A Diesel Estate car - Budget car enquiry/ opinion

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Fri 31 Aug 2018 14:19
A Diesel Estate car - Budget car enquiry/ opinion - KenC

My neighbour has a 15 yr old Vauxhall Astra Estate Diesel 1.7 which has recently clocked past 200,000m . It is starting to develop problems most recentl a gearbox noise, it may be terminal and cost more than the car is worth for any repair

My neighbour has a limited budget of 2/3 thousand pounds and needs a diesel for the MPG and an estate for the load carriage capacity.

Can anyone suggest an alternative make model diesel estate that is known for reliability and the ability to go round the clock (twice)

thank you

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Fri 31 Aug 2018 15:46
A Diesel Estate car - Budget car enquiry/ opinion - badbusdriver

There is no way anyone could recommend a diesel anything at that budget. Far too much variables, what kind of life the car has led, has it been thrashed, has it been serviced regularly,. And that is before you get to the thorny issue of potential cost of servicing and repairs vs fuel economy. Diesel engines are certainly more efficient than an equivalent petrol engine, but at that budget, anything which goes wrong could easily wipe out any fuel saved over getting a simple n/a petrol engined car.

Sorry, but I'll pass on this one!

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Fri 31 Aug 2018 16:29
A Diesel Estate car - Budget car enquiry/ opinion - SLO76
I’d tend to avoid diesel at this money but a pre DPF Astra with the Isuzu 1.7 diesel or (if you can find one) a tidy Peugeot 406 2.0 HDi or a Toyota Avensis or Corolla 2.0 D4-D and the Civic 1.7 Diesel which uses the same Isuzu motor as the Astra all could be viable economy motors for a heavy mileage user on a budget. But equally they could all be a total liability as they’re much more complex and costly to fix than an equivalent petrol.
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Fri 31 Aug 2018 20:03
A Diesel Estate car - Budget car enquiry/ opinion - Big John

If I had this budget and had to buy a diesel I'd be looking for a pre DPF car with the great VAG 1.9pd engine - such as a Skoda Octavia estate.

Important - on ANY diesel , check the plated value re smoke emisisions as that is what you'll be tested on come MOT (new rules as of May this year). Don't buy a car that was fitted with a DPF from new but has had it deleted - Will not pass the next MOT.

Edited by Big John on 31/08/2018 at 20:04

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Fri 31 Aug 2018 22:45
A Diesel Estate car - Budget car enquiry/ opinion - SLO76
“If I had this budget and had to buy a diesel I'd be looking for a pre DPF car with the great VAG 1.9pd engine - such as a Skoda Octavia estate.”

Agree, a brilliant old engine. Hard to find a good one now though and later DPF equipped versions aren’t a good bet.
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Sat 1 Sep 2018 02:05
A Diesel Estate car - Budget car enquiry/ opinion - nick62
“If I had this budget and had to buy a diesel I'd be looking for a pre DPF car with the great VAG 1.9pd engine - such as a Skoda Octavia estate.” Agree, a brilliant old engine. Hard to find a good one now though and later DPF equipped versions aren’t a good bet.

I often wonder if the engine from my 2000 year Passat Estate 1.9 PD (115 hp) is still going? The car was an accident write-off in 2007 and had just clocked 100,000 miles the previous week. 99% of those miles were motorway cruising and it would return 55mpg every day of the week.

The insurance company paid me a pittance for that car and it was in beautiful condition before it got squashed!

Edited by nick62 on 01/09/2018 at 02:06

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Fri 31 Aug 2018 23:58
A Diesel Estate car - Budget car enquiry/ opinion - BMW Enthusiast

If I had this budget and had to buy a diesel I'd be looking for a pre DPF car with the great VAG 1.9pd engine - such as a Skoda Octavia estate.

VW Golf and Bora cars with that engine are very popular amongst young drivers where I live. Those engines run forever but you need to be careful that you don't buy one that has been run on home heating oil (kerosene) Many people are doing this and are desperate to get their hands on cars with that engine to do so. The injectors and pump will be knackered.

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Sat 1 Sep 2018 11:22
A Diesel Estate car - Budget car enquiry/ opinion - badbusdriver

That is the impossibility of this request. Yes, no doubt there are cars which, at least in theory, will fulfil the requirements of the OP's neighbour. But how do you find that one good example out of all the tat that has been through numerous unsympathetic penny pinching owners. Unless the car belongs to someone you know, who has owned it, if not from new, for at least a long time, it is going to be a lottery.

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