Apologies in advance for the long post, but I thought I would give as much context as possible, to get the right advice...
I need to buy a second car. This will be a used car for around the £2000 mark.
We currently have a 2008 Ford Focus hatchback, Petrol. I am very happy with the car, except for one thing. While doing motorway trips at 70 mph, the fuel economy is stubbornly stuck at 30 mpg. Overall fule economy is about 37 mpg, as per the car reading. However I don't do a whole lot of motorway driving, perhaps about 300 miles a moth.
I generally commute to work using a combination of bike and train. However we have moved to a new home now (in outer London) and the nearest railway station to my destination is 7 miles away from home. During the autumn and winter months, I find that I am increasingly using the car to drive for work, particulalrly when it rains. Also I am a little wary of riding back in the evenings (when it is dark), through unlit country lanes. But maybe I will get used to this and get around to riding in winter as well, on dry days.
Also, the school we have been allocated for our kids is a long walk (1.5 miles). With a kid in nursery and another kid at a different primary school, my wife ends up walking about 6 miles a day, when I take the car to work.
Hence my wife needs a car for the school run. She would prefer a smaller car (such as a Yaris) due to the easier parking, but I am dubious about the safety of small cars, particularly safety for kids in the event of a rear end collision.
I did explore a Kia Rio, as it has a reasonably large boot / rear crumple zone. But these cars have cam belts (petrol model), and the cost of changing a cam belt for a 6 year old car (which I am looking at) will be aorund 25% of the worth of the car.
The other option I am considering is to give the Focus to the wife, and get a car for myself for my sporadic commute. Under this option I am ok with a Focus sized or larger car. I would also look at getting something a little different from the current Focus, with perhaps,
- A larger engine to get more fuel economy during motorway driving - Perhaps an estate (for the odd occasion, when we want to pick up a large furniture item or flatpack from ikea).
The main characteristics I will be looking for are; Modern Safety Features (curtain air bags, etc.), Reliability, Fuel Economy.
Based on these considerations I am currently debating 2 choices
A 2005 Ford Focus estate 2.0 (100,000 miles) , for about £1400.
A 2008 Kia Ceed estate diesel (120,000 miles) for about £2000.
I would be interested in hearing suggestions about which of the above options could prove more reliable, and whether there is any other options I need to look at.
Thanks for reading....
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