At what point is Diesel necessary

meoklmrk91

I want a new car, I drive to college 4 days a week, it will be 5 next year, it's a 90 mile round trip, I currently have a 1.0L polo, my dad wants me to stay small engined and just go up in the years. I would prefer to go diesel as I think it would make more economic sense and would just be nicer in general. I think I could get just as much fuel economy if not more on say a 1.9 A4 as I can on the 1L Polo, while being more comfortable, a different class of car.

Now I'm not kidding myself, I know I am not going to save as much money as the extra tax costs but I am sick to the teeth of owning a car I don't like or care about, it was fine but I've had it three years now and am bored to death.

360 to 450 miles a week could well justify a diesel over a super mini if you were changing cars anyway.

challengemaster

First off, work out would it be cheaper to find some student accommodation closer to the college for the year rather than do a massive upgrade and still do 450 miles a week. If it works out cheaper, then you've reduced your need to go home every day (ie. 90 miles a day) to maybe 90 a week, or 90 every two weeks.

That still doesn't address the issue that you want a new car though, but it also opens up the range of cars to nice petrols also, because you won't have large fuel bills.

If that's not an option, then you need to look at the sort of driving your trip to/from college is, and will it be suited better to diesel or petrol in terms of fuel economy.

Also start to write down a list of cars you'd like, and work out a budget. Then mix and match until you find the best fit for all the criteria

andyseadog

i drive a 70 mile a day commute to college.

using extremely rough figures, it costs me around €14 a day in my 2.0 diesel. i'm getting late 40's in the mpg's 47/49

was previously doing it in a 1.6 petrol corolla and was taking €19 euro to do the same job. getting low 30's mpgs 33/34 absolute tops

to cut a long story extremely short, a fiver a day over 20 commuting days a month is a hundred euro.

the difference in tax between my 1.6 (€480) and my 2.0 (€660) is 180 euro. so after 36 commuting days i've saved the extra cost of a years tax and im officially into "savings" so to speak.

so figure out what mpg your getting from the polo and work the figures from there. as james said, a good guide imo is sort of above 400 miles per week you wont be long about saving your tax money back.

*expecting my mpg vs money figures to be blown out of the water sharpish

meoklmrk91

challengemaster wrote: »

First off, work out would it be cheaper to find some student accommodation closer to the college for the year rather than do a massive upgrade and still do 450 miles a week. If it works out cheaper, then you've reduced your need to go home every day (ie. 90 miles a day) to maybe 90 a week, or 90 every two weeks.

That still doesn't address the issue that you want a new car though, but it also opens up the range of cars to nice petrols also, because you won't have large fuel bills.

If that's not an option, then you need to look at the sort of driving your trip to/from college is, and will it be suited better to diesel or petrol in terms of fuel economy.

Also start to write down a list of cars you'd like, and work out a budget. Then mix and match until you find the best fit for all the criteria

Moving closer to the college is not an option, I don't mind the drive, it's costing me about €60 a week at the moment, once petrol hits €2 a litre it will be an entirely different story though. I had a friend who used to get a lift with me and paid money towards the petrol but they dropped out. The first half of the trip is back roads and the second half in main roads.

andyseadog

as challengemaster also says though. this september coming i have opted for €15 euro per night student accomodation rather than €15 a day diesel so i can get my ass back into a petrol :pac:

challengemaster

If it's costing you €60 a week at the moment I seriously doubt you'll do any better with a diesel A4 tbh. If your figures are right, you're already getting over 50MPG out of that polo, which you'll barely achieve with a TDI. You certainly won't get much if any benefit on the back roads.

The way I'd look at it is, with that sort of driving you might get 600 miles out of a tank in an A4 TDI, which is 70L as far as I can find out. A fill of the tank is going to cost you €112 @ 159.9c, or the guts of €85 for your weekly trips, and as you said yourself, as fuel prices rise, so will the cost of a tank, be it petrol or diesel.

andyseadog

lads, lets not underestimate the value of the banter to be had in student accomodation too :pac:

gollywog

andyseadog wrote: »

lads, lets not underestimate the value of the banter to be had in student accomodation too :pac:

Damn you just beat me to it!

meoklmrk91

After some research I have come to the conclusion that I can have the best of both worlds, while I would love an A4 theres plenty of time for that when I finish college, for now I am going to buy a small engined diesel car, some of the 1.3's do over 60MPG, and thats not by the manufacturers figures. Corsa seems to be one of the highest specced, Was thinking of the 1.6 HDI C4 as well, seems to be well kitted out, gets good MPG and should have some bit of power, they are however rare as anything plus they don't seem to be very reliable from reports on honestjohn. Any other small engined diesels I should keep in mind?

andyseadog

meoklmrk91 wrote: »

After some research I have come to the conclusion that I can have the best of both worlds, while I would love an A4 theres plenty of time for that when I finish college, for now I am going to buy a small engined diesel car, some of the 1.3's do over 60MPG, and thats not by the manufacturers figures. Corsa seems to be one of the highest specced, Was thinking of the 1.6 HDI C4 as well, seems to be well kitted out, gets good MPG and should have some bit of power, they are however rare as anything plus they don't seem to be very reliable from reports on honestjohn. Any other small engined diesels I should keep in mind?

i really should stress if your changing to diesel, please dont limit your market due to tax costs.

for example a 1.4 tdi polo will cost you 380 to tax and a 2.0 vectra 680, a difference of 300 euro per year. whereas the cost to trade up a few years from your polo will likely cost thousands regardless of what car you chose, so theres little point not getting the car you really want for the sake of 300 euro in tax (less than €1 a day)

Duckjob

challengemaster wrote: »

If it's costing you €60 a week at the moment I seriously doubt you'll do any better with a diesel A4 tbh. If your figures are right, you're already getting over 50MPG out of that polo, which you'll barely achieve with a TDI. You certainly won't get much if any benefit on the back roads.

I would be seriously skeptical about that 50mpg figure.

I had the use of a 1.0 Polo to do a good bit of open road/motorway driving a couple of years back. It would be doing over 4k rpm in 5th on the motorway at 70mph and it was a thirsty pig, totally unsuited to long distance commutes.

I'd be amazed if a modern diesel driven reasonably smoothly couldn't do a lot better.

keithclancy

Duckjob wrote: »

I would be seriously skeptical about that 50mpg figure.

I had the use of a 1.0 Polo to do a good bit of open road/motorway driving a couple of years back. It would be doing over 4k rpm in 5th on the motorway at 70mph and it was a thirsty pig, totally unsuited to long distance commutes.

I'd be amazed if a modern diesel driven reasonably smoothly couldn't do a lot better.

+1 I'd be thinking the around mid 30s City and around 40-42 Motorway at the best.

meoklmrk91

meoklmrk91 wrote: »

I want a new car, I drive to college 4 days a week,.............. it's a 90 mile round trip, I currently have a 1.0L polo,............

meoklmrk91 wrote: »

.......... it's costing me about €60 a week at the moment................

46mpg at least, more really as you no doubt do a mile or two extra over the course of the week.

When petrol hit €2/litre diesel will be not far off it.

my 1.3ctdi astra estate,with a full boot of gear.does 46mpg,thats mixed motorway town diving,
I got 575miles out of one 55litre fill last week (i did nearly run out of juice!)

conzy

At what point is diesel necessary?

When your 40-50 years old

















:pac: