I would keep the Volvo, assuming that it has been reliable, and you like it. While you will save money, like for like, if you run a reliable diesel compared to the same car with a petrol engine, this saving will be diluted by:
- cost to change - large engine petrol cars are not the most attractive proposition at the present, with petrol prices as they are. It would be tough to sell, and not the most attractive proposition as a trade-in
- 'new' secondhand costs. Invariably, there are a couple of hundred quid to spend on any new purchase, either to put wrong small probs, or get it as you like.
- potential for a new diesel to go provide an unexpected cost. Look round here at some of the joys of owning new diesel cars (though I have two!)
- the actual extra cost. I would be surprised if you got much more than 45mpg from a large exec diesel. At £5 / gallon, that's £1,900 a year in fuel. For 30mpg, it's 50% more (assume same fuel cost), or £950 extra (Fag packet based on 17,000 miles)
For the risk / reward trade-off, over 1 year, I would stick with the devil I know.
If you and your wife are going to share a car, and she doesn't fancy the volvo, then I guess you have to change..
Cheers
Jon
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For 1 year I'd keep the Volvo - the cost to change will probably outweigh any fuel advantage.
You might well have another problem though:
"Hello, I'd like to insure my wife on my T5 Volvo"
"OK, how long's she had her licence"
"2 days"
Cue laughing in the background and the sound of the operator falling off his chair.... :-))
Quote me happy indeed!
Could be wrong of course, but new driver + high powered turbo car is likely to be ££££
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>> Could be wrong of course but new driver + high powered turbo car is likely to be ££££
Not necessarily - my son (at age 25) got a cheaper quote to run a T5 estate than he did to run an MG Metro Turbo! In fact, he was only £50 a year dearer than I was for my Saab.
Insurers said that Volvo drivers were lower risk, and had few records of 25 years olds having accidents in them compared with MG Metros.
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>>Insurers said that Volvo drivers were lower risk
That's due to the calming effect of sucking Werther's Originals and the fact that the brain is kept warmer by the cloth cap. ;-)
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There is a simple answer (and I'm not being facetious) learn to drive more economically?
I was faced with a similar issue many years ago when my work moved from being a 10 minute walk away, to 90 odd miles. For a year I was subsidised, then having failed to sell my house I was paying myself. I was running an old Volvo 240 that was worth more to me than anyone else but was only doing 25mpg. So I read a book about economical driving and applied the principles, monitored my Mpg and within a few weeks I was getting 30Mpg, but adding only 2-3 minutes to the journey.Driving economically is not about driving slowly, it's more about conservation of momentum. Have a google and you will find plenty of information - I would have thought with a gentler right foot you should be able to at least low-mid 30s Mpg.
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There is a simple answer (and I'm not being facetious) learn to drive more economically? I read a book about economical driving and applied the principles monitored my Mpg and within a few weeks I was getting 30Mpg but adding only 2-3 minutes to the journey.Driving economically is not about driving slowly it's more about conservation of momentum. Have a google and you will find plenty of information - I would have thought with a gentler right foot you should be able to at least low-mid 30s Mpg.
I think you are right. I sometimes do play about with my mpg, given that my car shows the information (cumulative and instantaneous), but I've never really cared that much, so when I'm going round the M25 at 90mph noticing the consumption drop fast, it hasn't mattered that much.
OTOH when you're doing 70 miles/day, it does make a difference. I don't really need to accelerate up to 40mph when I'm going to stop again in a few hundred yards.
And the cosseting interior of a large Volvo, Terry Wogan's soothing tones playing through the nine speakers, you don't actually mind the journey taking an extra minute or two.
It's just that my natural instinct is when I get on a motorway, unless it's totally clogged up, to go well beyond necessary speeds. It doesn't actually make that much difference to journey time, because usually you get up some speed and then have to slow down because there's an old man in a small Peugeot in the way. Admittedly I do always drive out of rush hour, so perhaps the volume of traffic on the M25 at 6pm will actually do me a favour.
The difference between 27mpg and 32mpg is about £550/year, a fair sum of money - I currently refuse to pay for First Class because normal train travel is quite adequate and I consider the difference not to be worthwhile, so it would be logical to apply the same justification to not accelerating unnecessarily.
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For 1 year I'd keep the Volvo - the cost to change will probably outweigh any fuel advantage.
That was my thinking. A day scratching around Car Giant, risk of getting a lemon, etc. Much easier to just keep pumping £80/week into it.
You might well have another problem though: "Hello I'd like to insure my wife on my T5 Volvo" "OK how long's she had her licence" "2 days" Cue laughing in the background and the sound of the operator falling off his chair.... :-))
She's ALREADY on the insurance. And my insurance actually went down when I added her on.
I used to live in Middlesex, and moved to Surrey. I got a £100 refund for this from my insurers.
When I called up a few months later to add her on to the insurance, as a provisional licence, my insurers said 'Sorry, we can't insure her on that car'. So we agreed to cancel the insurance on the basis that they couldn't cover me, and I got a full refund for the unused months.
Shopped around for insurance and my quote from Norwich Union came to £200 LESS than I'd been paying before (£400 vs £600). Reason being I have had my driving licence for 8 years, but only took my test 3+ years ago. As far as they are concerned, it's when you first received your licence, not when you passed the test.
And btw, quoting with her off the insurance INCREASED the premium - again she has had her licence for over a year, and this reduced the premium quite a bit. I actually called them to confirm that the fact that she was provisional, and was this ok. They said, yep, no problem.
I could have actually got the cheap Norwich Union insurance in the first place, but I used one of the price comparison sites and always entered '3 years' as the time I've held my licence (which is the correct answer for 99% of insurers - just not for Norwich Union).
I will probably find my premium goes up when I go from 4,000 miles SDP to 21,000 SCDP though.
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Could be wrong of course but new driver + high powered turbo car is likely to be ££££
My girlfriend has been driving 6 months, I added her to the insurance of my 07 TT 2.0T FSI at Xmas with over 6 months to run on the policy, resulting in an increase of £12.50 in the premium. She's 22.
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