18,000 a year in a 3k car is recipe for big bills.

Is it nuts. I've done more than that with a commute along the M56 and M62 in a Peugeot 307 and 407 diesel, both with service history, both under £2500 and neither needed anything than regular oil changes and brakes and tyres over the years.

And I'm not alone, plenty of other happy Peugeot owners on the forums can report the same.

And low mileage does not necessarily mean its been cared for. I've seen some "genuine low mileage" cars which have had the bare minimum of servicing and been absolute dogs for their new owners - especially diesel ones which have done nothing but pootling round town. Gummed up EGR valves at 30,000 miles and just out of dealer warranty.

To the OP - its a tricky one. The locations you mention do warrant a diesel, but I know personally that the route can be stop-start and crawling at times.

If you do go for a cheap diesel, try and get one without the dual mass flywheel and diesel particulate filter.

Edited by Gibbo_Wirral on 30/06/2015 at 15:44

>>>"18,000 a year in a 3k car is recipe for big bills."

Not necessarily...

When my circumstances changed and my annual mileage went from ~11k to >24k and I didn't know for how many years that might continue, I decided to offload my perfectly-running 160+k mile 13 year-old 2.0 petrol car to get a diesel.

As an entirely privately-funded car user, I set myself an arbitrary maximum of £5k, simply because I didn't feel like spending more than that.

In the event, I only spent just over £3k. The car was already nearly 5 years old and had done 53k miles.

In my use pattern, because I got more than 60 mpg overall, rather than just under 40 mpg, this car was saving me about £1,300 a year in fuel costs, so would have almost paid for itself after 2 years.

The car DID indeed do that annual mileage, as it turned out only for 18 months before my circumstances changed again.

But I did not suffer any big bills.

So it can be done.

I still have the car. Myself, I've done 52k miles in it so far, and have still not suffered any big bills. I don't especially like it (mainy on account of the seat comfort), and it currently has a repeated split-second cutty-out issue during its warm-up phase, but I can't bring myself to get rid of it until some truly big bill arrives, because it simply does what it needs to, in terms of transporting family and luggage at entirely adequate pace and only mild discomfort, whilst still returning close-on 60 mpg.

Maybe I was lucky, in that I believe it doesn't have a DPF. And maybe I've been further lucky, because some people curse this (Fiat) engine.

(It's a 2007 1.3 diesel Astra estate)

One thing I would say, Flowers, is if your usage really is short journeys, DON'T get a Mazda diesel.

18,000 a year in a 3k car is recipe for big bills.

If that is your max budget I would suggest buying the best lowest mileage car that suits your needs, forget if its petrol or diesel, any savings would be lost with one big bill.

Not necessarily a recipe for big bills. I bought my 2001 Focus diesel in November 2002, 138,000 miles from new, for £700. Now done 179,000 miles. Apart from servicing it has needed a heater fan and a wishbone link arm. You can get big bills on any age of car out of warranty.

Most people forget the greatest expense of most cars is depreciation. Generally, in my experience, the cheaper the car, the cheaper it is to run, especially if you go for a simple specification.

Yup audi a4 is what I drive, but this question was for a friend of mine.

Although its all anecdotal, just pop onto peugeotforums.com - there's a good handful of owners of 306s, 307s, 406s and 407s with well over 150,000 miles on their cars - no sign of needing to get rid and they just pootle on. My brother's 2003 307 is on 210,000 miles.

Locally I know of taxi firms using Citroen and Peugeot diesels - if French cars are really that bad like some muppets claim, would a driver risk losing money by having their money earner off the road?

The key is gettng a car that's been looked after, and you should be OK.