1.6 Diesel options....or should I go petrol?

cojobt

Hi,

Currently I drive a 2003 Audi A4 1.9 TDI 100bhp. The tax is fairly high (approx 560 pa). The insurance is usually in or around 500. I was considering changing my car and opting for a smaller engine, but preferably diesel. I usually hit around 30000 p.a.

The budget is roughly €4000. I am having trouble finding smaller diesel engines except in new cars. What should I be looking at?

Or, alternatively, if I changed to petrol, maybe a 1.5 or 1.6, I will save on motor tax annually, but I would probably end up spending more on petrol, wouldn't I?

What does the nation think of this burning matter?

-Chris-

You'll find it very hard to find a car with a small diesel engine prior to '08.

If you change to a small petrol engine, I'd expect the tax saving to be completely dwarfed by the increase in fuel costs.

Do you want/need a new car, or are you just looking to reduce your tax cost?
If you're just looking to reduce your tax cost, don't bother. It's a false saving to trade up in years (and incur the higher depreciation etc.) just to save a few hundred Euro on tax.
If you want/need a new car, I'd stick with diesel in your position and just get used to the idea of continuing with €5-600 for motor tax.

Mycroft H

-Chris- wrote: »

You'll find it very hard to find a car with a small diesel engine prior to '08.

PSA 1.6hdi produced since 2005, fitted in multitudes different cars including; fords, citroens, peugeots, volvos and the MINI

Plenty of 1.6 diesels knocking about circa 2005 upwards.....

-Chris-

BX 19 wrote: »

PSA 1.6hdi produced since 2005, fitted in multitudes different cars including; fords, citroens, peugeots, volvos and the MINI

Plenty of 1.6 diesels knocking about circa 2005 upwards.....

Filtering Carzone to all cars from 2004 to 2007, petrol cars outnumber diesels 2:1.

When you filter to diesel, there are 5,075 cars from 1.9 and over, but only 1,700 under 1.9.
Of those, only 950 are 1.6 or less (5% of the vehicles on sale, give or take).
Of those 950, a decent amount seem to be commercial vehicles or superminis.

Seeing as the OP currently drives an A4, and does 30k pa, I'm presuming they don't want to switch to a commercial vehicle or supermini (but that's an assumption on my part).

So, while you're quite correct that the 1.6HDI engine was produced prior to 2008, I'll still stand by my opinion that the OP will find it hard to find a car (suitable for them, I guess I should have specified that, but I presumed it was implied), pre-2008 with a diesel engine smaller than 1.8.


Of course, if you find any online, please post a link here. It'd be more helpful than correcting my post... :rolleyes:

Zimmerframe

If your A4 is driving fine, you would be mad to change to "save" money.
The difference in tax rate between a 1.6d prior to 2008 and your A4 would I'd guess be about €3 a week.
Petrol would make even less sense.

Hiace.

cojobt wrote: »

I usually hit around 30000 p.a.

30k of wha ?

EPM

The A4, if running well, will be a better car. You'll save €150 ish a year on tax. Unless you want a change keep it.

cojobt

I have no great desire to change the car as it's a great car. However I'm finding it more and more costly to keep on the road with general maintenance and tax. Between servicing, NCT demands, tyres and tax it's proven to be an expensive beast this year. It occurred to me that if I changed to a smaller vehicle tax would be reduced and running costs in a car that is not an Audi might make it more affordable. It has 160,000 miles on the clock.

I travel 30,000 miles pa, give or take.

The reason I started thinking about it is simply because a friend suggested he may know someone interested in buying the car for around €6000. I had not been thinking of buying a car before this. I then thought perhaps I could sell and buy something small, still economical, and save in the future. Unfortunately I don't think I can afford to purchase an '08.

Thanks for all your research, input and advice guys. It's been helpful, and probably confirmed my original idea, that I'm better off keeping the A4. It would probably break my heart to sell it to be honest!

bazz26

cojobt wrote: »

I have no great desire to change the car as it's a great car. However I'm finding it more and more costly to keep on the road with general maintenance and tax. Between servicing, NCT demands, tyres and tax it's proven to be an expensive beast this year. It occurred to me that if I changed to a smaller vehicle tax would be reduced and running costs in a car that is not an Audi might make it more affordable. It has 160,000 miles on the clock.

I travel 30,000 miles pa, give or take.

The reason I started thinking about it is simply because a friend suggested he may know someone interested in buying the car for around €6000. I had not been thinking of buying a car before this. I then thought perhaps I could sell and buy something small, still economical, and save in the future. Unfortunately I don't think I can afford to purchase an '08.

Thanks for all your research, input and advice guys. It's been helpful, and probably confirmed my original idea, that I'm better off keeping the A4. It would probably break my heart to sell it to be honest!

On a budget of €4k your new car will need an NCT, tax, tyres and maintenance on top of that too. Cars still cost money to maintain irrespective of age. A pre 2008 1.4 or 1.6 diesel car will still cost €333 or €445 to tax per year respectively compared to the €590 you are paying now. So you are going to spend €4k to save roughly €300 per year in tax at best. So it would take you over 12 years to actually save money on from the slightly cheaper tax.

