Boring commuter car needed

[p4cks]

Currently got a Golf GTE which is great for my current 24 mile daily commute (there and back) which is predominantly 30mph streets and it returns about 70mpg, however it's not great for my potential new commute of a total of 80 miles, 90% of which is motorway.

The Golf is valued at about £15K and I think I have two options:

1. I've got my eye on a 1.8 Corolla Hybrid which according to honestjohn have a really good MPG score
2. Buy a banger for £5K and pocket the difference. I was thinking something like an Auris 1.8 (same engine) or the like.

I'm devoid of any other ideas really. It must be auto and it must have cruise and DAB. The rest I'm not arsed about.

[georgeyboy12345]

Have you tried doing the commute with the GTE? If you can get over 60 mpg I wouldn't bother switching to the Corolla.

Here's what I'd pick - a diesel

BMW 320d ED Plus
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202211292...


Mazda 6 2.2 Skyactiv-D
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202212162...


Alfa Romeo Giulia 2.2 JTD Super
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202301032...


Mercedes C220d SE
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202110198...


Audi A5 Sportback 2.0 TDI Ultra
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202301042...


Skoda Octavia 2.0 TDI vRS
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202212082...



What about a diesel hybrid?

Mercedes C300dh
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202211191...


Or a diesel PHEV with a Volvo V60 TwinEngine

D5
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202212232...

D6
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202210060...

[p4cks]

georgeyboy12345 said:

Have you tried doing the commute with the GTE? If you can get over 60 mpg I wouldn't bother switching to the Corolla.

Yeah, got about 50mpg but I don't know how much I can bother with a plug in hybrid anymore. I'm old and lazy ha!

georgeyboy12345 said:

Here's what I'd pick - a diesel

Ooh, I'd discounted diesels as I'm a bit of a philistine towards them but maybe I need to accept that they may work in this application

Thanks for your reply, I'm off to have a look at each of your suggestions now

PS - I don't like the thought of sinking £15K into a diesel, are there any sub £5K diesels you'd recommend?

[p4cks]

Or a Lexus Ct200h?

[anonymous-user]

I think I'd be looking at the maths a little harder.

I feel the slight MPG benefit in a Diesel will be negated by the 20p/L higher cost.

Also the cost to change, the depreciation rates of sticking or twisting etc.

Plus, a new job might not work out and end up changing again or whatever.

I'd run the gold for 6 months and see how things pan out as any benefit on the face of it will be minimal.

[stevemcs]

lord trumpton said:

I think I'd be looking at the maths a little harder.

I feel the slight MPG benefit in a Diesel will be negated by the 20p/L higher cost.

Also the cost to change, the depreciation rates of sticking or twisting etc.

Plus, a new job might not work out and end up changing again or whatever.

I'd run the gold for 6 months and see how things pan out as any benefit on the face of it will be minimal.

I agree

[p4cks]

lord trumpton said:

Plus, a new job might not work out and end up changing again or whatever.

I'd run the golf for 6 months and see how things pan out as any benefit on the face of it will be minimal.

Yeah, very true. I suppose after a few 'goes' in the Golf I'll have the knack to perfect the battery/petrol timings to maximise mpg

[georgeyboy12345]

p4cks said:

georgeyboy12345 said:

Here's what I'd pick - a diesel

Ooh, I'd discounted diesels as I'm a bit of a philistine towards them but maybe I need to accept that they may work in this application

Thanks for your reply, I'm off to have a look at each of your suggestions now

PS - I don't like the thought of sinking £15K into a diesel, are there any sub £5K diesels you'd recommend?

Yeah can understand where you and others commenting are coming from to be fair. I'm not sure about £5k but I reckon the trick could be to get the lowest price Euro 6 diesel you can, so it'll still be able to drive into low emissions zones, etc without incurring charges. It'll also make it easier to sell on and should hold its value better.

You could always just go for the same as I originally suggested, but with higher miles. For instance, the BMW 320d ED Plus is capable of at least 250,000 miles as long as it's serviced properly, so this 110,000 mile example for £9k would be good for at least 7 more years at the kind of mileages you do
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202301143...

Or to save a bit more money, you could get a 116d ED Plus
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202210130...


Alfa Romeo Giulia 2.2 JTD Super - still a bit pricey as they are newer
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202301173...

Or, as with the BMW, it's smaller sibling the Giulietta

1.6 JTDM Exclusive
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202301153...

or for a bit more power the 2.0 JTDM Speciale
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202210100...


Other ideas

Ford Focus 2.0 TDCi Titanium
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202210230...


Volvo V40 D2
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202301153...


Honda Civic i-DTEC SE
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202207067...


Renault Megane 1.6 dCi
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202208239...


Kia Optima 1.7 CDRi
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202212142...


This Audi A3 2.0 TDI is the highest mileage car here, but is probably good to do at least the same mileage again if serviced properly and according to schedule - meaning at your mileages, it'll be good for another 7 years or so too.
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202301042...

Essntially the same cars as the Audi A3 are these

Seat Leon 2.0 TDI FR
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202210241...

Skoda Octavia 2.0 TDI SE
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202301063...

[300bhp/ton]

Why would anyone want a boring car? Surely if you are spending a lot of time in it, then something interesting would be massively better.

[p4cks]

Cheers Georgeyboy, some cars there I'd had never considered! I'm also considering a mk6/7 Golf TDI

300bhp/ton said:

Why would anyone want a boring car? Surely if you are spending a lot of time in it, then something interesting would be massively better.

I get your point, but I've got something interesting for the weekend already. The purpose of the commuter car is to sit in and drive up and down a long, boring straight road as cheaply as possible.

[mike13]

p4cks said:

Currently got a Golf GTE which is great for my current 24 mile daily commute (there and back) which is predominantly 30mph streets and it returns about 70mpg, however it's not great for my potential new commute of a total of 80 miles, 90% of which is motorway.

The Golf is valued at about £15K and I think I have two options:

1. I've got my eye on a 1.8 Corolla Hybrid which according to honestjohn have a really good MPG score
2. Buy a banger for £5K and pocket the difference. I was thinking something like an Auris 1.8 (same engine) or the like.

I'm devoid of any other ideas really. It must be auto and it must have cruise and DAB. The rest I'm not arsed about.

I've got that 1.8 engine in an Auris, in this cold it's getting about 55 mpg, more efficient in town, where it switches between electric and petrol on its own.

[p4cks]

mike13 said:

I've got that 1.8 engine in an Auris, in this cold it's getting about 55 mpg, more efficient in town, where it switches between electric and petrol on its own.

Interesting, thanks. What sort of mpg do you get on the motorway?

[mike13]

p4cks said:

mike13 said:

I've got that 1.8 engine in an Auris, in this cold it's getting about 55 mpg, more efficient in town, where it switches between electric and petrol on its own.

Interesting, thanks. What sort of mpg do you get on the motorway?

In all honesty I haven't taken note P4cks, I recently retired unexpectedly so my mileage in now going to be about 4000 a year, fortunately fill ups are few and far between.
I go swimming 3 times a week, motorway from my house to the pool, so that 55 figure will be mostly that.

[paradigital]

What kind of driving are you doing on the new 80-mile commute? Is that one way? Are you heavy footed? The MPG figures seem a bit poor considering I can get more than that with a fully holiday-laden-for-family-of-four Passat GTE Estate travelling from Cheshire to North Devon. A typical run down to Devon will see me get around 55mpg.

I’d imagine that changing your driving style will net you more of a saving than changing your car.

[Jonny_]

mike13 said:

p4cks said:

mike13 said:

I've got that 1.8 engine in an Auris, in this cold it's getting about 55 mpg, more efficient in town, where it switches between electric and petrol on its own.

Interesting, thanks. What sort of mpg do you get on the motorway?

In all honesty I haven't taken note P4cks, I recently retired unexpectedly so my mileage in now going to be about 4000 a year, fortunately fill ups are few and far between.
I go swimming 3 times a week, motorway from my house to the pool, so that 55 figure will be mostly that.

If it helps, on longer motorway runs I used to get low 50s from my old Auris hybrid (early 2015 pre facelift estate version).
Winter weather dropped this to high 40s, maybe down to 45mpg if I was doing 70mph in properly cold and damp conditions. In summer it would get close to 60 if driven gently.

Purely in town it was ridiculously economical; the car could manage well over 70mpg with careful driving.

In theory a Prius should do a bit better, particularly at higher speeds, as it's a more aerodynamic shape than the Auris.

The Corolla hybrids and the newer Prius (Gen 4?) use an updated version of the hybrid drivetrain, which can drop into electric power alone at higher speeds. It'll do this up to 70mph (although only on a slight downhill incline), so the later generation cars should be slightly more efficient on motorways than their older counterparts. Haven't had my own Corolla long enough to properly test this though.

[p4cks]

paradigital said:

What kind of driving are you doing on the new 80-mile commute? Is that one way? Are you heavy footed? The MPG figures seem a bit poor considering I can get more than that with a fully holiday-laden-for-family-of-four Passat GTE Estate travelling from Cheshire to North Devon. A typical run down to Devon will see me get around 55mpg.

I’d imagine that changing your driving style will net you more of a saving than changing your car.

80 mile round trip, and I'm certainly not heavy footed. I'm all about the mpg these days, As another poster has suggested, I might just need to learn to maximise the battery capacity once I'm used to the route.

I'm still considering a £5K diesel automatic though (VW 1.6, 1.9 or 2.0) for some reason

ETA: For example... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/404101816982

[CrgT16]

For a 80 mile return commute your car is fine. Any savings will take a long tone to offset. If you own it outright just keep it…

[Vasco]

80 mile return, mostly on motorway, is nothing really. Personally, I'd not change unless it was 80 each way.
Stick to the current car.

[dmsims]

Should easily get >55mpg in the GTE (battery only till on the Motorway)

Diseasel is now nearly 30p more a litre

Nuts to change cars

Edited by dmsims on Sunday 22 January 13:00

[p4cks]

Bit of a bump - I thought I'd arrived at the solution, as there was a charging station right next to the new office. Did a recci today, however it appears that the charging station support my car which is a real shame as I got 76mpg on the way there using all of the battery.

On the way back the mpg was fairly poor, and overall I got 51mpg indicated but because of the relatively small petrol tank in the Golf, the was 1/4 tank used which will mean a fill up every week.

Surely there's a better solution out there?