Commuting about 80km a day what would be the best type of car for about €5k

Colham

Hello, I don't know much about cars. I'm commuting from Maynooth to Swords, which is about 80km total and am looking to get a car for about €5k.

Can anyone advise the best type of car I should look for? Should it be diesel or petrol?

Toyotafanboi

Doing 80km a day you could justify a diesel but with that budget finding a reliable diesel with a bit of life left in it can be tricky. You'd get a more modern, more dependable petrol car with that budget but you fuel costs would be slightly higher.

If you don't know what you want at all, I'd avoid "small cars" for that kind of driving as it's mostly motorway. A Focus/ Corolla size car would probably serve you well.

Heres Johnny

I live along that route in Lucan and I know there's heavy traffic if you commute at rush hour. Would you consider an automatic?

Colham

Heres Johnny wrote: »

I live along that route in Lucan and I know there's heavy traffic if you commute at rush hour. Would you consider an automatic?

I would, what advantage would it have?

colm_mcm

Colham wrote: »

I would, what advantage would it have?

You don’t have to use the clutch and gears!

Prius would be a good automatic but consider a Kia Ceed or Hyundai i30 1.6 diesel if you’re going manual. They do an auto diesel in them too but I think the Prius would be a better choice if going auto.

_Brian

I read that the Kia Ceed 1.6 diesel auto is a complete dog on diesel, there was a thread on it here some time back.
The guy was saying 35mpg or something scary like that.

Colham

Would A diesel Octavia be a good option?

What kind of engine size would be good?

Cee-Jay-Cee

For that distance I would go for either a 1.8 Civic saloon, comfortable, decently fast with 140bhp and economical (you should easily see 42mpg on your daily commute) or go for an 09 on Toyota Auris 1.3 (make sure its not the 1.4 model as the tax on these is €570 compared to €280 on the 1.3.) Look for the TR spec too as theyre much better spec's than any irish model. The 1.3 model was out in the Uk in 09 whereas you wont find an irish car until 2010 in the facelift model which will be above your budget. on a long run they'll do 44mpg+ and 40mpg all day long on shorter runs.

tweek84

For circa 5k i would look at a Honda Accord 08 tax is under 400euro i know it is 2.2diesel but they are very light on diesel when motorway driving , get it to 120km/hr or 100km/hr hit the cruise control button and sit back in to the heated leather seats and relax for the rest of the journey.
I had a Audi a4 prior to the accord but it was on the old tax bracket when i wanted to trade up to the new tax bracket the a4 with a good spec was coming in at twice the price of the accord.
I have had small diesel vans aswell Renault Kangoo and Citroen Berlingo and once you go over 100km/hr they would get thirsty the Accord was working out cheaper to run.