Have you tried the commute by car? Depending on the route/traffic you might find it takes longer and is more stressful than your current journey..

I would say that as a new driver, and possibly quite young (and therefore not well-off), getting a big diesel or a lease/PCP car would not be the best thing to do. Note that your insurance (as a new driver, but especially if you are under 25 [even worse under 20]) will be high on almost all cars, so (assuming you're not well off) I would:

Buy a small car - a Fiesta (largest) to Hyundai i10 size (smallest) that you can easily drive and park, plus which in smaller engine form will be not horrendous to insure. Try using one of the insurance comparison websites once you've at least narrowed down the choice to 2 or 3 cars to see which is the cheapest to insure, as insurance will be your second largest (if not largest) outlay per year over the first 5 years of driving.

If your journey is one that you spend on faster roads (motorways, dual carriageways and 60mph single lane A roads) and not in jig-jog traffic and or below 30mph in built-up areas, then a diesel car would be ok if your annual mileage is over 20,000 miles. Check the reviews section of this website to find a reliable car (petrol or diesel) that is cheap to run and insure - you can always get something more flashy when you've got a good few years of salary savings behind you and (hopefully) an unblemished no-claims bonus on the insurance.

Buying an older second-hand car from either private sellers or unknown (reputation) independent dealers could be a major headache, as you can't guarantee how well the car has been looked after. Best to buy a 2-3 year old car from a main dealer or reputable supersite that can prove the service/fault/accident history of the car (preferably it being looked after by a main dealer) and gives a decent 1 year warranty and other perks - some may include free MOTs or cheaper (at least in the first year) insurance.

Car: Look for a well-known Japanese or Korean make for reliability, Fords for ok reliability but which are plentiful and thus cheaper to buy and service. Have a good look around, both online and in the showrooms - don't make a quick decision, especially if a salesperson puts you under pressure - walk away. Go for a long test drive on a range of roads, but not in busy periods - you want to see if you feel comforable driving it, and you won't find that out sitting in a traffic jam. Get the seat and steering wheel adjustment as good as you can before setting off. If, afterwards, something doesn't feel right, then don't go for it, whatever the deal. Don't buy a car just because the dealership is local (though handy).

Engine: Either 1 - 1.3 litre petrol engine or 1.4 - 1.5 litre diesel. Only pick a diesel engined car that has a reputation for repliability - diesels can be VERY expensive to fix nowadays. Non-turbo-charged petrol-engined cars are now very reliable and quite efficient if you don't thrash them.

Other items: Forget all the fancy electronics - go for the most basic car in the range. You may be lucky and it has manual A/C, but if there's less electronics on board, there's less to go wrong, and you can always buy a £10 phone mount (vent one in the middle) so you can use your mobile as a satnav (many phone systems are ok and FREE) rather than shell out much more for a shop-job or inbuilt system (which costs a lot, especially for map upgrades).

Make sure that the boot is large enough for normal use - putting the back seats down on the odd occasion isn't the end of the world: owning a large car can be nice, but the cost more to buy/run and can be quite daunting for inexperienced new drivers to handle, especially parking, when they were used to driving a much smaller car before the test.

Best of luck.

Edited by Engineer Andy on 18/11/2016 at 18:49

Petrol cars can do this range but they tend to be larger models with big tanks. However I had a 1.4 Golf that could do well over 400. Might be worth checking the size of tank. I got 585 miles in my Cavalier once!

Something else to ponder .... I drive a 40 mile commute twice a day, that's 400 miles a week ... I have considered replacing my car, I want something with a fuel tank large enough to cover a full weeks commute with just one weekend fill up, 60 minutes driving twice a day is one matter, visiting the fuel station on the way home really is a bore!

Many diesels will cover this range, but for petrol cars it's more difficult to be sure.

You can, but as others have said, you need one which has a decent sized fuel tank. My mk1 Mazda 1.6 petrol has a 55 ltr tank and can over the year average more than 400 miles on one tank, but at the moment travelling in the cold, damp and often dark conditions, its only averaging 380-390 miles without me chancing it 'running on vapour' (i.e. running more than 20 miles once the low fuel warning light has come on). It can often achieve 430-450 miles in May/June when its not too hot [no A/C or heating needed].

You might be able to achieve 400+ miles if you can find a similar Focus-sized car with either a 60 ltr tank or that can achieve more than 40mpg all year round - not so easy in the dead of winter. Or perhaps a small but very efficient car, though you'd be limited to 1 - 1.2 ltr cars at the size of an i10. The trend seems to be to reducing fuel tank sizes as car engines become more efficient, presumably to save weight and CO2 emissions.