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. 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: