Can we have some more information?
Age and value of car?
Type of journey; i.e. how much motorway, how much A-road, how much time/distance spent in traffic jams?
Have you calculated a miles per gallon yet?
On the assumption that you can change your car and that it will save you £100 per month, then really you only have £3,600 to spend if you keep you new car three years. You may put something towards it and get a better and newer car. Strikes me that if you put £400 per month towrds a mortgage, you could afford to move house and save a lot more.
If you are insistent of staying out the best value medium sized diesel autos appear to be the Hyundai i30 and Kia Ce'ed.
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A Polo automatic is a particularily thristy small car, typically around 35 mpg so I would suggest simply finding a more economical small petrol rather than going for a larger diesel auto. My wifes Sirion auto typically gives 42-45 mpg, up to 48 on a long run.
As has been said, more info needed for better advice.
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Hi
Many thanks for the helpful replies.
In reply to the queries:
1. Age and value of car - it's an 04 registration with currently around 29000 miles on it. Not sure of value, perhaps around £3.5k?
2. Most of the driving is high speed on the motorway as it is in the evening for a night shift and returning the following morning, early so missing most traffic. I probably average 70/75 mph for the majority of the journey. Then an approx 9-10 mile stretch on an A road which is stop/start town traffic. Total driving time is around 1hr 45 mins each way.
3. Excuse dimness but don't know how to calculate miles per gallon (!). I've just kept a note of what I spent on petrol in a week.
4. Moving is unfortunately not a possibility.
5. This commute is alternate weeks not for the full month - so £200 a month rather than £400 but that's bad enough as far as I'm concerned!!
6. My licence is for automatics only so unfortunately I couldn't get a manual one.
I don't know anything about LPG so if anyone has any more advice/info on this please that would be great. Is it definitely likely to save me money and would it be worth whatever the cost is to do the conversion?
Thanks for the cars suggested so far, I will check these.
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I'm sure you will get lots of advice on cars that might save you some cash, but.
If your petrol bill is only £200 a month (and I realise that is a BIG only) then iven if you saved 50% on fuel you would only be saving £100 a month. That is likely to be dwarfed by the costs of changing your car.
It's also worth remembering that, unless you drive a banger (with attendant risk of breakdown or unexpected cost) then fuel is only about 30-40% of your total costs, further reducing your potential savings.
If you really want to save cash, then perhaps concentrate on economical driving? Cruise with the trucks at 56 mph, anticipate and try never to brake when you don't absolutely have to, accellerate gently, keep the tyres fully inflated etc. Most people can save at least 20% this way (although you may become suicidal with boredom or chose to value your time more than the cost saving).
Good luck in any case, but I wouldn't change your car given what you've said.
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Thats a hell of a drive after a nightshift?
Do you do consecutive nights?
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I don't know how to calculate miles per gallon (!)
From your figures you spend £18/19 (or about 17½ litres) a day on 160 miles. That is around 9 miles/litre or 41 mpg. Not brilliant for a petrol car, but perhaps not too bad at 70+mph with a fairly small auto engine. A modern diesel would certainly get 55-60 - but again, the saving needs to be large to cover the cost of changing a car (any car).
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Excuse dimness but don't know how to calculate miles per gallon (!). >>
When I want to quickly find my m.p.g., I brim-to-brim the tank and use this website milespergallon.mthosts.co.uk/
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"I don't know anything about LPG so if anyone has any more advice/info"
I'd have an LPG conversion if I were you.
My neighbour does the same milage you do and he has a 1.4 Golf with LPG. I borrowed it for a few days recently. It doesn't feel any different to drive than a petrol. It starts up on petrol and flips to gas after a minute or so - so you'll only have to put petrol in it once, maybe twice a year. You'll lose a bit of boot space because they shove a gas tank in there. You get a crude gas gauge hidden away in the cabin somewhere telling you how much gas you have left - just three little lights red, amber and green - red means you need more gas.
Not sure about the UK, but where I live, a pump attendant fills it up for you and it takes as long as a petrol tank. All petrol stations have gas and there are lots of gas-only stations too.
Best of all, it's 45% of the cost of petrol. Get a proper conversion done, don't go to some shabby cowboy outfit. All the cars I see back-firing and kangaroo-ing away from the lights have had crappy cheapo jobs done. Without a shadow of a doubt, my next car will have an LPG conversion, I wish I'd done mine four years ago.
I don't know the cost of conversions, for a four-cylinder car like yours... 600-800 quid at a very rough guess?
And don't go getting a manual licence, there's no need to start taking backward steps.
Edit: And slow down from 75 to 60. You'll save a fortune.
Edited by Big Bad Dave on 19/10/2009 at 09:04
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One caveat for LPG is the current UK tax concessions are likely to diminish around 2011, possibly making them unfavourable economically.
Cutting from 75 to 60mph is the best advice - should cut fuel consumption by around 15-20%.
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Not aware of them being available in auto, but TBH with that mileage mounting up quickly maybe you should consider a manual for long term durability...as far as i know you can only get small Diesels with automated manual boxes, not sure how long they'd last at that mileage.
If you would then you are one of the few people who could really take advantage of the extra economy offered by a Diesel Citroen C1, you probably won't get a more economical car anywhere...i hear of 80mpg being quite attainable on a run if sensibly driven.
