Advice for first car based on fuel consumption

langer123

Hi All

I'm considering applying for a new job that would require 110km of driving per day (550km per working week).

I need to learn to drive, get license and purchase car and insurance/tax. I'm 29.

I'm willing to spend up to 5k on car.

Obviously the cost of fuel will be a large cost for me, so I'm trying to figure out how much it will cost per month before applying for the job.

I have no idea about cars.

What would be a good option that is within my budget, has a low fuel cost, and best for new driver in general?

The main thing I need is the fuel cost per month.

Thanks

CiniO

langer123 wrote: »

Hi All

I'm considering applying for a new job that would require 110km of driving per day (550km per working week).

I need to learn to drive, get license and purchase car and insurance/tax. I'm 29.

I'm willing to spend up to 5k on car.

Obviously the cost of fuel will be a large cost for me, so I'm trying to figure out how much it will cost per month before applying for the job.

I have no idea about cars.

What would be a good option that is within my budget, has a low fuel cost, and best for new driver in general?

The main thing I need is the fuel cost per month.

Thanks

550km per week gives you about 2380km per month.

Cars might vary a lot. Probably the most economical you can get will be doing around 5 l/100km on average, so it will use 119 litres per month. Depending if it's a diesel or petrol it will cost between 180 and 190 euro per month.

However this is the most optimistic option. Your car might as well be using 10l/100km and therefore fuel costs will double.


Remember that fuel cost is only part of motoring cost, which most likely will be only about half of real motoring costs, if not less.

You can buy a diesel car, where fuel consumption will be smaller, but car price will be greater as well as maintenance cost. Petrol car will most likely be cheaper to buy and maintain, but fuel cost will be greater.

It's hard to find optimum.


Also did you include in your costs "learning to drive".
You need to pay for all tests, lessons, etc.

challengemaster

langer123 wrote: »

I need to learn to drive, get license and purchase car and insurance/tax.

You do know you have to wait 6 months from when you get your learner permit before you can sit a driving test?

Cee-Jay-Cee

I'd go for a small car like a Yaris or Micra, 1.0 or 1.3 engine. They're reliable, economical, cheap to tax and insure and easy to drive plus they hold their value pretty good and do if you decided to upgrade in a year or two you will still get good money for them.

langer123

challengemaster wrote: »

You do know you have to wait 6 months from when you get your learner permit before you can sit a driving test?

Yep....I sat and passed the theory test last year. I assume that is what you mean by learner permit?

langer123

CiniO wrote: »

550km per week gives you about 2380km per month.

Cars might vary a lot. Probably the most economical you can get will be doing around 5 l/100km on average, so it will use 119 litres per month. Depending if it's a diesel or petrol it will cost between 180 and 190 euro per month.

However this is the most optimistic option. Your car might as well be using 10l/100km and therefore fuel costs will double.


Remember that fuel cost is only part of motoring cost, which most likely will be only about half of real motoring costs, if not less.

You can buy a diesel car, where fuel consumption will be smaller, but car price will be greater as well as maintenance cost. Petrol car will most likely be cheaper to buy and maintain, but fuel cost will be greater.

It's hard to find optimum.


Also did you include in your costs "learning to drive".
You need to pay for all tests, lessons, etc.

Thanks for the detailed response CiniO.
Yeah I've factored in the ~500 lessons.

Is there any way to roughly calculate how many km per litre any given car could achieve? (Simply by using it's specs on a site for example).

my my my

99-02 opel corsa , best mileage ive ever got from any car= 9 miles to the euro, regardless of currency stability/flexibility

CiniO

langer123 wrote: »

Thanks for the detailed response CiniO.
Yeah I've factored in the ~500 lessons.

Is there any way to roughly calculate how many km per litre any given car could achieve? (Simply by using it's specs on a site for example).

km per litre is not really unit of fuel consumption/economy used by anyone.

There are two
1. Miles per gallon (used mostly in UK, US, etc).
2. Litres per 100km (used in all countries using metric units).

Ireland seems to be exception, as it's a country with metric units, but everyone seems to use MPG instead of l/100km.

Difference is that they work opposite. The more l/100km the worse. The more MPG the better.

You can get those figures f.e. from used car sales sites like autotrader.co.uk or parkers.co.uk

To translate MPG to l/100km you can use google.

But as I said earlier - fact that one car will have better fuel economy than other, doesn't mean it will be cheaper to run.

challengemaster

langer123 wrote: »

Yep....I sat and passed the theory test last year. I assume that is what you mean by learner permit?

No, you have to apply to your local motor tax office with the certificate from the theory test and other documentation required to get your learner permit

http://www.rsa.ie/en/RSA/Learner-Drivers/Your-learner-permit/The-theory-test/Picking-up-your-permit/

langer123

challengemaster wrote: »

No, you have to apply to your local motor tax office with the certificate from the theory test and other documentation required to get your learner permit

http://www.rsa.ie/en/RSA/Learner-Drivers/Your-learner-permit/The-theory-test/Picking-up-your-permit/

Ohhhh right.....fairly sure I applied for and got that, should be lying around the house somewhere!

Idleater

CiniO wrote: »

km per litre is not really unit of fuel consumption/economy used by anyone.

There are two
1. Miles per gallon (used mostly in UK, US, etc).
2. Litres per 100km (used in all countries using metric units).

