I travel 90 miles a day travelling to work and back. What would be the best car for me to get to cope with this high mileage. It would have to be a diesel as well.
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I am not a diesel fan myself but if I try and summarise what most people would say on this site it would be an Honda or Toyota diesel.
The bigger the car the more comfortable it would be i.e. I would expect the Avensis to be more comfortable than Corolla/Auris
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Budget?
If it's low then you could do a lot worse than a Citroen C5 diesel. They are good for 200K miles at least and you should be able to get a good one with years of use in it for no more than 5K.
I presume it has to be fairly new? Otherwise I'd go for a succession of cheapo banger diesels and run them on veg oil (tax paid of course) ;-)
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If it has to be diesel, then there is an argument for making it an older model, without common rail, complicated electronics in the cabin etc.
My 93 405 TD is very solid, comfortable and reliable. I have driven it 700 miles in one day ten times in the last seven months....
It's worth £650 odd on the market, it's totally anonymous, and I can afford to chuck it if I get a big bill. I've done 20,000 miles in it, and it's cost me about £600 in repairs, Mots etc, plus fuel at 43 mpg.
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Well I`m getting around 78MPG cruising at just under 60MPH in the inside lane, 62MPG ish at 75/80MPH
64 MPG ish on rural/urban runs with a little city.
Thats a Punto van with the Multijet diesel. But you could get around the same with a Panda diesel.£6,000 new.
My point is that fuel consumption IMHO is more important than trying to find the most reliable car, as all cars can have problems.
With a really good fuel consumption you could get the best AA or RAC cover, even both :) out of the fuel savings.
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Quite honestly and having driven my mother's Punto diesel I'd rather lose 10mpg and gain some power. It just doesn't cut it on the motorway. In fact it's in the realm of being downright scary.
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My Seat toledo TdiSE which i bought new at the end of 1999 just keeps going. A fabulous VW Audi engine. 110 bhp. If you do long smooth runs like I do and never hammer the car particularly when engine is still cold. I have done 142,000 miles and the car is a dream. So smooth cruising, plenty of overtaking mid range torque and still does 60 mpg on long runs.
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I forgot to mention, a friend of mine did delux taxi work to British airports. He daid it was well known some years ago that the larger diesels of Ford, Volvo, Mercedes etc etc would last longer.
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I meant to mention the large Vauxhalls.
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I've had two years sterling service from a mk2 Mondeo TD. People slag them off for their complete lack of refinement, but they're just about unstoppable. My 130,000 miler has covered my 80 mile daily commute for 18 months and has never let me down. One of the CV joints was clonking like a good 'un which I've just done and It's been sitting outside the house for 5 weeks now as I've had to do the job in half hour chunks due to lack of time. I put the key in last night and it fired up like it had last been used yesterday. I've also had to replace the front discs, an engine mount and the water pump. Other than that, it's been routine maintenance only.
Best of all they're CHEAP. A grand gets you a nice one, 1500 a minter!
Apart from clutch replacement (£300+ in labour costs), nothing on these things will give you a big bill. Service parts cost peanuts (Genuine oil filter a fiver, genuine diesel filter three quid, genuine air filter eight quid etc), and everything else is readily available in breakers. Engine management is as basic as it gets, everything else, including the injection system is purely mechanical and is set up with pins and dial gauges rather than a lap top.
Gutless, yes (although familiarity with the narrow powerband makes it much more acceptable), and yes it's noisy under acceleration, but cruises effortlessly at anything up to 85 with plenty in reserve, does 45-50 mpg, is very well put together, well kitted out, comfy, spacious, costs pennies to run and service, and won't ever get nicked or vandalised when parked in public. Frankly, what more do you want from a commuter?
And did I say cheap?
Cheers
DP
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The reason I ask is because I have a Mazda 6 2L TDI. Plenty of power (which I want) comfortable, good on the gas. Actually its a lovely comfortable powerful car, it's just I've been having problems with it lately and was wondering if there was a better alternative out there. Twice in the past 2 weeks I have stalled and not been able to start the engine afterwards. Turns out the battery was dead both times, but how could the battery be dead after driving for 30 miles? Alternator was checked with no probs. Gearbox packed in on me before christmas as well (58000 miles on the clock). Just seems to me to be an unlucky car as the AA told me its the first time he had a call out for one of thes cars.
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^^^^ Meant to say the AA mechanic hadnt had a call out before, I'm sure the entire AA had, lol.
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I think you've been very unlucky there. The 6 is one of the more reliable cars on the road, and the chances are if you bought another one you wouldn't have the same kind of issues again.
Luck of the draw sometimes, and I don't think there is such a thing as a car that's guaranteed never to give trouble.
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When batteries go, they can go fast, but the gearbox going at 58k is not acceptable.
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Chances are the battery needs replacing and the car will be reliable hereafter. Keep it.
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I did exactly the same commute [90 miles a day] with a couple of cars.
First was a Peugeot 406 2.0 HDi - it was superb. Comfortable, reliable, perfect mway performance.
Second was a Ford Focus 2.0 zetec. THe ride was firmer, but i loved its handling on the twisty bits before i got to the mway. Certainly noticed the difference between economy of petrol and diesel, and the number of visits to the filling station.
If you're less worried about outright performance then a 406 would do a treat.
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The thing is though. I eventually got to work, checked the battery and it was fine. For some reason, on both accounts. the car has started first time, I've driven for around 30 miles, stalled it, and the battery is dead. Every single other time the car has started first time with no problems.
I can't figure it out, for whatever reason, I had to be driving off the battery both these times. Once I got the kick start, the battery started charging fine again.
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