VW TDI - £5k - 25k Miles a year - What would you choose? | Motoring discussion | Back Room Forum

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Fri 2 Oct 2020 21:50

VW TDI - £5k - 25k Miles a year - What would you choose? - defect

I'm stuck with this, and I'm tired of so many dodgy looking dealers and sellers locally, is anyone actually legit these days?!

Ideally, I'd like to give a VW CC a shot, but they seem really hard to find in Essex in my price range, and I don't really fancy traveling at the moment.

Reliability and mpg are key, I'm going to be a LOT of dull as hell motorway driving, and I just want something that is gonna get me there, but fun on the (very) occasional twisties is obviously a bonus.

Any advice or recommendations are much appreciated.

Here's my current shortlist, in this order:

VW CC 2.0 TDI

i.imgur.com/k55erOc.png

Skoda Octavia vRS 2.0 TDI

i.imgur.com/MfJ83MM.png

VW Passat 2.0 TDI

i.imgur.com/iNMX5cl.png

Honda Civic 2.2 CTDI

i.imgur.com/R3300YF.png

Honda Accord 2.2 CTDI

i.imgur.com/HTD5gqz.png

Mazda 6 2.0D

i.imgur.com/c8VQd6p.png

Edited by defect on 02/10/2020 at 21:50

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Fri 2 Oct 2020 22:22

VW TDI - £5k - 25k Miles a year - What would you choose? - Ian D

Your price bracket nearly stretches to a 2012/2013 Civic 1.6i DTEC diesel, can you rustle up a bit more cash?

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Fri 2 Oct 2020 22:25

VW TDI - £5k - 25k Miles a year - What would you choose? - defect

You're not the first one to say this, and I have to admit it's a serious temptation.

I'm struggling to find much on long-term reliability, do you know how well they deal with higher mileage?

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Sat 3 Oct 2020 00:47

VW TDI - £5k - 25k Miles a year - What would you choose? - Terry W

Low running costs, reiaibility and fun are mutually exclusive.

£5k fun cars are likely to be 12+ years old, possibly thrashed with lots of miles on the clock. Servicing, tyres, repairs will be probable and costly.

Go down a size to a supermini and for the same money you can buy 6-8 year old, possibly lower mileage, and far less likely to have been abused.

We would all like an Ferrari for Ford money - but it aint going to happen!

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Sat 3 Oct 2020 06:57

VW TDI - £5k - 25k Miles a year - What would you choose? - defect

I can't argue with that.

What would be your recommendations?

Should I be considering a petrol, too?

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Sat 3 Oct 2020 07:18

VW TDI - £5k - 25k Miles a year - What would you choose? - sandy56

A Honda Civic diesel, or a Toyota Auris diesel are both good bets for long term use. Problem is youre buying an old car so get one with a proper full service history, otherwise walk away.

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Sat 3 Oct 2020 08:10

VW TDI - £5k - 25k Miles a year - What would you choose? - badbusdriver

My advice would be to ignore the 'fun' part and focus exclusively on reliability. Once you have a decent budget, or are doing less miles (so mpg is not such a big factor), then worry about enjoying the drive. Frankly though, IMO, covering that miles, comort is going to be much higher up the list if importance than fun anyway!. Its a moot point though, as i don't see any of your suggestions as being fun to drive, with the possible exception of the Octavia VRS.

Also not really sure what the pictures are for?, i did initially think they might have been links adverts for the relevant cars, but no............!

You have not given any details about the size of car you need (not want, that is a seperate issue), but given the Octavia is based on the Golf floorpan, i was thinking Astra 1.7CDTI. Why?, they are widely available, they have enough space for most, that Isuzu engine (unlike the other Fiat sourced engines) is pretty much bulletproof, and they are generally pretty well equipped with even the lower trim levels getting cruise control (that is important for spending so much time on the road).

Not sure where in Essex you are, but spotted this low mileage example at a garage in Hertford (which isn't too far away from the random Essex postcode i put into Autotrader).

www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202009284323658?o...1

This might be a low spec car, but it does have the higher of the two power outputs available on the 1.7 (128 rather than 108bhp), and of course, cruise control. Also, bear in mind the smaller wheels like this has, is going to give a nicer ride (and be cheaper to replace) than the bigger wheels on sportier trim levels.

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Sat 3 Oct 2020 21:14

VW TDI - £5k - 25k Miles a year - What would you choose? - defect

I have a Nissan Silvia S15 for weekend fun. This will be a daily mile muncher. The S15 absorbs my finances nicely.

The pictures were to give an idea of the year of the cars, I'm not trying to sell you anything, don't worry. I just find pictures help to understand what I'm trying to explain, and to help with the attention span. Apologies if they were misleading.

