Car for daily 120 mile commutte

[thewez]

Hi guys,

Currently got a Seat Atlea 2.0 Tdi special edition that's giving me around 36-44 mpg on the motorway / dual carriageway route travelling between 70-85. About 95% of journey is dual carriageway motorway. The alternative route is approx 100 miles daily round trip that's A and B roads it gives slightly better mpg, but takes longer. In total its approx 27k a year.

The Altea costs approx £4500 in diesel over the year, if I could get a car that did a real 60+mpg at around the high 70's that would save me approx £1500.

I'm thinking that safety 1st, then comfort 2nd and costs final. So the Altea might be the correct car?....

Although its cost a lot to get to its 72k, inc cam belt, brakes, abs module and front syspension.... I wonder whats next? Clutch, dmf, turbo...... Is there anyway to check there condition???

If a Ibiza, Ibiza estate, Leon, Fabia, Fabia estate or octavia or something else...... would give the 60+ mpg it would be great.

Is there any real world experiences??

The other thing I had thought was to buy a 18month old car run it for a year, thus costing 1 year car tax, 1 service (assuming on variable servicing) no mot, no brakes, no tyres, no cam belt so just depreciation....

Looking at a Octavia I think that the cost would be less than £2000 for the year doing in this way??? provided i bought and sold right.

[Mike Wrightson]

Currently got a Seat Atlea 2.0 Tdi special edition that's giving me around 36-44 mpg on the motorway / dual carriageway route travelling between 70-85.

.

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if I could get a car that did a real 60+mpg at around the high 70's that would save me approx £1500.

You won't find a car that will return 60+ mpg at high 70's mph. Not even Fabia Greenlines would achieve it. Nor will a Prius.

Alteas are huge things, do you really need a car that big? Something smaller and more aerodynamic will have better economy.

You CAN get 60's mpg, but you will have to be disciplined and stick to 70mph, or (even better) 65mph. Fabia TDI will do it, a Rapid TDI should do. Octy diesels should also get close.

But the fact remains that the number one way to save on fuel is to drop your speed. With my old Fabia TSI, it would do 51mpg average at 70mph. If I ran at 80mph, it dropped to 38mpg. If I ran at 67mph, it achieved 54mpg.......

Sorry to be blunt, but those are the facts.

Edited 16 May, 2013 by Mike Wrightson

[NathanG]

What about a bike or train. The speed you drive at isnt doing you any favours. As said before, your car is huge, do you really need a car that big. The bigger the car the more the engine has to work to hump it about hence lower mpg's.

[Zlin]

Keep the car you've got? You must like it and enjoy driving it, you've spent some money on it already - you won't get that back by trading it in or selling it. Just hang on to it and get the repairs done when they're needed. Simples.

[Raf_]

36-44mpg in a diesel? All I can say is that you must have a heavy right foot, I can beat that figure on the roads you travel on in my mk1 octy vrs which is a petrol!

As said slow down a bit sticking to the 65-70mph mark should save you loads, in the end you don't get to your destination much quicker lol

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

[pimpdriver]

Get a 1.9 TDI mk1 octavia.

Genuine 58mpg on my 47 mile each way daily commute.

Drive extremely gently AT the speed limits, don't go above 2000rpm except once a journey to clear out any crap.

[grr666]

sdi will see the figures you seek

at motorway speeds. I'd go with the smallest body and chassis

that has the 1.9 engine. so either polo or fabia 1. Bought Mrs grrs

for a 100 mile a day commute and it never put a foot wrong.

Great distance car.

[Gwilo]

I'd suggest lowering your speed too.

Remove anything from the car you don't actually need, like the accumulated crud in the boot.

use cruise control whenever possible and resist the urge to go nuts in the outside lane - you really won't get there much quicker (if quicker at all).

If you must change car, then I'd consider:

a) BMW 320D

Ford Mondeo 1.8TDCi

or maybe one of the lightweight French things

Some of the 3 series diesels have ridonkulous C02 figures which make them very attractive overall. But servicing, with lots of bits with different service intervals (at least on the one I tried), might be a deterrent.

The Ford, at least the 1.8, is a development of the old (reliable and simple!) Lynx/Endura D series engine, so it should be easy and cheap to maintain. I'm currently returning 50mpg on average with a 49 mile, mainly motorway, commute twice a day.

EDIT : The SDI engine is, as grr666 says, a great distance vehicle capable of mind bending MPG and longevity. However, the time it takes to get to 70......I think it's about 15 seconds isn't it? Would call for a bit of planning upon entering a motorway is all I can think of, but once it's up to speed, it'd be fine.

Edited 17 May, 2013 by Gwilo

[bilun777]

sdi will see the figures you seek

at motorway speeds. I'd go with the smallest body and chassis

that has the 1.9 engine. so either polo or fabia 1. Bought Mrs grrs

for a 100 mile a day commute and it never put a foot wrong.

Great distance car.

I agree.

Buy a set of the latest low rolling resistance tyres,leave home 5 minutes earlier,stick to a genuine 70 mph and relax......

[Huwcymru]

I used a Superb Greenline courtesy car over about 250 HARD miles -the computer said 55mpg, driven more gently and brimmedI think it would genuinely do it.

[sparks03]

36-44mpg in a diesel? All I can say is that you must have a heavy right foot, I can beat that figure on the roads you travel on in my mk1 octy vrs which is a petrol!

As said slow down a bit sticking to the 65-70mph mark should save you loads, in the end you don't get to your destination much quicker lol

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

I can get my B6 Passat down to low 30s but like you say, heavy right foot!!

Echoing the sentiments of others perhaps down-size, remove EVERYTHING you don't need, drop ten mph (it really is psychological, I commute a similar distance and the difference between 70 and 80 is a few minutes)

I'd avoid Ford but that is due to my own prejudice, I can echo the sentiments in the Octavia diesels, i've just started running a 1900 tdi and have turned in 59mpg on my first set of shifts. However lugging less metal around would improve that still, some of the new Fabias and Polos - I think the greenline/ bluemotions, are up into the 80s for combined MPG.

[Volvomeg]

I agree with whats been said above altho i do enjoy the loud pedal and find it alot easier to drive at speed on motorway than drive steady as you have to put up with all the middle lane idiots,

Volvos use the peugeot/ford 1.6 diesel engine in there smaller platform cars and the sligtly older 16v lump was a cracking little engine, not so sure about the newer one feels like its been strangled for emmisions reasons to me, both will do 50 plus mpg even in a loaded up v50 so i bet when they fit it in the little french boxes it does loads to gallon,

Do you need a people carrier sort of car or would a normal hatch or even an estate do as such a big car carn't help with your mpg quest

[sparks03]

I wouldn't touch anything that's been made by Peugeot either. That isn't prejudice, its experience!

Middle lane idiots, too true. I can pass in a car in the outside lane, when clear return to the inside lane, get overtaken by them and then re-pass them in two miles time when they're sitting behind a wagon again. Morons.

[Aspman]

I had a Clio diesel that would do what you want.

60+ at motorway speeds without much trouble. Engine was trouble free for the 80k I did in it (110 mile commute).

£35 tax.

I hated it but as 'cheap transport' it did work well.