - the Seat Leon also has the same engine ( Seat owned by VW ).

Aidan

It doesn't do 50mpg, and probably doesn't even average 40mpg in the real world.

The twincharger technology applies to 140/170bhp engines only. 120bhp is turbo only I think.

Oh and they tend to be a fair bit less than fully reliable too.

Mc Love

Tax and insurance are higher too iirc as opposed to normal 1.4

2010 G

just over 20,000 miles a year

bazz26

Ok out of that bunch I would go for the Focus 1.6 TDCi, I had one and it was a fine car, great handling, nippy enough with good fuel economy and the car was very reliable over 2 years of ownership. The 1.6 TDCi is a Peugeot/Citroen HDi unit except that Ford use their own turbo. There is also a wide choice of trim and spec to choose from and Ford parts and servicing are not expensive.

The 1.4 D-4D in the Corolla is surprisingly peppy for it's size but the Corolla doesn't handle as well as the Focus and most Irish spec Corollas are pretty basic. The 1.4 D-4D has been pretty reliable and Toyota's after sales service is very good. The downside is that these cars are expensive to buy as they well sought after in this country.

The 1.3 CDTi in the Astra is a Fiat Multi-jet unit and one of the best engines in that class. The 1.7 CDTi afaik is an updated version of the old Isuzu engine which Opel have used for years. It is very reliable and has a bit more leg to it than the 1.3 litre unit. The Astra itself is a tidy handler and the 3 door Sportshatch is the looker of the range.

BennyBlanko

Consider a volvo s40 1.6d 2005> - great chassis and comfy.

veetwin

122bhp version is turbo only. Other versions have supercharger also. However none will come close to 50 mpg. I have the 122 bhp one and it averages 35 to 40 mpg. It is however a very nice engine smooth and powerful enough for most normal conditions and more economical and much nicer than the basic 1.4. It has been very reliable over the last two years and costs €300 to tax. I have heard that the more powerful versions are difficult to insure for younger drivers and have questionable reliability.