Im after a new car, maybe...
here are the criteria:
Economy 40+ mpg (or LPG)
<10 sec 0-60
4 or 5 door
No smaller than an Astra, no bigger than a Vectra
Aircon
ABS
Im after something fairly roomy, fairly comfy cos i often drive with an adult and 2 kids as passengers, with a pushchair in the boot.
Also will be used for commuting so needs the economy.
Suggestions?
Im not looking to spend too much, but anything is considered as I am due a big pay rise.
my Dad has a diesel VW Bora. His particular model doesnt do 0-60 in under 10 but its pretty nippy, and its only the 100HP version. They come in flavours up to 150 IIRC, all rated at the same ~50MPG. Dads actually returns about 45-48. Very comfy car to ride in and more room in the boot than you can imagine.
Was walking past the Volvo garage by us the other day and noticed they had a 1.6 diesel on the forecourt. think it was 110bhp and 50 odd mpg. Was a very nice car apart from the bloody price.
Shame you dont want something < Astra size.
if you could live with a jap wagon, well... my Yaris gets me 40mpg if I drive nicely, and it gets to 60 in 8.5 (had it electronically timed)
since I have bought the car, (done only 3000ish miles) my average MPG is 38.1
it has Air-con (and a sunroof, too) and ABS and its quite fun to drive.
it is actually quite roomy too.. took 4 passengers & luggage on holiday :)
good luck on the pay-rise though, always good :mrgreen: what about a Corolla? bit bigger, maybe a tad thirstier, as its heavier (Yaris is sub-tonne!!!!!!) but you could go for the D-4D engine (1.4 or 1.9, depending)
The Bora is fairly good, been in a 130bhp 1.9 TDi, they do motah some :) - not stupidly fast or whatever, but its not bad at all.
only thing is, the VW diesels drink oil quite badly.
i lurve my diesel bm :)
3 series, so about the right sise for you, 2.5l straight six, 145bhp and 275lb of tork iirc
nice and roomy, good solid car, mine holds the road like glue too :)
good mpg too, my father got to birmingham and back (from newcastle) on under Ã,£45
they last forever too, mines done 138k now and its still going good :)
if your after a bit more preformance, swaping for a newer turbo charger is suposed to add a hell of a lot of power :)
theres loads to choos from is you look on autotrader, stick to a 3k lower limmit and you should get a good one :)
5 y/o diesel Passat. The bugs in the last generation VWs have a habit of showing up in the first 50K, so chances are that the first owner put in replacement window motors and the like. :P Very safe car, which is important with the wee ones.
What about (dare i say it) french diesels?
anyone know about them at all?
(Renault aside) they are still the most reliable and long lived. 300k miles + is easily achievable. They arent overstressed and overcomplicated like their german counterparts, and even the old XUD will still outperform many of the modern units on fuel economy (Most modern diesels rely on a ludicrously high top gear for their artificial fuel consumption figures) It still remains to be seen how long the germans will last, seeing as how they are still relative newcomers.
Overcomplication is married to absurdly high parts costs and much less scope for home servicing and repairs by the novice mechanic.
The germans are starting to use the french engines in their cars, Ford already have done.
My suggestion? Buy a petrol car converted to gas.
Cheaper to run, more performance and better resale value.
Mind you, a diesel can run on biodiesel
reading a big discussion on slashdot the other day, doesnt seem Ethanol / E-85 is all its cracked up to be, but biodiesel can be made out of nearly any old crap.
LPG isnt super rare though, theres a few stations near me that sell it.
I drove a 306 HDi when I learnt to drive, not a great car at all (was crap, ergonomically) but it got 52mpg on a motorway run, iirc, when I did my Pass Plus - not half bad at all :)
Id kinda agree with BX with the overstressed part, a lot of these sporty diesels are probably really stressed running into the 40s (PSI) with boost. How long theyll last I dunno but heavily turbod engines do tend to die quicker than a N/A or lesser boosted engine - and then theres the issue of fuel economy.
My dad had an Audi A4, with a two point ...something V6 diesel as a company wagon - used to get mid to high 20s if you were reeeeeeally gentle with it. didnt have go some though, 160 odd bhp and a fair chunk of torque.
looked inot using biodiesel when i experimented with buying an isuzu engined Diesel astra; just wasnt the car for me - besides no1 does biodiesel around here, only dino diesel to be had. a few places do LPG though, but i havent found any decent cars around with LPG :(
Quote from: BXGTi16V(Renault aside) they are still the most reliable and long lived. 300k miles + is easily achievable. They arent overstressed and overcomplicated like their german counterparts, and even the old XUD will still outperform many of the modern units on fuel economy (Most modern diesels rely on a ludicrously high top gear for their artificial fuel consumption figures) It still remains to be seen how long the germans will last, seeing as how they are still relative newcomers.
