100km per day commute, Small crossover? Kadjar, cx3, 2008?

kifi

Need a new diesel car. Like the idea of being higher up for a driving position. My commute is 50% country road / motorway. 100km round trip. Was thinking of a small crossover/SUV such as Mazda CX3 / Renault Kadjar, Peugeot 2008 / Honda HRV / or the new Toyota CRH

Should I really be going for a mid sized hatchback or are these new SUVs frugal enough for a daily commute?

Thanks

bazz26

They are mostly based on supermini size cars so comfort and refinement is not going to be cutting edge so make sure you are comfortable in one doing 100km per day and when you get out of it afterwards.

kifi

bazz26 wrote: »

They are mostly based on supermini size cars so comfort and refinement is not going to be cutting edge so make sure you are comfortable in one doing 100km per day and when you get out of it afterwards.

Thanks, what would you recommend? Looking for comfort and efficiency.

bazz26

Well generally the higher up the segments you go the more refined and comfortable the car tends to be but of course they tend to cost more. If you're driving on poor surfaces then I'd avoid anything with big rims or sports suspension.

road_high

I'd imagine the Renault would be a good bet for comfort and refinement- it's bigger than the others listed.
Personally I'd prefer a Passat/Insignia type car for commuting. Potentially more efficient, better driving dynamics and more power/economy.

benjydagg

VW Tiguan My average weekly is 1000km motorway and local roads.

_Brian

Do you need the upright driving position ??
I moved away from saloon cars due to a back injury, I drive a Tiguan now, much easier on the back and I find saloons awfully low now.

Shefwedfan

kifi wrote: »

Need a new diesel car. Like the idea of being higher up for a driving position. My commute is 50% country road / motorway. 100km round trip. Was thinking of a small crossover/SUV such as Mazda CX3 / Renault Kadjar, Peugeot 2008 / Honda HRV / or the new Toyota CRH

Should I really be going for a mid sized hatchback or are these new SUVs frugal enough for a daily commute?

Thanks

So the journey itself is 50km to work and 50km back?

Also would give a bit more info, kids? how many if you do? if not do you plan on having them in the life of the car etc?

Are you going brand new or looking second hand? Need anything like automatic?

kifi

Shefwedfan wrote: »

So the journey itself is 50km to work and 50km back?

Also would give a bit more info, kids? how many if you do? if not do you plan on having them in the life of the car etc?

Are you going brand new or looking second hand? Need anything like automatic?

Have a 1 year old girl and another on the way in the autumn. Yes, 50k to work and 50k back.

I guess a car between 1 and 3 years old would be the aim, bit might consider new too.

Shefwedfan

kifi wrote: »

Have a 1 year old girl and another on the way in the autumn. Yes, 50k to work and 50k back.

I guess a car between 1 and 3 years old would be the aim, bit might consider new too.

Ok, I would suggest electric based on mileage but you will have issue with size

You are going to have same problem with the cars you listed. I had a Qashqai, swapped it last year for SMAX when we had 1 and 3 year old. Why you might ask, boot space is shocking. Put one buggy in, any sort of buggy and boot is full.

The tiguan suggested has smaller boot than Qashqai. The Kadjar would be exact same as Qashqai.

I dont know about CX3 or 2008 but I would guess they are the same. If like Toyota you could try and find Prius+. It is hybrid 7 seater, but really not a 7 seater. Looks kind of like a crossover. Depends if you like Toyota or not. The mileage you are doing would suit Hybrid. Very hard to pick up but you can get in from UK. My friend has one and raves about it, they only have 2 kids but bought for boot space.

SMAX etc are probably a bit bigger than what you wanted to look at, but CMAX might be option, other people will know better than me on CMAX....

What sort of budget you have? Might give people better idea...also anything out, is MPV out? only considering Crossovers?

There is a couple of Hyrid available in crossover on market. Depends on what budget is like.

AMKC

kifi wrote: »

Need a new diesel car. Like the idea of being higher up for a driving position. My commute is 50% country road / motorway. 100km round trip. Was thinking of a small crossover/SUV such as Mazda CX3 / Renault Kadjar, Peugeot 2008 / Honda HRV / or the new Toyota CRH

Should I really be going for a mid sized hatchback or are these new SUVs frugal enough for a daily commute?

Thanks

@OP First off the Renault Kadjar is in a higher up class than them other cars and is bigger. It is basically a Nissan Qushqui with a Renault badge. The Renault Captur do is in the same class the other crossovers you mentioned.
A Ford S-Max is a lovely car and well worth considering.
The Toyota C-HR is not small but it also is not the most practical as its coupe looks mean the rear windows offer very little visibility out of them and the handles are high up.

TheBigEvil

I have a 90km round trip to work, on a combination of motorway and standard roads, including having to start top in traffic at end of M1 in whitehall to get the final few km to work.

I drive a VW Passat, 2ltr diesel and am getting on average 1400km on a fill. Yes you read that right, 1400km. And that includes small running around at home during weekend. Fuel economy is obviously way better when on motorway than on local roads. On average the overall fuel use is about 4.3ltr/100km

Just note the taller the car the height the fuel economy, obviously because of the increased drag.

The Rav4 Hybrid (Petrol/Electric) is suppose to be very good on economy too. If you go onto their page, at the bottom of it, there are some user review videos of people that have given their experiences of owning it.
https://www.toyota.ie/models/rav4/index.json#

Shefwedfan

TheBigEvil wrote: »

I have a 90km round trip to work, on a combination of motorway and standard roads, including having to start top in traffic at end of M1 in whitehall to get the final few km to work.

I drive a VW Passat, 2ltr diesel and am getting on average 1400km on a fill. Yes you read that right, 1400km. And that includes small running around at home during weekend. Fuel economy is obviously way better when on motorway than on local roads. On average the overall fuel use is about 4.3ltr/100km

Just note the taller the car the height the fuel economy, obviously because of the increased drag.

The Rav4 Hybrid (Petrol/Electric) is suppose to be very good on economy too. If you go onto their page, at the bottom of it, there are some user review videos of people that have given their experiences of owning it.
https://www.toyota.ie/models/rav4/index.json#

I would not believe one number posted on this forum in regards to Ltr/100. All of them unrealistic and unachievable

It seems Ireland is the only country in the World that can gain this magnificent performance.....if the numbers where reality no manufacturer would ever both building a petrol/electric/hybrid engine again

650Ginge

Shefwedfan wrote: »

I would not believe one number posted on this forum in regards to Ltr/100. All of them unrealistic and unachievable

It seems Ireland is the only country in the World that can gain this magnificent performance.....if the numbers where reality no manufacturer would ever both building a petrol/electric/hybrid engine again

Yep I would say that the figures in that post would need to be backed up by some hard evidence before I would in any way be making a car buying decision on them.

5500+ Passat 2.0 diesel drivers who care enough about fuel usage to record their fuel usage say it is is not impossible but you are way, way better than average.
https://www.spritmonitor.de/en/overview/50-Volkswagen/456-Passat.html?fueltype=1&powerunit=2

Also that Hybrid Rav4 is not that economical either...
https://www.spritmonitor.de/en/overview/49-Toyota/440-RAV_4.html?fueltype=6&powerunit=2

pwurple

No issue with size in an electric for 2 kids. We're a family of 5 and it's plenty roomy in the Nissan Leaf.

OP, to answer your question, Electric will be the most frugal.

ELM327

pwurple wrote: »

No issue with size in an electric for 2 kids. We're a family of 5 and it's plenty roomy in the Nissan Leaf.

OP, to answer your question, Electric will be the most frugal.

Electric is perfect for a defined commute of 100km.
I'd suggest a leaf too, as a leaf owner.

Room for two child seats in the back and associated luggage in the boot.
(3 child seats do not fit though)

Shefwedfan

ELM327 wrote: »

Electric is perfect for a defined commute of 100km.
I'd suggest a leaf too, as a leaf owner.

Room for two child seats in the back and associated luggage in the boot.
(3 child seats do not fit though)

Where do you put the buggy? I am all on for electric as I mentioned. But I had a Leaf for test drive. No chance our buggy would fit into it...

Even the eGolf the buggy is a bit of a struggle.

ELM327

Shefwedfan wrote: »

Where do you put the buggy? I am all on for electric as I mentioned. But I had a Leaf for test drive. No chance our buggy would fit into it...

Even the eGolf the buggy is a bit of a struggle.

Thankfully ours are past the buggy stage but not the child seat phase.
I would have thought one buggy would fit in the leaf boot, half folded removing the parcel shelf.

pwurple

Shefwedfan wrote: »

Where do you put the buggy? I am all on for electric as I mentioned. But I had a Leaf for test drive. No chance our buggy would fit into it...

Even the eGolf the buggy is a bit of a struggle.

In the boot!
I had a double out'n'about nipper 360 buggy and it fit fine. What kind of buggy didn't fit?

Shefwedfan

pwurple wrote: »

In the boot!
I had a double out'n'about nipper 360 buggy and it fit fine. What kind of buggy didn't fit?

I have the Phil and Ted. Now I will say I gave it a quick run and it didn't. I suppose if you wanted to spend a while at it then you would probably fit it oin

Fair play on getting Out N About it. I struggled with that into a Qashqai.

In regards to OP I should have been more clear. Will this be main car? will you do majority of driving in it?

I went electric and was not massively concerned about boot size because I have a massive SMAX sitting in driveway and if bringing 3 kids and buggy I take that> Electric car is the "other" car if you want to put it that way. If full family is heading out for day we take SMAX.

If OP is planning on using this new car as main car I would suggest looking at bigger boot. Having to struggle for 2-3 mins putting a buggy into boot with 2 screaming kids is nightmare of highest order.

kifi

The wife has a 2008 jetta, which we will probably change in a couple of years. At that point in time I think we will go for some sort of mid sized SUV.

With this in mind I guess that an electric might make sense for me now, but I don't like the lack of flexibility in trip distance.

This is why I am now thinking of a nice driving, comfortable pretty small diesel

TheBigEvil

Shefwedfan wrote: »

I would not believe one number posted on this forum in regards to Ltr/100. All of them unrealistic and unachievable

It seems Ireland is the only country in the World that can gain this magnificent performance.....if the numbers where reality no manufacturer would ever both building a petrol/electric/hybrid engine again

Sorry that you don't believe me. So I've attached 3 pictures from my car this morning showing current consumption

Pic 1, shows the current consumption since I refuelled. 1070km driven with 470km left to run and an average of 4.1 l/100km. So that is predicting 1540km. I will easily make 1400km. And that is giving me nearly two and a half weeks of driving.

Pic 2, shows the long term consumption, again an average of 4.1 l/100km

Pic 3, shows this mornings status on commute to work averaging 3.7 l/100km. Some days are better than others when traffic volumes vary. But I am easily getting 1400km per fill.

Car is a 2.0 ltr Diesel Passat Highline, 171.

TheBigEvil

650Ginge wrote: »

Yep I would say that the figures in that post would need to be backed up by some hard evidence before I would in any way be making a car buying decision on them.

5500+ Passat 2.0 diesel drivers who care enough about fuel usage to record their fuel usage say it is is not impossible but you are way, way better than average.
https://www.spritmonitor.de/en/overview/50-Volkswagen/456-Passat.html?fueltype=1&powerunit=2

Also that Hybrid Rav4 is not that economical either...
https://www.spritmonitor.de/en/overview/49-Toyota/440-RAV_4.html?fueltype=6&powerunit=2

Check my latest post to this discussion for the "hard evidence" you are looking for. I have posted 3 pics showing the consumption levels on my car.

650Ginge

TheBigEvil wrote: »

Check my latest post to this discussion for the "hard evidence" you are looking for. I have posted 3 pics showing the consumption levels on my car.

Thanks for posting. I think you are the first person I challenged to back it up that did.

That very impressive fuel economy well done.

TheBigEvil

650Ginge wrote: »

Thanks for posting. I think you are the first person I challenged to back it up that did.

That very impressive fuel economy well done.

Thanks !

Yea I am over the moon with it. Its costing about €80 for a fill, and I'm doing that every two and a half weeks. If it was economical to take the port tunnel to and from work during peak hours, I reckon I could get close to 1600km out of it.

I total understand the scepticism, and everyones driving routes, and style are different. Certainly when I'm on the Mortorway you can see the consumption being way more efficient than short journeys.

If the majority of my driving was short journeys, I know I wouldn't get anywhere near 1400km, and I'd look at an electric in that case.

pwurple

kifi wrote: »

The wife has a 2008 jetta, which we will probably change in a couple of years. At that point in time I think we will go for some sort of mid sized SUV.

With this in mind I guess that an electric might make sense for me now, but I don't like the lack of flexibility in trip distance.

This is why I am now thinking of a nice driving, comfortable pretty small diesel

If you have location services enabled on your phone, you can go to google location history and log in. Adjust the time period displayed, This will show all trips your phone has taken over various periods of time. I did this to see how many long trips over 150KM we actually took in a year. The answer was 1 for me, so that eased my mind slightly. Saving thousands of euro a year in tax, fuel and maintenance was easily worth the 'inconvenience' of having to use our second car once in a year. I'd get sick if I had to put 80 euro into a car now I'm so used to it being free.

https://www.google.com/maps/timeline?

pwurple

Shefwedfan wrote: »

I have the Phil and Ted. Now I will say I gave it a quick run and it didn't. I suppose if you wanted to spend a while at it then you would probably fit it oin

Fair play on getting Out N About it. I struggled with that into a Qashqai.

Qashqai has a awkward enough boot I found for buggys... very narrow. Yeah, the out n about folds down a lot flatter (and quicker) than the phil and ted, so it's an easy buggy for car boots.

My complaint with the Leaf and kids, is that the drivers electric window controls are either locked out for passengers, or enabled, but you can't set a driver priority on them. So if you want close all the windows from the driver seat, and the kids are pressing the 'open' button in the back, you can't override it. (have to resort to a big giving out!)