4x4 Options for Low Tax and Good MPG

paddy147

Lullymore24 wrote: »

I've created a shortlist

1) Kia Sonata Poor Fuel, Cheap-ish Tax, good offroad
2) Volvo XC70 High-ish Tax Good Fuel but expensive 4x4 car to buy
3) Cheap crew-cab and take the hit on Tax & Fuel but balances out overall?

I have to do my sums and see overall which works out best, as I do around 20k per year with at least 5k offroad/mountain or country.

Service costs...oh and not to mention having a baby/young child in it when you approach a garda/customs checkpoint and they ask you why is there a baby in the back of this commercial???:pac:


Unlesss its taxed privately and you have deep deep pockets to pay out big bucks on the 2.5TD tax.

paddy147

Dont forget that Tax goes up from the 1st January (thanks to Mr Noonan)

Eric Cartman

Lullymore24 wrote: »

I've created a shortlist

1) Kia Sonata Poor Fuel, Cheap-ish Tax, good offroad
2) Volvo XC70 High-ish Tax Good Fuel but expensive 4x4 car to buy
3) Cheap crew-cab and take the hit on Tax & Fuel but balances out overall?

I have to do my sums and see overall which works out best, as I do around 20k per year with at least 5k offroad/mountain or country.

Kia sorento - reasonably cheap, out of the 3 service costs are in the middle, tax is the lowest , has a low range box, is fairly reliable and good off road , will do 28mpg average

XC70 - the most expensive to buy out of the 3 , highest services costs, most comfortable , its an AWD car more than a 4x4 as in no lo range box, but perfect for icy roads. In the same tax bracket as the sorento.

crewcab - chances are your talking mitsubishi l200, isuzu d-max or a ford ranger (hiluxes hold their prices too well, and I wouldnt go near a d22 navara) , cheapest to service , can be the cheapest or most expensive to tax depending on how you want to risk it, 25-27mpg for a 3 litre , all of the propper part time 4wd with low range box , but without any weight on the back i can tell you theyll still slide on the ice so get yourself a few bags of sand or something for the back.

in summary , you asked for 40mpg, <1000 a year to tax , 8k or less. with the above selections you should be able to hit your price target, the tax perhaps, I have no idea what the rate for 2400-2500cc is , the mpg figure is the one you wont get near, even 30mpg would be a nice figure for what you want.

paddy147

Subaru Forrester perhaps???


great car and would be suit your needs....depending on how much Mountainy and off road you are wanting to do???

Lullymore24

paddy147 wrote: »

Subaru Forrester perhaps???


great car and would be suit your needs....depending on how much Mountainy and off road you are wanting to do???

If I can find one I'd be interested.
Never drove one but they have an excellent reputation

paddy147

Lullymore24 wrote: »

If I can find one I'd be interested.
Never drove one but they have an excellent reputation

http://cars.donedeal.ie/find/cars/for-sale/Ireland/subaru%20forester

CJhaughey

paddy147 wrote: »

Subaru Forrester perhaps???


great car and would be suit your needs....depending on how much Mountainy and off road you are wanting to do???

Make sure it has a hitch to tow a petrol bowser.:D

Cuddlesworth

paddy147 wrote: »

http://cars.donedeal.ie/find/cars/for-sale/Ireland/subaru%20forester

Jesus, prices on them shot up in the last two months. I picked up a 2005 2.5xt from a dealer for 5500 about 3 months ago. With 600 quids worth of tax, all the extras, a full main dealer service history with nine stamps and 60k miles on the clock. Wasn't the only one in that price range around.

But they do horrible mpg. You would be lucky to ever hit above 30mpg on the 2 litre petrol's. I'm struggling to hit 25mpg on a 30/70 city/motorway split and drive it like a granny. Best I hit was 27 mpg, full motorway run to Galway at 100kph.

And practically none of the diesels were sold when they came out, since they didn't have "low" Co2 and the associated tax.

Fun car to drive though. Been hoping for snow since I bought it.

Stonewolf

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

But they do horrible mpg. You would be lucky to ever hit above 30mpg on the 2 litre petrol's. I'm struggling to hit 25mpg on a 30/70 city/motorway split and drive it like a granny. Best I hit was 27 mpg, full motorway run to Galway at 100kph.

If you want good fuel mileage you shouldn't drive like a granny. Pick a cruising speed, get there as fast as possible and stick to it. Don't coast (rolling with the clutch in) but do bring the car to a stop on engine breaking, avoid using actual brakes except where necessary. Throw any crap that might by laying around in your car out and choose a slightly higher gear as your engine will be more efficient under some load.

paddy147

Audi Allroad perhaps??


http://cars.donedeal.ie/find/cars/for-sale/Ireland/?filter(model)=Allroad&filter(make)=Audi

paddy147

Stonewolf wrote: »

If you want good fuel mileage you shouldn't drive like a granny. Pick a cruising speed, get there as fast as possible and stick to it. Don't coast (rolling with the clutch in) but do bring the car to a stop on engine breaking, avoid using actual brakes except where necessary. Throw any crap that might by laying around in your car out and choose a slightly higher gear as your engine will be more efficient under some load.