An Astra isn't quite what I was thinking, and looking at that one just makes me think what else I could get for the money.

Not entirely sure on the appeal, and based on my short research, the internet doesn't seem to be very interested either.

I do appreciate the effort though, thank you.

I think that an Avensis/Auris/Mondeo etc would be more tempting than the Astra route.

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Sat 3 Oct 2020 21:11

VW TDI - £5k - 25k Miles a year - What would you choose? - defect

Thank you.

The Auris does appeal. Is there a very economical petrol for long journeys, or should I look towards diesel?

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Sat 3 Oct 2020 12:00

VW TDI - £5k - 25k Miles a year - What would you choose? - SLO76

I wouldn’t buy a diesel at this money, if you can’t find a bit more cash to get a decent Honda Civic 1.6 DTEC then I’d go petrol instead. A Civic 1.8 will do 45-50mpg with your usage in mind which pretty much matches what you’ll get from a Passat CC if you factor in that diesel costs more per litre too. There’s far less likelihood of expensive problems and you’ll get a newer lower mileage car for your money.

If you absolutely must have a diesel then I’d focus on the following...

Civic 2.2 DTEC from 2012 on - It’ll be up in the miles but you can’t afford a good 1.6 DTEC without digging much deeper.

Ford Mondeo 2.0 TDCi - These are great mile munchers and fun to drive too. The PSA motor is quite robust but will still suffer the usual diesel related woes as time goes on. Your money will get a better example than it would with the CC and the big Ford is a nicer car to drive and more reliable. Don’t go for the fragile 1.6 TDCi though, although much improved on early versions it’s still known for turbo failure.

Honda Accord 2.2DTEC - Well made and long lived but not particularly exciting to drive. Something a bit different but much more robust than the Passat.

Toyota Avensis - Id still go for the 1800 petrol which will do 45-50mpg easy enough but again if it must be diesel the 2.0 D4D is generally quite robust and good value. Don’t opt for the 2.2 diesel which isn’t as robust though.

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Sat 3 Oct 2020 21:16

VW TDI - £5k - 25k Miles a year - What would you choose? - defect

Valid opinions, and much appreciated, thank you.

I am not ruling out petrol, by any means.

The 1.8 Civic's are also quite a bit cheaper too, so MPG isn't everything when you can save quite a bit of money on the initial purchase.

I shall look into all of your suggestions, as they certainly seem to provide some valuable feedback, and I wasn't aware that the Avensis petrol was quite that good.

Great to know with their diesels too, thanks a lot. Quite a bit to think about now!

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Sun 4 Oct 2020 09:41

VW TDI - £5k - 25k Miles a year - What would you choose? - badbusdriver

If you are looking for ‘the appeal’ of the Astra, it seems you have entirely missed my point. You want a car in which to cover up to 20k miles per year, which is quite a lot!. But your budget is not very big, so my point is, under those circumstances, to think of the car only as ‘white goods’, a domestic appliance if you will. The only considerations here should be reliability, efficiency, comfort and refinement. This is where the Astra would excel, not in being fun to drive, exciting or interesting to look at, but it’s ability to cover long distances with minimum fuss (probably be pulling around 2000rpm at 70mph in 6th gear) while keeping you comfortable and not using much fuel.

To my mind, there seems no point in focusing on driving enjoyment, looks, performance (up to a point, and a 130bhp turbo diesel has more than enough of that for long motorway journeys), especially since we now know that you also have a ‘fun’ car!.

But obviously at the end of the day it is up to you what you choose.

With regards to what the internet thinks, not sure what this is referring to, but just to clarify, I am only talking about the 1.7 turbo diesel. This is an Isuzu engine and is very reliable, the other diesel engines you will find in that era of Astra are sourced from Fiat and are not as reliable.

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Sun 4 Oct 2020 10:58

VW TDI - £5k - 25k Miles a year - What would you choose? - defect

Valid reasoning there, thank you.

I shall keep an eye out for the 1.7 turbo diesel, it's great to know that the others aren't quite as ideal!

What are your thoughts on the Insignia?

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Sun 4 Oct 2020 11:16

VW TDI - £5k - 25k Miles a year - What would you choose? - SLO76

Valid reasoning there, thank you.

I shall keep an eye out for the 1.7 turbo diesel, it's great to know that the others aren't quite as ideal!

What are your thoughts on the Insignia?

Avoid. The diesels are of a Fiat design and tend to be a costly liability at 70k upwards.

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Sun 4 Oct 2020 12:04

VW TDI - £5k - 25k Miles a year - What would you choose? - defect

Apparently the 1.7 is an Izuzu (as mentioned above) and bulletproof?