Loads of other small Diesels too, from Fiat or Fiat based but few if any auto D's.
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LPG conversion? Or Bi-fuel vauxhall astra/vectra/ volvo?
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Hyundai 130 recommended above. For a rough comparison, mine (1600 cc petrol, manual, 15" wheels) returns 45m.p.g. The way it is built, should be good for a decade of use. Check out the ride however, which may be a bit firm for frequent long commutes, especially with larger wheels.
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I appreciate you can't move... but how about B&B-ing it the weeks you are over there... I dread to think what state you are in half way through the week doing that sort of commute every day... just make sure you are nowhere near me when you do it... please!
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If you are taking the opportunity to change your car in conjunction with a change of circumstances, I would strongly suggest a Yaris 1.3 auto - cracking small car and pretty economical in auto form.
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How about B&B-ing it ...
B&B-ing on night shifts. I suppose there must be some for truck drivers, but not a busy market niche IMHO?
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Given the age of car and mileage I would simply hang onto the Polo until it starts to cost you a lot of money. At that point then consider a change. If the above estimate of 41mpg is right, for an automatic you are unlikely to find a much more economical car that will not cost you much much more than the £100 per month potential saving.
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B&B-ing on night shifts. I suppose there must be some for truck drivers
If only AT.
I'm amazed the OP can stay awake during the run home after a night shift, i struggled to make the 10 miles home after my stint.
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160 miles a day
5 days a week ?
48 weeks a year ?
If above about right, annual commute is 38,400 miles a year.
Allowing for a conservative social mileage to take it up to, say, 40,000 a year ?
If you are getting 41 mpg as someone calculated, that is costing you more or less £4750 a year.
If you got another car with an auto box which could achieve, say, 48 mpg, the fuel saving would be of the order of £700 a year.
Significant, but hardly enough to fund a new car.
I'm in the "keep it" camp.
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Humph, OP said the commute was only alternative weeks....
You taken a knock to the head today on the bike? Or still in shock being back in the Mondy after your Cashcow??
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You taken a knock to the head today on the bike?
Funnily enough................does it show ?
;-)
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1.4 petrol automatic likely to only do 35mpg average. Stick to VAG (try Seat?) diesel. Older (pre common rail) bit unrefined but sip at fuel and drive fantastically well. Available in auto, careful motorway driving will see you in the 50-55mpg range.
40,000 miles per year? (103p petrol, 106 diesel)
Petrol: £5400 per year.
Diesel: £3500 per year.
Over 5 years that's nearly £10k saved. Ignore the luddites, modern diesel engines are exceptionally reliable and if you buy one with 30-40k on it then any build quality problems likely to be sorted with some warranty remaining.
VAG diesels doing high motorway miles also tolerate longlife servicing, every 20,000 miles or so.
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I think it's 20k miles a year David rather than 40k miles a year, because it's alternate weeks.
That said and I don't want to know but if the OP can afford 20k miles of commute at c.40p a mile (fuel and depreciation) that's £8k of taxed income which suggests the salary must be worth it so I would be looking at a something a bit more easy on the soul like a Golf diesel with 3 or so years under its belt.
Or maybe a SAAB 9-3 - I had a 9-5 for years when I did about 30k miles a year and the comfort of those seats is the best there is.
Can you take the train? £8k is first class season ticket into London 1st class and a taxi at either end territory!
Edited by Nsar on 18/10/2009 at 23:00
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160 miles a day...40 mpg isn't bad at your speeds but that means 4 gallons at say, £5....£20 a day. I don't think you'dget much more mpg without getting a really up to date car...big expense !
What about reducing your cruising speed ? I know you want to get home but your fuel consumption will be better and you'll arrive home more relaxed and un-stressed and you might sleep better.
Over many years on the road, I found that a reduction of 10 to 15 mph on a long journey made the miles seem to go quicker...as in Pug's ' mimsing ' thread.
Ted
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Keep the Polo - buying a newer car will eat any fuel savings through greater depreciation. You're currently paying about £0.12 per mile in fuel. You'll be lucky to save more than 3 or 4 pence per mile with a diesel and other running costs will be no better. Weigh this against the hooooge depreciation of a new car, or the uncertainty of a second hand one.
It is almost never worth buying a newer car to replace a good 'un unless you do starship mileages. The best time to consider a diesel is when you NEED to buy a car - then cost comparisons are of more value.
Consider investing some cash in getting a manual licence, then when the Polo starts to die you can either buy a relatively cheap and new c1/Aygo type car, or buy an old cheap diesel from an auction and run it to death.
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... but if the OP can afford 20k miles of commute at c.40p a mile (fuel and depreciation) that's £8k of taxed income which suggests the salary must be worth it ... >>
Good point Nsar, but remember OP said:
1. "... Excuse dimness but don't know how to calculate miles per gallon (!). ..... " - Therefore can you assume OP can work out how much pretax or posttax salary is needed to pay for this expensive habit?
2. "... I do a 160 mile round trip journey which is costing a fortune in petrol - around £18/19 a day. ... " - which suggests that the salary is probably not there, and which is why the OP is looking to cut costs.
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