Going Diesel, any advise?

Grumpypants

Hi All,

Looking for some helpful advise, I recently moved house and my weekly driving has jumped from 25 miles (a week) along a dual carriageway, to 250 miles along national roads. (It is 20 miles from my door to work, the same back again, and normal weekend runs).

The drive itself is "country" driving, no motorways, but no traffic jams either. I pass through one or two small towns that require a slow down for a few seconds, but in general an average speed of 55-60mph is about right.

I currently have a 2 litre Petrol Audi A4 (2002). The distance I do is not so large that I need something that does 60+mpg, but I figure getting something a little more economical will allow me to offset that saving against getting something a little newer (2003-2006) or nicer.

Obviously buying something that old comes with all the usual risks but with a tight enough budget of 3-5K cash (with or without the Audi) any direction would be appreciated.

It does need to be 4 door for baby gear but after that I am open to any suggestions.

What I have looked around at are:

Another Audi either A4/A3: The last two cars were A4's so a change would be good, but at the same time it is hard to argue with the quality.

Mercedes C/E Class: Road Tax is high as with maintenance costs, but not much higher than what I am on now with the Audi so not a huge concern. mpg is lower than most other options but they look super comfy and safe.

Honda Accord: Again high road tax but decent enough mpg. They look high spec but having never owned one i'm not sure how well they hold up.

mgbgt1978

Prius ???
If you're not on Motorways, then very economical.
Even on M/way (with Cruise set to 110kph) I get over 65 mpg.
Plus none of the diesel issues...DMF's, DPF's, EGR's, Turbo's, etc.
And no Timing Belt to be changed.
Should easily get an '05-'07 for €5k.

Atlantic Dawn

Might be best heading towards the likes of a Skoda Octavia if you want diesel at €3k-€5k.

166man

Prius is a good suggestion imo

Panrich

mgbgt1978 wrote: »

Prius ???
If you're not on Motorways, then very economical.
Even on M/way (with Cruise set to 110kph) I get over 65 mpg.
Plus none of the diesel issues...DMF's, DPF's, EGR's, Turbo's, etc.
And no Timing Belt to be changed.
Should easily get an '05-'07 for €5k.

Is battery replacement a big item in those though?

mgbgt1978

Not at all. The more mileage you do the better. Fleet of these with a Vancouver Taxi firm, some have clocked up 600 to 700 thousand miles.

The main Drive battery is not an issue. there is a small 12v Battery in the boot that can go flat, but it's not any more common a problem than the battery in any other car.

And if you go with the top spec T-Spirit model you get plenty of extras.

Grumpypants

Thanks, I had initially looked at the Prius alright when first thinking about changing to something with big mpg. But after reading around I was also led to believe that the cost of fixing them at that age would be much worse than a more common diesel. I found a Mazda 3 that would do similar mpg so started digging into other Diesel options.

This is likely to be my last "cool" car before I go the family car route. so at the moment the merc seems to be winning as I want to boost my mpg from the current 34mpg to 45+, but i'm not too hung up on getting huge mpg over style, performance, and comfort.

A C200 CDI automatic seems to be the most recommended one. Any experience with them?