A novice looking for car advice..

Boooourns

Hi folks
Being a man i'm expected to know my cars but to be honest i'm pretty clueless and i'm looking for some advice.

Basically i've started a new job and i'll be driving 170kms a day, i have a 06 Ford focus 1.4 and as you can guess it's eating petrol at the moment, it's costing me over 100euro a week so i'm just looking for advice on what size engines, fuel i should be looking at or if anyone can actually recommend me makes of cars.

Any car will be considered from cheap to dear (up to around 14k) but i'm wary of buying a dear car as the value will be lost as i rack up the miles.
Cheers for all help in advance.

colm_mcm

Do the maths. you may well save money on petrol by spending €14k, but you wont save €14k.

mathepac

In fact you'll immediately start losing money (in depreciation) faster than your current fuel bill. Run it 'til it stops and then buy a diesel would be my suggestion.

Boooourns

Yeah two good points but i forgot to mention my Wife is going to need a car as well so i'll have to pick up a car of some sort and a decent one as we have a new baby. So even it if came to her taking the focus and me buying a decent car that'll get me to work and back then i'll go with that.

Boooourns

Boooourns wrote: »

................
Basically i've started a new job and i'll be driving 170kms a day, i have a 06 Ford focus 1.4 and as you can guess it's eating petrol at the moment, it's costing me over 100euro a week..............

That's about 38mpg presuming you just do the 170kms 5 days a week and no other driving buying the fuel at €1.54/litre.

Realistically you will be doing a mile or two in the evenings or at the weekend so we could approximate and say you're getting 40mpg from the Focus.

Changing to a car returning 50mpg/week will cost €73 if you buy your diesel at €1.52/litre.

Excuse the crude calculations but I reckon savings of between €25 and €35 per week are possible, so €1300 to €1800 per annum of fuel.

Add in cost to change etc etc and you might find it's cheaper to knock another year or two out of the Focus, now that's purely looking at the financial side of things and not comfort etc but you did say the €100/week in petrol is the motivation

Of course lots of modern diesels will return 55mpg.

Boooourns

Yeah alot of sense being spoken but the Missus is going to need a car, if i was to leave the focus with herself then what kind of inexpensive cars should i be looking at? My head is wrecked with all of this!

IrishZeus

What kind of car do you like?

Saloon? Hatchback? Coupe?

Big/small/sporty looking/comfortable etc?

Or is the only concern around running costs?

Boooourns

IrishZeus wrote: »

What kind of car do you like?

Saloon? Hatchback? Coupe?

Big/small/sporty looking/comfortable etc?

Or is the only concern around running costs?

Since it'll just be for getting to work and back then it'll be pretty much running costs and reliability i'll be looking at, so i'll consider anything...well except something that looks like a box on wheels :pac:

1.8 diesel Focus, Peugeot 406 or 607 HDi, Citroen C5 HDi, you'd get decent ones of them for less than €5000


http://cars.donedeal.ie/for-sale/cars/2775148



That for instance, 1.6 so reasonable tax, not too bad miles wise, NCT'd for ages (2 years), some tax too.

Boooourns

Cheers for the reply. Just wondering about buying a car with high mileage, is it really a big concern when buying?

Boooourns

Is this a decent buy?

http://www.carzone.ie/search/Ford/Fiesta/1.4-TDCi/201202206505968/advert?channel=CARS

Boooourns

Boooourns wrote: »

Cheers for the reply. Just wondering about buying a car with high mileage, is it really a big concern when buying?

Well doing 500 miles/week will have whatever you buy now with 50,000 more miles on the clock in two years time, I wouldn't consider 90/100k miles high on a 5 or 6 year old diesel

I'd prefer the C5 to that Fiesta and also consider it a better buy The diesel in that Fiesta isn't the best really.

bazz26

I would not fancy doing 170km a day in a small car, they are not designed for that kind of driving. You need something comfortable with plenty of room and refinement.

Something like this maybe? Its been on sale for ages at that price so maybe the garage are open to realistic offers. Nice comfortable car with a BMW diesel engine:
http://www.driving.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carID=713258394466440

johnos1984

bazz26 wrote: »

I would not fancy doing 170km a day in a small car, they are not designed for that kind of driving. You need something comfortable with plenty of room and refinement.

Something like this maybe? Its been on sale for ages at that price so maybe the garage are open to realistic offers. Nice comfortable car with a BMW diesel engine:
http://www.driving.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carID=713258394466440

That one has been for sale since Jesus was a boy

bazz26

Price hasn't budged either, maybe they are waiting for Rover to make a comeback?

Merch

Like the rover 75, any ideas what the mpg is on the 1.8/2.0's?
For bigger miles the fiesta will become a bit tedious, fine for nipping around or even medium distance but not long journeys, something bigger, with some comfort and a bit of boot space.

Merch

Merch wrote: »

Like the rover 75, any ideas what the mpg is on the 1.8/2.0's?...............

Petrol or diesel 2.0s?
The diesel would be 50mpg ish for most folk.

Boooourns

RoverJames wrote: »

1.8 diesel Focus, Peugeot 406 or 607 HDi, Citroen C5 HDi, you'd get decent ones of them for less than €5000


http://cars.donedeal.ie/for-sale/cars/2775148



That for instance, 1.6 so reasonable tax, not too bad miles wise, NCT'd for ages (2 years), some tax too.

Is the tax on that over 500euro now?