Possible replacement for thirsty 1.4 petrol Audi Q3 SUV

goochy

Friend bought one a these a few years ago while he was doing mostly city driving , however he then changed to doing mostly country driving / long runs and is not finding vehicle economical. He is not a fast driver so are these new age petrols only suitable for city driving ?

its a high spec. model so he is looking for something similar with decent spec.

hes doing about 20 k km a year .

should he go hybrid or diesel ?

any ideas of what to go for ? high spec. Tucson or Sportage ?

mickdw

Reasonably heavy car is going to burn petrol regardless of engine size. A diesel would be more economical in that car but he would want to look at his useage to see if it suits.

He is doing 50 to 70 km per day probably.

A phev with even 30km electric range could work out very economical for him if he can charge it at home. That 30km electric range could average out his fuel consumption to easily match a diesel over that kind of distance daily. Any occasional longer runs will be less efficient than a diesel but similarly, the day he only does 30km, he burns no petrol at all.

Phev for me all the way.

Ubbquittious

Thirsty 1.4 petrol?

goochy

The petrol was supposed to be similar enough to diesel for fuel consumption.

hes not to keen on charging , i assume a standard hybrid wouldnt do ?

are diesels going up in price from next month ? saw a big Merc. jeep with note of a price increase.

Ubbquittious

How much fuel consumption is considered 'thirsty'?

Is it possible to convert to LPG? Might be chayper than buying whole new car.

bazz26

How much is he going to save in fuel versus the cost of a new car especially if they are paying interest on a loan? If they don't have the answer to that then it's time to get the calculator out. It's surprising the amount of people out there who just don't do any maths when they give fuel consumption as a reason to change cars. Also a petrol would have had similar mpg to a diesel when doing short runs but his driving distance and style has changed so unsurprisingly that is no longer the case.

Same goes with petrol hybrids, will never give the same fuel economy as a diesel on long runs unless maybe you plug it in at the start and end of every journey.

Also the price of new cars are going up frequently now, it's not a diesel thing. Covid-19, chip shortage, inflation, war in Ukraine and government changes to VRT bands last year have made new cars more expensive.

goochy

No, hes not willing to go down that road .