Yeah, theyve only been importing Merc and VW diesels stateside for 40 years. Im not familiar with the French ones, but Ive had long chats with my VW trained mechanic, Emil, about German diesels. He recommends them highly, even buying them when he sees them in the paper, shining them up and reselling as he loves them so. Mechanically either brand should go 300K plus, you have to worry more about crap like switches and latches breaking, just like in a gasoline car. In my hood, there are plenty of 30 y/o Mercedes 300* diesels, as theyre big and a lot of local musicians use them to haul gear.
Really, I dont know what your talking about. Only really bad diesel VW made was the non turbo diesel Rabbit/Golf in the late 70s. It was underpowered, but durable.
get em converted dont you, Chris?
Not aware of many normal cars that come in LPG guise.
vauxhall do a few dual fuel cars, but id rather buy a car with it already done lol.
does LPG really save you that much cash ?
45p/liter.... but you only go half as far as on a liter of petrol... so its kind of equivelent as 90p/liter ?
(ok that must be off by a bit, but by enough to make a real difference?)
Yeah, but youre sticking to the Ayerabs. AFAIK, the UK is self sufficient in LPG. :mrgreen:
Quote from: BXGTi16Vthe old XUD
that the nice Pug 1.9 they did? That was a piece of work, i know of one dude with a 205D and its done over 500k. The only thing he has done to it was replace the bearing shells last year, and did the water pump at the same time because the pump was "old" and he thought the shells where starting to rumble. Hes had that since brand new, and refuses to get rid.
cant really go wrong with a french diesel, even renualt are ok its the cars that break, not the engines.
The rover l-series diesel is good too, worth a look if any of the cars take your fancy. get a good 200/400sdi for not much money these days.
Quote from: maximusotterQuote from: BXGTi16V(Renault aside) they are still the most reliable and long lived. 300k miles + is easily achievable. They arent overstressed and overcomplicated like their german counterparts, and even the old XUD will still outperform many of the modern units on fuel economy (Most modern diesels rely on a ludicrously high top gear for their artificial fuel consumption figures) It still remains to be seen how long the germans will last, seeing as how they are still relative newcomers.
Yeah, theyve only been importing Merc and VW diesels stateside for 40 years. Im not familiar with the French ones, but Ive had long chats with my VW trained mechanic, Emil, about German diesels. He recommends them highly, even buying them when he sees them in the paper, shining them up and reselling as he loves them so. Mechanically either brand should go 300K plus, you have to worry more about crap like switches and latches breaking, just like in a gasoline car. In my hood, there are plenty of 30 y/o Mercedes 300* diesels, as theyre big and a lot of local musicians use them to haul gear.
Really, I dont know what your talking about. Only really bad diesel VW made was the non turbo diesel Rabbit/Golf in the late 70s. It was underpowered, but durable.
Im talking about the current generation diesels that are overstressed and overgeared giving them unrealistic book mpg figures. They may last just as long as the last gen, but its too earl to say really.t
Looking back in time, until the likes of the XUD, diesels were terrible - noisy, dirty, smoky and unrefined - the XUD was a massive step forward in diesel refinement and performance, and was regarded as one of the best in the world. Everything else looked prehistoric. Things are catching up now however and it is a little out of date, but Ive seen nothing yet that outlasts it, like mentioned above.
knighty - the mpg on LPG isnt that bad - a mate of mine has a V8 ford explorer and it does about 2mpg less - when I get the kit fitted to the activa I have been told to expect 1-2mpg less, so it makes great sense for me, when the bastard thing barely manages 20mpg on the current turbo!
Quote from: BXGTi16Vknighty - the mpg on LPG isnt that bad - a mate of mine has a V8 ford explorer and it does about 2mpg less - when I get the kit fitted to the activa I have been told to expect 1-2mpg less, so it makes great sense for me, when the bastard thing barely manages 20mpg on the current turbo!
hmm... you can get LPG for diesels... it pretty much just adds lpg into the air intake, supposed to give a cleaner burn etc... but a lot more power too ;) ;)
Ive thought about it in the past for work, it pisses me off when Im rounding a weeks fuel bill up/down to the nearest hundred quid because were spending that much !
LPG for diesel isnt really a proper conversion though - youre still burning diesel the whole time to actually burn the gas. It does give more power though.
The lack of a throttle on a diesel engine cant help much Id imagine.
I would suggest this one, but its a bit of a problem starting the thing...
http://www.jcbdieselmax.com/html/home.php
You know they could have got that power and way more torque from a slightly modified scania 164 engine - and a hell of a lot more to boot.
Then there is the slight matter of it being 16 litres.
You could wring that out of a 144 and maybe a 124.
I saw the DieselMax @ Goodwood.
twin 750bhp diesel engines, 4 turbos in total iirc.
Its pretty cool ......mostly because its cooled by a load of ice, in the front of the vehicle :P