So I reckon I bought the wrong car.

sdanseo

SO back in September I bought (and was lucky enough to get a loan from my Dad to do so) a 2004 1.6 Vectra petrol. €4600 all told and cheap enough for the year and mileage all things considered. 65,000 on it now. Fried the clutch on it, replaced it. Getting woeful fuel consumption (450km to a tank just isn't enough when it looks like I'll be doing 100km a day soon - at present it's costing me about €70 a week to run the car factoring in tax). Long story short, I want to be getting 6-8l/100km if at all possible (as opposed to nearly 13l/100km at present). Ideally a diesel with a 1.7 or smaller engine as I can't afford anything anywhere near new enough to be in the new tax bands.

Any suggestions what car I can get, that's of similar or less mileage, also a saloon preferably but open to everything bar very small cars. I'm not in a position to pay anything more than the value of my current wagen.

Advice appreciated!!

Divorce Referendum

I bought an 05 ford focus 1.6tdci last May for 5,000 euro imported from the north mileage was around 64,000. I would say with your budget you could easily get one privately here for around that price. Getting around 600 miles to the tank so it would be a massive improvement on your current situation.

Jimbob 83

Diesel Skoda Octavia tbh

You're getting less than 22mpg from it at the moment :eek:
My MG is a 2.5 auto and it nearly does that and I reckon that's crap.
Anyway, you'll find it hard to flog the Vectra for €4000 so that's what you'll have to spend, a dealer won't trade it in against something of similar value.

Of course, if you do 100km a day in it presumably your mpg will improve a bit.

unkel

Be careful following the herd all buying diesels these days. Sure you save a lot on fuel, but down the line you might be in for many nasty and expensive surprises. DMF, DPF, etc. etc.

delly

Your mpg sounds way off tbh, I had an '06 Vectra 1.6 and racked up over 140k km's. I always filled when the orange light came on and nearly always got over 700 km's from a tank.

Divorce Referendum

unkel wrote: »

Be careful following the herd all buying diesels these days. Sure you save a lot on fuel, but down the line you might be in for many nasty and expensive surprises. DMF, DPF, etc. etc.

Too true but a diesel around the 04-05 age will more than likely not have a dpf luckily enough. I know my focus doesnt.

vectra

Funny thing those Vectra's
my Niece had a 0 something..(4 or 5) not sure but it was a diesel 2.0 L.
Ran it on here daily commute of around 90 kilometers and twice a week had an extra possibly 60 kilometers run
so all in all she clocked up around 500 ish per week.. She maintained it was robbing her to run. So much so she went and sold it and bought a '08 Astra GTC 1.4.. She says it is costing her a lot less to run each week..
Something tells me she just wanted to change her car but there you go :pac:

dnme

unkel wrote: »

Be careful following the herd all buying diesels these days. Sure you save a lot on fuel, but down the line you might be in for many nasty and expensive surprises. DMF, DPF, etc. etc.

Not to mention aging common rail fuel systems going tits up and costing upto 3k to put right.

OP, How you drive can have a serious affect on fuel consumption. Try getting into the habit of having as light a foot as possible. You can often lift your foot slightly and maintain current speed. Also slow down, keep it around 55-60 and see how that goes. Also, get rid of all unnecessary weight, clean out the car, empty the boot etc, Check tire pressure, check suspension parts such as struts, tie rods etc. Check brakes are well maintained and function properly. Good service, filters, correct oil, clean out throttle body. Add a cleaning agent to fuel to clean injectors.

Brim the tank.
Set your odometer to 0
Drive for about half a tank
Note mileage
Brim it again
Work out mpg from this
Repeat 3-4 times and you'll get a very true reading

TheAceFace

Something is definitely wrong with your car OP. I had a 2.2 petrol Signum (similar to the vectra) and I was getting just over 600km out of a tank of petrol. Would you not drop it into an Opel garage and have it checked out on their diagnostics. There may be a faulty o2 sensor or something else wrong with it that's causing it to burn more fuel than is needed.

J77

It sounds like there's something wrong with the car if that's all you're getting. I'd recommend getting some diagnostics done too.

Definitely don't forget about the other problems associated with diesels. Although your budget probably won't allow you to buy much with a DMF or DPF.

Are you sure you're not just looking for an excuse to change the car because you don't like it?? We won't judge:D

He may well be doing mainly urban spins with an average speed of less than 20kph. Folks forget that if you are taking 20 minutes to go a mile or two your consumption goes through the roof.

Lurching

Bloody hell OP, I managed to get my old lancer evo down to a much better consumption than that, you must be driving the crap out of it? Or else doing a lot of motorway milage, which isn't ideal in a 1.6.

Lurching

Lurching wrote: »

Or else doing a lot of motorway milage, which isn't ideal in a 1.6.

I reckon 5th in a 1.6 Vectra is long enough to cope with 120kph while returning close to 40mpg to be honest.

ssmith6287

burned the clutch? Not very easy to that on a 1.6 vectra unless your rallying. Id imagine your very heavy footed?

sdanseo

Cheers for the replies all. Yeah fairly heavy footed all right, can't deny that. Might try addressing that as I do tend to be a bit impatient (but never so that my driving becomes in any way dangerous, all bias aside I'm a safe driver).

There is, according to my mechanic, a tie rod worn on one side which produces a lot of vibration at high speeds so this is probably contributing to the low MPG and it is mainly urban driving if I'm honest. Still though, 450km from a tank is what I'm gettign and it's brutal. Even when the tie rod gets fixed and tracking sorted I;m not overly confident of seeing a huge improvement.

I really don't want the hassle of changing car again - I like this one despite is performance, and it's fairly nippy too in fairness - but I simply can't afford to be forking out close to €100 a week to run it. My driving style is fairly deep embedded too because I'd a corsa before which I was almost trying to beat into the ground for an excuse to scrap it - the thing just would NOT break! - so maybe an automatic would be better? My clutch control is terrible (but I love having it, all the same) - which leaves me terrified of burning otu the clutch again just as quickly. In fact I reckon it could even be slipping again (but probably just me worrying lol).

no1beemerfan

Not being smart but it sounds like you need to sort out your driving habits. As well as it affecting your fuel consumption your wearing out parts quicker than normal.

No point in changing your car if your driving is going to be the same.

heathersonline

+1 I have one of these at the moment and getting over 700km to a full tank

delly wrote: »

Your mpg sounds way off tbh, I had an '06 Vectra 1.6 and racked up over 140k km's. I always filled when the orange light came on and nearly always got over 700 km's from a tank.

dnme

I drive an old 98 car, it's just a 1.3L which means it has to work to pull the car. Here's the thing.....

When I drive it hard, my fuel consumption almost doubles. I've measured it, I'm talking literally. So now I drive around at 55mph and it almost halves my fuel bill.

Max Power1

dnme wrote: »

I drive an old 98 car, it's just a 1.3L which means it has to work to pull the car. Here's the thing.....

When I drive it hard, my fuel consumption almost doubles. I've measured it, I'm talking literally. So now I drive around at 55mph and it almost halves my fuel bill.

Is that a fiesta by any chance? With the 1.3 pushrod engine?

Because I have a 1.3 fiesta (96) and its the exact same

dnme

Max Power1 wrote: »

Is that a fiesta by any chance? With the 1.3 pushrod engine?

Because I have a 1.3 fiesta (96) and its the exact same

No Corolla. Great car, I adore it. But it needs to be driven right - like all cars I guess.

J77

sdonn wrote: »

Still though, 450km from a tank is what I'm gettign and it's brutal. Even when the tie rod gets fixed and tracking sorted I;m not overly confident of seeing a huge improvement.

.

Hate to burst a bubble for you but I have a recent (common rail) diesel and I've get about 450km to a tank with urban driving. It's a 52 liter tank and the vectra is 60 I think (not positive). Diesels are only a proper step up in MPG when it comes to N road/motorway driving.