I think most diesels these days are common rail, including the yaris. Which probably would be a good choice, but you are going to have to give a budget before any recommendations can be made.

You'll struggle to find anything recent that isn't common rail or direct injection - and if you did they're likely to be banned first from entering cities and towns!

The " mostly town driving" part worries me with diesel. Be caerfull. You need to spell out exactly what you mean by that.

Edited by Stanb Sevento on 22/07/2017 at 23:42

Rachel

Could I suggest you review your figures, something does not ring true. I presume you mean 25k not 250k miles pa. You must make 2 fill ups per week - I'd guess the Micra has a small fuel tank, only 35-40 litres?

25,000 miles @ 44 mpg is 568 gallons *4.546 into litres = 2583 @ £1.11 (current price of fuel) = £2.867 / 52 = £55.14 not £70 per week.

£70 pw = 63 litres or 13.87 gallons *52 = 721pa. 25,000 / 721 = 34.6 mpg.

why do I say this - I drive a Primera and drive 20k miles a year, about 400 per week which I get out of one tankfull of petrol (52-55 litres on average) - this gives me around 32-34 mpg, I consider your weekly spend too high for the mpg obtained.

Unless there is a really superb part exchange trade in to be received I would say wear out your existing car before replacing it, regular oil change every 10k miles, check for engine belts too, factoring in the cost of the new vehicle it is most likely to be the better financial option.

Given the Focus sized family cars are more expensive to buy and run than a 'city' car, I would suggest also looking at something like a Kia Picanto/Hyundai i10 1.0 ltr petrol - same car underneath but variation in looks/trim and warranty (KIA 7yrs/100k & Hyundai 5yrs & Unlimited miles) - I'd go for the i10 as its warranty is unlimited mileage (not all parts, e.g. clutch, but most). Its not as though you need a big, fast car for a driving school, and as others have said, diesel-engined cars may at some point be banned from some larger towns and cities, or at least taxed more heavily.

The slightly larger sister cars of both (Rio and i20) may also be worth a look in the higher-powered 1.2 (84bhp) and newer 1.0 (100bhp, small turbocharger) which seem to match the standard 1.0 ltr on the smaller cars for mpg in the real world (possibly as they are newer generation engines), getting a real-world mpg average in the high 40s and possibly over 50 for more urban driving.

Of those I've listed, I'd probably go for the non-turbocharged versions to be on the safe side in terms of reliability over the longer term/mileage (even if they are covered by the warranty - you'd need to make sure they are to the same degree if they are used as a driving school car - not sure).

I fully understand your reluctance to buy a common rail diesel - my driving instructor initially owned an early 1990s diesel Peugeot 205, then later had a SEAT Arosa, but I could swear blind he changed it back to a 205d again later on as much as 10 years after the 205 went out of production (I moved town so haven't seen him about since). One bunch of cars that looks good on paper but perhaps less so in real life are the VW Up/Seat Mii/Skoda Citigo 1.0 TSi petrol - good real world mpg (mid-to-high 50s) but reliability not so good, especially on gearboxes and manual clutches, something that I would think you wouldn't want in your line of work.

Best of luck.

PS - it might also be worth a look at the Toyota Aygo 1.0VVT petrol again, ok to drive, but reliable and has the Toyota engine (53mpg real world) and a 5 year / 100k miles warranty.

Edited by Engineer Andy on 23/07/2017 at 15:07