And make sure your tyre pressues are all correct too.

Cuddlesworth

Stonewolf wrote: »

If you want good fuel mileage you shouldn't drive like a granny. Pick a cruising speed, get there as fast as possible and stick to it. Don't coast (rolling with the clutch in) but do bring the car to a stop on engine breaking, avoid using actual brakes except where necessary. Throw any crap that might by laying around in your car out and choose a slightly higher gear as your engine will be more efficient under some load.

All of which I do. I leave large gaps in front of me when driving, which I use to time my approach at junctions to avoid having to stop, cruise on motorways on a flat at a 90kph indicated and allow my speed to drop on inclines. I know how to Hypermile, I spent a good few years with no cash and have gotten great fuel economy in many vehicles.

All of which doesn't matter in the slightest with the Forester. It eats fuel, something I was very aware of before I bought it.

Lullymore24

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

All of which I do. I leave large gaps in front of me when driving, which I use to time my approach at junctions to avoid having to stop, cruise on motorways on a flat at a 90kph indicated and allow my speed to drop on inclines. I know how to Hypermile, I spent a good few years with no cash and have gotten great fuel economy in many vehicles.

All of which doesn't matter in the slightest with the Forester. It eats fuel, something I was very aware of before I bought it.

I'm leaning towards Volvo, but they are expensive with sub 100k miles

god's toy

paddy147 wrote: »

Buy a Fiat Panda.


4x4,low tax and good boot space and good mpg

Or something a little bit bigger? Like a Suzuki SX4 (4x4) or Fiat Sedici (4x4) (same car)

Irish Steve

FWIW, I have an Isuzu TFS crewcab, fitted with a fibreglass hardtop on the back, right now it has BF Goodrich AT tyres on it(235/7- 16) , it's a pre Denver model, 2003, with the 2.5 Turbo Diesel engine.

If I am not in a massive hurry, it's giving me high 30's per gallon still, (117 K miles on it), and the only thing that knocks that down to any extent is if I push 120 Kph on the motorways, which it will do without much complaint, but the economy suffers.

It will pull large heavy trailers, and with the extra weight of the hardtop on the back, even if there's not much in the rear, I've yet to have any serious worries about it in ice and snow, in 4WD it seems to be very comfortable. The recent winters where we had significant snow it spent most of its time in 4WD, but that was not an issue.

Done very little serious off road with it, I got it for it's ability to cope with water depths that a car can't manage, which it does with no hassles.

It's not the most comfortable vehicle to drive on long runs(3 Hours plus) , but other than that, I can't complain, I've had to do very little to it maintenance wise since 2003, some suspension bushes, CV boots, balljoints, and last year a couple of shocks and a silencer, but those sorts of parts are considerably cheaper to buy in from a company like Milner off road in the UK (no connection other than as a happy customer), and the 2.5 engine doesn't have a rubber timing belt to cost money, its a good old fashioned timing chain.

Finding a non commercial one could be more difficult, and I don't know what the insurance companies attitude to them as a private vehicle is, mine is commercial and used as such.

Hope that helps a little, the occasional unicorn is out there to be found.

Ben Crosbie

Lullymore24 wrote: »

Guys.
I'm looking for a 4x4 that will offer good mpg for long haul, at least 40mpg and Tax that is affordable.
All I can find is 2x4's on CBG
It will be Taxed PRIVATE and must be able to seat Children in compliance with Irish Law.
Price Tag €6-8000 max.

I've driven Lancruisers, highlux,L200's, Troopers etc, but the Tax is an issue now and Fuel costs.
All help appreciated

Try either rav-4 or nissan xtrail 2.2dci seems to ve the best performers. Was even thinking of engine swapping my hrv because of the thirsty 1.6 petrol. But i reckon the xtrail is the best all rounder, amd good performer. Either them or go for a manual sorento which maybe out of budget costs.

An Ri rua

Ben Crosbie wrote: »

Try either rav-4 or nissan xtrail 2.2dci seems to ve the best performers. Was even thinking of engine swapping my hrv because of the thirsty 1.6 petrol. But i reckon the xtrail is the best all rounder, amd good performer. Either them or go for a manual sorento which maybe out of budget costs.

Convert your petrol to dual fuel with LPGain or someone like that. I did that with a 407 Coupe 2.2 petrol and it had no loss in power and was better mpg than most diesels on the market (at 60-70cent a litre). Obviously, dear gas makes for less savings.

If I wanted to race, I'd press the switch and run on petrol. But for my long commute (70 miles each way), I ran on lpg. A good installation is about 1300. A value one (Stag) might be around €800 for a 4 cylinder.

If it was me, I'd check the costs of DMFs etc and other issues on newer diesels before crossing off the option of a petrol 4x4 suv. I run a non DMF CRV 2.2 cdti for those reasons. Great little machine, still poorer on fuel than my LPG 407 coupé.

Edited to add: - apologies for the thread resurrection.