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Sun 4 Oct 2020 14:16

VW TDI - £5k - 25k Miles a year - What would you choose? - SLO76

Apparently the 1.7 is an Izuzu (as mentioned above) and bulletproof?

The 1.7 Isuzu motor was never available in the Insignia. It used the Fiat 2.0 motor in various states of tune.

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Sun 4 Oct 2020 10:02

VW TDI - £5k - 25k Miles a year - What would you choose? - craig-pd130

The only thing I can add to the good advice from other posters is this: I would avoid a Passat CC like Donald Trump. Over the past few years I've seen 3 cars that had had underbonnet fires on the hard shoulders of motorways. All 3 were Passat CCs.

Could be pure chance, and I'm sure fires happen to lots of different makes and models, but that's what I've observed.

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Sun 4 Oct 2020 10:59

VW TDI - £5k - 25k Miles a year - What would you choose? - defect

That's very odd! Thank you for the heads up, it certainly doesn't seem to be mentioned much!

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Sun 4 Oct 2020 20:56

VW TDI - £5k - 25k Miles a year - What would you choose? - Big John

Reliability and mpg are key, I'm going to be a LOT of dull as hell motorway driving, and I just want something that is gonna get me there, but fun on the (very) occasional twisties is obviously a bonus.

VW CC 2.0 TDI

Skoda Octavia vRS 2.0 TDI

VW Passat 2.0 TDI

Honda Civic 2.2 CTDI

Honda Accord 2.2 CTDI

Mazda 6 2.0D

As others have mentioned - forget the fun bit. 25k miles is a lot of miles to privately fund. As well as considering fuel economy, consider the cost of tyres. If you have a sporting model with expensive ultra low profile tyres that only last 12k miles (pretty common!) then that's two sets a year.

As others have mentioned how about stretching to the Civic 1.6 diesel. The Honda 2.2 was a great engine but wasn't designed with a DPF in mind and the implementation wasn't perfect! Saying that the worst of all implementation of a DPF has to be the Mazda 6 2.0 diesel, avoid!!!!

Also consider as you'll be averaging nearly 100miles every weekday that comfort and refinement will be important. I've done long commutes for more than three decades. Also make sure whatever car has good headlights, I've had a few with candles and winter driving was stressful to say the least.

Condition is all, don't always go for the cheapest. You'll may quickly regret this with bigger repair bills which at your mileage could eclipse the original purchase price in time.

Good luck, myself I've always bought end of model cars that tend to be cheaper and the model design "sorted" by the end of it's run so hopefully less gremlins.

PS - ignore depreciation, at that mileage it's best to presume you'll effectively be throwing it away at the end.

Edited by Big John on 04/10/2020 at 21:39

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Mon 5 Oct 2020 06:36

VW TDI - £5k - 25k Miles a year - What would you choose? - defect

Thank you, some really useful facts here.

I have to be honest - the Civic 1.8i VTEC is actually beginning to look like a great opportunity.

The petrol ones seem to be cheaper than diesel. I joined Civinfo, and read the real-world mpg posts of a lot of users, and 40-50mpg seems to be the common range on a long run.

I worked out that with current fuel prices, doing a 350 mile trip (as an example) between the 1.8 VTEC and 2.2CDTI (genuine mpg figures from real-world use) and the 2.2 would be £6.40.

That's without considering the fact that those real-world figures are likely to be from people more frequently doing big miles with the diesel, and around town with the petrol.

Given the clutch/flywheel issues (£900), and manifold with the diesel (£1,500), it's going to take a LOT of miles for it to be worthwhile if it did potentially go wrong.

It seems I can get a fully-loaded petrol with about 80k miles relatively close to me for really reasonable money.

After re-calculating the mileage, I think it could be nearer 15-20k than 25k, too.

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Mon 5 Oct 2020 12:07

VW TDI - £5k - 25k Miles a year - What would you choose? - Stumblebum

I have a Honda Civic 18 VTEC and used it for a 160 daily commute virtually all motorway miles. 45 mpg easy, got 50+ on odd occasion. It was reliable and comfortable enough. It was built in Sat Nav which was very useful as it picks up traffic alerts. However would not pay extra for the Sat Nav as phone / Waze is even better.

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Mon 5 Oct 2020 20:01

VW TDI - £5k - 25k Miles a year - What would you choose? - privateinvestor

The critical issue whatever car you buy make sure it has a full service history that is documented and a minimum should be an oil change a year if not very 7-8k. Forget the MAZDA - rubbish. The Germans are ok provided they are not on a long life service regime. Try and buy a car from a rural or semi rural area owned by 1-2 owners from new. 100k mileage in London traffic is not the same as 100 k done in rural Sussex or on the motorways. Buy on condition and history not mileage. I would buy a late model Passat or Accord.

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