Fuel Efficient Estate

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Wed 8 Jul 2020 10:35
Fuel Efficient Estate - Ryan Purchase

Hi all,

Looking at changing my car to an estate for the simple reason of practicality with boot space. Ideally I want a very efficient estate as my daily commute is a 100mile round trip and 85% of that journey is on roads averaging between 60-75mph. Reading through reviews I know there are a lot of options and some of the more favourable reviews seem to lean towards a Skoda Superb, Skoda Octavia, BMW 3 Series Efficient Dynamics, VW Passat GTE or Seat Leon ST.

As stated, my main objective is to make it as fuel efficient a journey as possible as I'm currently running a 1L Ecoboost Fiesta which is costing me around £80-£100 a week on fuel depending on what other journeys happen during the week. In the perfect world I would also enjoy something that is still slightly fun to drive but I realise this will have an effect on the fuel economy.

Budget wise, I would probably be looking for a used estate within the region of £15,000 which will rule out certain cars like the Passat GTE (and I don't know how well that would cope with the mileage on the motorway and lack of range etc anyway).

Any suggestions are welcome

Cheers

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Wed 8 Jul 2020 10:53
Fuel Efficient Estate - Falkirk Bairn

High mileage a diesel should be the order of the day. However buying a 2nd hand diesel comes with issues about previous ownership usage & how well serviced or not.

I would add an Avensis Estate to your list - petrol is surprisingly rare - the diesel is a BMW 2 litre. Not so popular new so 2nd hand, great order and still under warranty it can be a good buy.

Autotrader - 18 Avensis estates for £13 to £15K roughly and less than 40K but not any if you want autos & petrol.

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Wed 8 Jul 2020 11:02
Fuel Efficient Estate - badbusdriver

Honda Civic 1.6i-DTEC tourer. The last of the previous shape (no estate version of the current Civic) will be 2017 and a lowish mileage example (around 30k) could be had for no more than £13k.

Very efficient (60+mpg), comfortable and refined, very reliable and the boot is enormous (624 litres).

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Wed 8 Jul 2020 11:52
Fuel Efficient Estate - thunderbird

daily commute is a 100mile round trip ...

currently running a 1L Ecoboost Fiesta which is costing me around £80-£100 a week on fuel depending on what other journeys happen during the week.

With the info above your are you saying on a week where you do no other mileage than your commute you use £80 of fuel? If that is the case your Fiesta is only averaging 34 mpg whereas HJ's real MPG suggests 44 mpg is what people are actually achieving but in truth i would expect you to get more than that with your long runs, our 1.0 Fabia with similar power but a mixed use does 50 mpg.

The suggestion above of the 1.8 petrol Avensis will actually cost you more, based on HJ's figures about 10% so if you are wanting to save forget that one.

But the best way to save money on fuel is simply to drive slower. Your trip to work of 50 miles at 70 mph will take 43 minutes, drop your speed to 60 mph and it will take 50 minutes and since not all your commute will be on motorways the time difference will be less. When they were doing roadworks on the wifes commute and had a 50 or 60 mph limit for about 2 years her mpg in a Focus 1.6 TDCi increased from about 48 mpg to about 53 mpg,quite a saving.

And don't forget that changing cars to purely save money never works. What you save on fuel is spent on repayments several times over and unless its a new car you buy there is a good chance of buying a money pit.

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Wed 8 Jul 2020 13:04
Fuel Efficient Estate - madf

On a 50 mile journey I would expect 50mpg from any small petrol (My 21012 Jazz will do it)

So 500 miles a week = 10 gallons which at (say) £1.20 per litre = £50..

And that would be driving at 60-65mph.

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Wed 8 Jul 2020 12:44
Fuel Efficient Estate - Heidfirst

I would add an Avensis Estate to your list - petrol is surprisingly rare - the diesel is a BMW 2 litre.

From the 2015 facelift, before that it's a Toyota AD series. A 1.6 BMW-derived diesel is also available from the 2015 facelift but in an estate it's a slug.

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Wed 8 Jul 2020 13:39
Fuel Efficient Estate - MGspannerman

I have an Avensis estate, petrol and auto. I visited an elderly relative yesterday that involved a 214 mile round trip on almost exclusively fast A roads and motorway. With less traffic on the road there is much less stop/start and driving at a steady speed is easier. I was doing a steady 65/70 and not pressing on, yet still managed to do the journey in very near or record time. Anything less than two hours is really good going, and achieved in both directions. I filled up before leaving and then on return and brim to brim using the same garage (Sainsburys) gave me 46.31 mpg. I can touch 44ish on a good run and would be disappointed with less than 42 for this trip, but this is a record high for me and that was without trying.

The car has now done 45k and in the two and half years I have owned it I have done 34k of those. I paid £14k for it and reckon I could easily get 11.5 or even 12k for it (good nick, spec and FTSH). Just brakes, tyres and routine service and no other problems.

A really great car and no turbo, DSG box etc to worry about. Everything works, cheap to service and coming up next February to five years old. A Toyota two year extended warranty is £495 and includes european breakdown cover, two MOTs and an MOT guarantee. Whats not to like? They sell like hot cakes apparently. If you can find one, buy it!

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Wed 8 Jul 2020 14:33
Fuel Efficient Estate - thunderbird

Just had a thought. You want an estate but do not say if you really want a bigger car than the Fiesta so lets assume size wise its OK, just want a bigger boot.

So what about a Skoda Fabia estate. We have the 1.0 TSi hatch with the 110 engine in SEL trim. All you need and plenty of performance. As I said above overall its averaged 50 mpg but on the couple of longish runs we have done so far its averaged in the mid to high 50's, on your commute that should be possible with no need to try.

Now the best bit. Your budget is £15000 and after a quick look round for the grand total of £14840 you can have a brand new Fabia estate 1.0 TSi 110 PS in SEL trim. That is a brand new car so no worries about being ripped off.

The 1.0 TSi 110 SE would save you a grand but you obviously loose some trim items. Drop to the 95 PS version (we drove one and it was OK) and save another £600 but you loose the 6 speed box which would probably hurt your mpg on your commute.

Well worth a look, very happy we did.

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Wed 8 Jul 2020 14:28
Fuel Efficient Estate - Falkirk Bairn

>>From the 2015 facelift, before that it's a Toyota AD series.

His budget was £15k or thereabouts - 2016/2017 moels cost around that figure = BMW 2 litre.

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Wed 8 Jul 2020 18:29
Fuel Efficient Estate - Mr D Og

You might have a look at the Skoda Superb estate which is perhaps not quite as reliable as the Toyota Avensis, but is certainly better to drive and much roomier. I've owned both and would say overall the Skoda is better.

A quick look on Car Gurus and I found a December 2017 2 litre diesel Superb estate with 24,000 miles for £14,740. Balance of warranty and a RAC extended warranty available.

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Wed 8 Jul 2020 19:19
Fuel Efficient Estate - DavidGlos
You’ve mentioned the Passat GTE PHEV. Can you charge it at work? If you can’t but do charge overnight at home, you’re only going to cover around 1/4 of your daily mileage on electricity.

If that’s the case, I’d definitely go with a diesel.

Edited by DavidGlos on 08/07/2020 at 19:20

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