Looking for advice... changing car(s)

Mr Velo

I bought a 2009 Skoda Octavia L&K back in mid August - imported it from the UK. Absolutely fabulous car, Automatic/triptonic, leather heated seats etc.

I now realise that i made a mistake however. I travel 22km to work every morning on roads that are windy and tight - therefore the gears are constantly shifting. Currently getting 46MPG average out of the car which is just not good.

Our other car is a 04 Almera which is only doing short runs (school etc) - but still is costly to run as it's a 1.5l petrol.

My question to you guys is - if i sell both cars, what would you recommend taking into account that one car will primarily be used for short runs and the other to travel the 40 odd km per day on narrow country roads?

I should add, i don't intend to put any extra money into this

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Toyotafanboi

imo the cheapest thing to do would be to do nothing...

if you sell your cars to buy other cars without adding additional cash you will just end up with worse cars than you already have. and your cars don't really sound too bad.

you have a small engined petrol for doing short trips and a larger engined diesel for the daily commute. sounds like you have things spot on, but for the fact that you don't really need a diesel for 200kms per week. that said if you switched the skoda for a petrol alternative your mpg will most likely drop further.

Mr Velo

Toyotafanboi wrote: »

imo the cheapest thing to do would be to do nothing...

if you sell your cars to buy other cars without adding additional cash you will just end up with worse cars than you already have. and your cars don't really sound too bad.

you have a small engined petrol for doing short trips and a larger engined diesel for the daily commute. sounds like you have things spot on, but for the fact that you don't really need a diesel for 200kms per week. that said if you switched the skoda for a petrol alternative your mpg will most likely drop further.

True - but my thinking on it was that i could possibly change to a manual Octavia, and have some cash to spare to upgrade the Almera to something a bit more economical to run on short runabouts.

Toyotafanboi

Mr Velo wrote: »

True - but my thinking on it was that i could possibly change to a manual Octavia, and have some cash to spare to upgrade the Almera to something a bit more economical to run on short runabouts.

i see where you're coming from but i can't see it working in reality.

if you are willing to trade down a few years to say an 06-07 manual octavia you might gain 1-2k cash when all dealings are done(?). and to gain what? 5-7 mpg tops?

lets say then your almera is worth 2k, plus the 2k from your octavia dealings so you have 4k. what could you buy for 4k that would be dramatically more fuel efficient than the almera? no car will ever deliver a great fuel return when doing nothing but short trips.

i'm not saying your idea won't work, but you will be putting yourself through the mill and end up with one worse car (older octavia) and one un-necessary newer car (almera replacement) that won't do the job any better than the almera did.

bmwguy

46 mpg is good, do the maths on this and you will not change your car

vandriver

I'm just wondering what real world mpg is achievable on your commute,with a different car?
Seems to me that 46 mpg is more than reasonable for the road .To do the maths,if you got an older diesel car that somehow managed 55 mpg,you would save about €160 a year,and pay more than that in extra car tax(if pre '08),and all for a lesser driving experience.

Seweryn

As others stated - any changes you make, you will loose financialy rather than gain anything.
Running a car is not just about mpg. There is reliability, servicing, value depreciation and many other factors on the way that form the overall running cost of a vehicle.

And if you are looking for savings on fuel, learn how to drive more economically. Use your car less (especially the one that is for the short trips). I am sure you could even do without it.

vectra

nothing wrong with 46mpg and an enjoyable drive.

Mr Velo

Thanks guys. You've all certainly given me a reality check and think twice on this.
Can't do without the 2nd car, because as i mentioned earlier it is required for school run (4 mile journey one way) and for my wife to get to work in the afternoon.

Cheers.