Unless your current car has huge repair bills around the corner then I would just drive it into the ground.

opinion guy

cojobt wrote: »

I have no great desire to change the car as it's a great car. However I'm finding it more and more costly to keep on the road with general maintenance and tax. Between servicing, NCT demands, tyres and tax it's proven to be an expensive beast this year. It occurred to me that if I changed to a smaller vehicle tax would be reduced and running costs in a car that is not an Audi might make it more affordable. It has 160,000 miles on the clock.

I travel 30,000 miles pa, give or take.

The reason I started thinking about it is simply because a friend suggested he may know someone interested in buying the car for around €6000. I had not been thinking of buying a car before this. I then thought perhaps I could sell and buy something small, still economical, and save in the future. Unfortunately I don't think I can afford to purchase an '08.

Thanks for all your research, input and advice guys. It's been helpful, and probably confirmed my original idea, that I'm better off keeping the A4. It would probably break my heart to sell it to be honest!

Think of it this way. You've invested in new tyres and NCT this year + maintenance. You might as well get the use of those tyres and NCT since you've spent the cash on them. Yes you could have another problem but you could have that with any car

pajo1981

-Chris- wrote: »

Filtering Carzone to all cars from 2004 to 2007, petrol cars outnumber diesels 2:1.

When you filter to diesel, there are 5,075 cars from 1.9 and over, but only 1,700 under 1.9.
Of those, only 950 are 1.6 or less (5% of the vehicles on sale, give or take).
Of those 950, a decent amount seem to be commercial vehicles or superminis.

Seeing as the OP currently drives an A4, and does 30k pa, I'm presuming they don't want to switch to a commercial vehicle or supermini (but that's an assumption on my part).

So, while you're quite correct that the 1.6HDI engine was produced prior to 2008, I'll still stand by my opinion that the OP will find it hard to find a car (suitable for them, I guess I should have specified that, but I presumed it was implied), pre-2008 with a diesel engine smaller than 1.8.


Of course, if you find any online, please post a link here. It'd be more helpful than correcting my post... :rolleyes:

There are hundreds of suitable pre 2008 1.6HDI cars available. What's hard about that?

Magown3

If you do a lot of mileage per year, it would probably easier to save money by travelling slower on the motorway!

I'm not kidding. I've an A4 also and have done 25k miles in the last year. If I drive motorways at 75mph, I'd usually get 500-550 miles to a tank. However, if I sit on 60mph or just below, I can get over 650 miles to a tank. It's actually quite relaxing when you see a garda car on the side of a motorway and you don't panic straight away while checking your speedo!

So if you're saving 100 miles on every tank, approx every 6 fil-ups, you're saving a tank, which is going to be 75 quid approx saving.

heate

Shock changing your car will cost you dearly! Cars cost money to run and buying a fresher one to save costs will cost a fortune!


Stick with your A4 until something major happens like a gearbox or the engine implodes.

dr.fuzzenstein

Keep it!
I have an '06 CMax 1.8 TDCI and often wonder should I change to either an auld banger and pocket the difference from selling mine, or should I invest into a newer, lower taxed vehicle.
Option one would mean I have an auld banger and any day now something could go seriously wrong with it. It could go wrong with my car too, but it being newer, there is less chance of that.
Option two would mean I have a newer, cheaper car that does more miles to the gallon and is also less likely to go wrong.
But mine already does 50+ mpg and the newer 1.6 with DPF's and all that other Blarney can implode in very serious and expensive ways.
Plus the inital outlay will wipe out any savings you might make.
Also, whatever car you buy, it will cost you almost the same in tyres, servicing, tax, etc...
I have come to the conclusion that there's nothing in it, every car is expensive and changing it won't make the blindest bit of difference.
Unless you buy a super-mini with a 1.2 diesel, but that might not work if you do a lot of mileage.
Having said that, I drove a new Polo diesel in Germany, it was very comfy (it's bigger than the original Golf), did cruise very easily at motorway speeds, but was seriously lacking in the poke department.
So, go supermini, or stick with what you got is my 2 cents.

Damokc

of course theres always the dreaded dCi engines which start at 1.5 i think and have been around since 03/04

heate

30,000 Miles a year is big mileage, I assume quite a bit of motorway mileage as well I'd imagine.

I don't think that a small car is ideal for that mileage, or a small engine for that matter you'll end up burning more fuel to keep pace.

I came up behind a young guy in a punto last night on the M50 as he decided to overtake (a person who was in the middle lane and really shouldn't have been) I had to stand on the brakes as he tried to speed up - I was doing about 130km/h he was struggling from 90 - 120. Took an age for him to get back into the middle lane. Very dangerous for the driver.

ardmacha

I was doing about 130km/h he was struggling from 90 - 120. Took an age for him to get back into the middle lane. Very dangerous for the driver.

A bit of oomph is always good. But it would have been less dangerous if you hadn't been doing 30kmh over the speed limit and if the plonker hadn't been in the middle lane.

cojobt

You have all confirmed what I was thinking, or needed to be reminded about. I don't spend a lot of time on motorways. I live in Donegal and travel the length of the county weekly. It's a big county. Add to that plenty of local runs and the miles add up. The point about getting my money's worth out of the car after spending so much on repairs/maintenance/etc is a good one. Hopefully after this NCT I'll be problem free until the next one in a year.