Car to commute for sub £8K.

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Mon 22 Oct 2007 17:48
Car to commute for sub £8K. - 13dd13
I have a 35 mile commute, mostly A roads, and a couple of short stretches of motorway. I need to get a car, and have a budget of £8K. I'll be buying a used car. I'm looking at a Saab 9-3, but am interested in people's opinions. For longevity and economy I'm probably going for a diesel. What do you consider to be good alternatives? I'm not considering a BMW, as their indicators never seem to work!

Edited by Dynamic Dave on 22/10/2007 at 20:49

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Mon 22 Oct 2007 18:53
Car to commute for sub £8K. - local yokel
I'm not sure you'll get much support for a used 9-3 diesel on here. At 70 miles/day, that's about 25k miles pa, not including your weekend miles, so it ought to be worthwhile having a diesel from a cost/payback perspective.

You could look at it another way, and buy high mileage cars with one owner and FSH at auction, drive them for a year, and then sell them.
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Mon 22 Oct 2007 20:11
Car to commute for sub £8K. - J Bonington Jagworth
"I need to get a car"

Does that mean you're starting from scratch, or have you just been resting from motoring for a bit? A lot depends on whether you view cars as a means to an end, or like to get involved with them. You probably don't need to spend £8k, and you could spend what you save (as it were) on running something more exciting with a petrol engine. Others will have different opinions!

Edited by J Bonington Jagworth on 22/10/2007 at 20:11

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Mon 22 Oct 2007 20:30
Car to commute for sub £8K. - Avant
In your position I'd go for a Skoda Octavia - go for the 2.0 TDI if you can find one within your budget, but the 1.9 is quite adequate. Same engine as VW or Audi but you'll get a newer one for the money.

Skodas have a good reputation for reliability - so do Japanese cars but older Japanese diesels aren't a lot of fun.

Don't ignore Mondeo TDCI or Vectra DTI - but a lot of them are repmobiles and (with no disrespect to reps as a race) many have been thrashed.

In my view any of the above are preferable to a Saab.
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