Pedantic, but km per litre is used. I know in Holland and Belgium, but no doubt others too.
Even Wikipedia mentions it
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_economy_in_automobiles

ironclaw

Just to chime in on the Yaris, I'd urge some caution on what form of driving you'll be doing. If its going to be mainly motorway (Remembering Learner's cannot go on Motorways) and you intend on doing 120km/h I'd suggest the 1.3. The 1.0L Petrol Yaris is a great car but gets a shade uneconomical at motorway speeds.

As a rough guide, I do 70km every day, 5 days a week and then a small amount of mileage on the weekend. Mostly motorway at circa 100km/h. A 1.0L Yaris costs me anywhere between €55 and €65 per week in fuel (About ~35 to 40 liters) depending on if I brim the tank or not.

dgt

ironclaw wrote: »

As a rough guide, I do 70km every day, 5 days a week and then a small amount of mileage on the weekend. Mostly motorway at circa 100km/h. A 1.0L Yaris costs me anywhere between €55 and €65 per week in fuel (About ~35 to 40 liters) depending on if I brim the tank or not.

That much a week?! :eek:

For my average of 500 miles/800 km a week (motorway, back roads, rush hour city driving) it costs approx €60 - €70 in diesel. I understand the yaris will work harder and petrol is dearer but I'm surprised it's that much to say the least. I'm prob missing/overlooked something though....

A similar contrast is my dad who also does about 70km a day 5 days a week costs him €50 a week in a 1.2 petrol. Backroads and town driving to get to work

CiniO

ironclaw wrote: »

Just to chime in on the Yaris, I'd urge some caution on what form of driving you'll be doing. If its going to be mainly motorway (Remembering Learner's cannot go on Motorways) and you intend on doing 120km/h I'd suggest the 1.3. The 1.0L Petrol Yaris is a great car but gets a shade uneconomical at motorway speeds.

As a rough guide, I do 70km every day, 5 days a week and then a small amount of mileage on the weekend. Mostly motorway at circa 100km/h. A 1.0L Yaris costs me anywhere between €55 and €65 per week in fuel (About ~35 to 40 liters) depending on if I brim the tank or not.

So you are doing something like 350 to 400km a week.
And you use 35 to 40 litres of petrol.
That gives you 10 l/100km (28MPG).
Something is definitely wrong with your Yaris.

ironclaw

CiniO wrote: »

So you are doing something like 350 to 400km a week.
And you use 35 to 40 litres of petrol.
That gives you 10 l/100km (28MPG).
Something is definitely wrong with your Yaris.

Well with weekend mileage, its probably closer to 330 - 360 miles (580km) (To empty) per week which would put it in the 40MPG zone.

Last calculation I did put it at 36-40 MPG.

Kesha

CiniO wrote: »

Remember that fuel cost is only part of motoring cost, which most likely will be only about half of real motoring costs, if not less.

The other costs are acquisition, maintenance, insurance and tax. The more you drive the higher the proportion of the former two. For your purposes the proportion of tax would be negligible (and as for the insurance, I don't feel qualified to give you any advice).
New cars are comparatively expensive to drive and don't fit your budget anyway. Very old cars can cost even more in repair. Most economical are cars that lived between 25% and 75% of their lives in both years and mileage.

Thus, given that you would be driving 30k/year, your priority should be to find a reliable car with low mileage and low consumption. The age is less of a factor for your particular purposes and the older the car, the lower the insurance. For example if you buy a 10-15 year-old car with low mileage for 1000, drive 30k to the next NCT without (hopefully) any repairs and then resell it for a few hundred, it will have served it's purpose.

As previous posters suggested, superminis are the most reasonable option because of their costs to you, their resell value, environment and convenience.
Now, I don't see why on earth you would spend 5k on your first car. You can find a highly dependable, comfortable etc etc car for 1500-2500. In fact usually I would not recommend spending more than 1500. If you want to get something really nice to enjoy your driving, by all means spend another thousand!
However, spending 5k on a car is rarely economical.
Firstly, people usually spend that much to appear more respectable, on added specs, luxury, to make up for low self-esteem or simply because they have no better ideas how spend their money. You mentioned fuel costs though. And I assure you that you will have a hard time finding a car for 5k that would burn so little fuel to save you the extra 2-3k you spent buying it.
Secondly, the insurance for your first car driven professionally will be so high that a cheaper car might save you more in insurance costs alone than in a dearer one would in fuel.

Do not go out there and try to buy a car on your own! Take someone who has a record of buying good used cars in the past. It does not need to be a mechanic. It certainly does not hurt to have a car checked out buy a mechanic before you actually buy it but is neither absolutely necessary nor a guarantee. For example, I can drive a car for 10 minutes a tell you whether or not the car is OK for its money, the mileage has been tempered with etc. And I am no mechanic.

Yaris is a good option. But Honda Jazz is reportedly more reliable as well as more convenient. Then there are Skoda Fabia and Seat Ibiza. The mileage should be 70.000 or less. Also if you happen to find a very cheap old Corolla, Camry, Civic, or an Accord with such low mileage, 12+ months NCT, you might save enough on purchase price to make up for fuel and insurance costs.
Ignore the Corsa/Polo people as well as nearly all European cars except for the two above and Volvo40, but the letter is a heavy drinker anyway.