Hey Guys,

Many of you are car people and know whats about.

I have always been into cars but I'm normally better at recommending cars for others than choosing them for myself. Heart rules my head etc.

When I suggest a car for someone else its devoid of emotion but full of pragmatism and care.

I need a bit of that from you guys if you will, as I always wonder off onto something more interesting.

If you want to offer your 2p worth, please read on.

Current daily: BMW 330d SE Touring auto

It does everything brilliantly but its getting a bit long in the tooth and has 156k on it, plus its expensive to run and maintain.

Criteria:

Needs to be very reliable

Cater for young family of 4

Occasional holidays or trips to family up north. (but could cope with slightly smaller than the beamer if required)

Daily commute round trip 50miles.

Average Total monthly miles 1300 – mixed driving.

Very economical – must average 50mpg real world! (more if possible)

Has to be Automatic

Any car I buy will have to be mostly paid for by a saving in mpg over the beamers 31mpg plus about £100 a month. As I spend £265 – 300 a month on diesel.

Can look to spend about £10k on top of my beamer trade in. So probably about £12k max.

Must be no more then 4 years old.

No more than 60k miles.

So what options are there other than a Prius????????? (which sort of hurts to suggest, but after several years of proof I'm finding it hard to fault against my very limiting criteria)

Cheers

JC

Could go for something like this

Link

And still have money left over for a holiday or something?

Peugeot 308sw 1.6 HDI

Peugeot 308sw 1.6 HDI

Only if you really enjoy changing turbos!

Got to say, good autos are increasingly hard to come by these days, either that or I'm too fussy about autoboxes. Try a Volvo s/v70.

Could go for something like this

Link

And still have money left over for a holiday or something?

DSG... Dog Shit Gearbox

Peugeot 308sw 1.6 HDI

Only if you really enjoy changing turbos!

Got to say, good autos are increasingly hard to come by these days, either that or I'm too fussy about autoboxes. Try a Volvo s/v70.

Not had one in for a turbo yet and I work for Peugeot

Ford Mondeo 2.0 TDCI.

Peugeot 308sw 1.6 HDI

I wouldnt touch another modern Peugeot, my sisters is a pain in the arse...

Id love to be able to suggest a motor, but i really have no idea about new-ish cars! Passat? Lol.

My vectra 1.9 cdti returned 65mpg+ on my 110 daily round trip to work and back, never had one folt with it!! But 85-90% of my route to work is down the A1 sat at around 75mph+..

The most iv seen out of it was this, nice steady drive only took me 7mins longer

Octavia VRS 170PS diesel.

High spec Mondeos are really nice. The lad I bought my M3 off had one but his was the V6 petrol one. But you can get them in a diesel variant too. Interior was really nice place to be with red leather, alloy trim panels, everything felt quality. Looks smart enough, being a Ford means the arse has dropped out of it and they are peanuts to buy. It was one of the ST range, dunno which one exactly but if I was just after some cheap luxurious motoring I'd be after one. His was an estate too so plenty of room!

volvo v70 mondeo estate, vectra, peugeot 407, citroen c5 there's plenty to choose from

I wouldnt touch another modern Peugeot, my sisters is a pain in the arse...

Modern cars are much the same tbh, mainly due to the fact the customers like interior space to be as large as possible and the overall size as small as possible for easy parking, they want it to be safe, quiet, handle, have good fuel economy, low emissions and be cheap to produce.

the mechanics who happen to be working on the vehicles after they have left the dealer system are not given a second thought.

How about a 320 or do you feel that if it's a bmw it has to be a straight 6?

Octavia or superb gets my vote, you've got the passat as well but I'm not a fan of them. Seat EXEO? Actually think the autos are CVT, not sure that's a good thing.

Seat Leon?

I can personally vouch for the mk3 Mondeo. I own a 2003 TDCI and have done approx. 40k miles over the last 2 years, and all I have payed for are tyres, a set of pads and windscreen.

Mine is the 115bhp version and it has plenty of go in it, happily took me and the wife to Amsterdam and back on 80 litres of fuel and got about 59mpg doing 80mph most of the way

If possible though, try find a 130 or even the ST155 and have the heated leathers too

All models came well equipped, my LX has electric adjust seats, 1touch windows all round, climate control etc. You also get cruise control as standard on models after 2004.

One thing to watch for on these though is the flywheel/clutch scenario in which the dmf basically fists itself into an early grave. Listen for any rumbling noises coming from the engine on idle, but seems to disappear as soon as the revs icreases a little. Its a costly to have fixed at a garage and thats if they even want to do it as its a complete ballache of a job.

Thanks for the relies and thoughts guys.

there are more options than i realised although some will not hit the high mpg i need with an auto box version.

Especially as my regular driving doesn't have much of a motorway stint in it.

The old beamer is still really nice and its probably going to be a job to get me to part with it, so I'm going to have to really love the alternative.

A4/6 passat octavia exeo

Any Mercs? Get an estate tho! Coolness

Meh, I'll risk ridicule, go against the grain and say it.

Hyundai i40 Automatic.

Nice to drive, spacious, long warranty, good on fuel and a nice autobox.

those 1.6hdi a piss poor on fuel, because they have no power, you tend to drop the hammer more thus use more fuel, our work vans do about 270 miles to £70 ish fuel, ok admitidly they could be drove a little more sensible but overall they arent as good as the 1.9hdi'd

hyundai/kia is a good choice afterall they are a good family hack a lad a work just got a kia rio 3 years free servicing 5 or 7 years warranty £50 pa tax, not sure how much but they are good value if not a little boring old manish

This is a worthy candidate

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2010-VOLKSWAGEN-...=item5d3a822821

yeah would be but mpg too low real world. Nice car though.

As it is i think I'm going to spruce up the beamer and get a couple more years out of it.

I cant find a car that will pay for itself with mpg on the difference on my journey, so best stick with what i have.

Would really fancy one of the octavia vrs blacklines, but a bit out of my reach at the moment.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Get a mk2 jetta saloon, sat not too low on some banded weller steels :) Cheap and the money you save you can invest in a smart engine! be the coolest family car going

The downside you're always going to hit is that although an auto's a peice of piss to drive in town, they end up being heavy on fuel in town because of the wasted energy of the engine pulling against the brakes.

Sounds daft, but what about a manual diesel? All I do in traffic in mine is stick it in first or second and ease the clutch up without touching the accelerator.