I start a new job in Jan and will be doing 80 miles a day. I've been looking at the above diesel models and test driven the A3 2.0 sport manual and auto, and the Honda Civic 2.2. I have around £9,000 to spend. Fuel economy on both is good, the rear spoiler on the Civic is annoying and I thought the gearbox on the A3 was smoother. But I can get a newer model Civic with less miles on compared with the A3 and Honest John rates the Civic an extra star. I haven't tried the A4 yet though someone suggested looking at it as they had driven it, liked it and are of similar price to the A3. Other possible options I'll look at this week are the Mazda M3 and Golf diesels but am happy to shop around though I need something by Jan 4!
As someone who knows very little about cars, I want something fuel efficient and reliable most importantly, but obviously something I enjoy driving too. I'd welcome any advice.
Cheers,
Paul
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That depends on your attitude to the middle lane, Paul. If you think it's for pootling along at 60ish without turning your tweed hat to left or right to see that you're in everyone's way, a Civic should be perfect. Curiously, if you see it as a convenient way to pass the 80mph crocodile in the right lane (and prefer a baseball cap to a trilby) you'll also want a Civic, but you'll need to make sure it's red and has an R or S badge on the tail - I'm sure these are available separately if yours comes without one.
If, on the other hand, you see the middle lane as something you merely have to cross on your way from the sliproad to the right-lane crocodile, you must have an Audi or everyone else there will laugh and point at you. And it must be black, with unfeasibly bright headlamps.
};---)
Otherwise, if you're going to be driving significant distances in it, pick whatever's comfortable and easy to use. If you think the Civic's spoiler gets in the way now, I expect you'd curse it as long as you had the car; silly ergonomic flaws like that don't get easier to live with. This is why those of us here who do long commutes like our Fords and, especially, our Volvos. £9,000 would get you a 2007 S40 diesel from a Volvo dealer, for example.
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Cheers for that. I was at the BCA in Bedford yesterday and thought there were no bargains to be had on A3s and can't imagine the dealers making much on them. But I noticed the S40s were much better value. A 56 S40 1.6d with 70k on the clock went for £5100.
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big boot on the S40 but small opening makes it a wee bit impractical.
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After nearly 3 years with a Civic 2.2 SWMBO could live with it no longer, plus points - great styling (subjective of course), functional and very spacious interior, lovely 2.2 diesel with strong performance and good economy (50mpg is attainable with ease).
Negatives: rear visibility, even with park sensors it eventually became too much of an inconvenience, the ride - it is very hard, 'harsh' and 'crashy' with even minor road irregularities sending shudders through the cabin. Fit and finish wasn't great (lots of rattles, scuffing plastics etc) and then rather more faults than you'd expect from a Honda - mostly with the suspension but the dealers (however helpful) aren't used to actually having cars which go wrong (before the FK3 Civic came along that is).
It's put us off Hondas to be honest,
I had an A4 B7 Avant, it had its share of problems but not such fundamental design flaws IMHO, avoid the 170 PD engine though. I can't comment on the A3.
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Octavia Diesel vRS?
But not the 170 PD version from my (Audi) experience - thirsty (barely 40mpg), hungry (1Ltr of expensive VW 507 oil every 4K miles if you're unlucky) and poor driveability - stalls easily below 1500rpm, massive torque arrives at 2000rpm then vanishes at 3000rpm.
And it has a DPF too, my advice would be to avoid this engine in any installation, its 140PS sibling is possibly a different proposition and the subsequent CR versions are significantly better - perhaps an admission that the PD technology had been taken to its limit in the 170 ?
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The Civic is built in Swindon,the new Accord is built only in Japan that is the problem for the
Civic poor quality control.
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>>The Civic is built in Swindon,the new Accord is built only in Japan that is the problem for the
Civic poor quality control.
I seriously doubt that is the cause.
The previous Civic and CRVs since the CRV II have been built in Swindon and did not suffer from build problems. The design philosophy seems to be different on the new Civic - as if all the resources that should have gone into the basic engineering have been too much diverted to the styling gimmicks, which abound on that car - silly bits of silver painted plastic stuck on the steering wheel, Millennium Falcon dashboard, and so on.
I can't bring myself to buy a CRV III which is similarly afflicted with naff stick on bits. I've been waiting for the diesel auto to arrive, and now it has I'm not sure I can go through with it!
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And from my experience. 45 mpg regularly and over 50 mpg achieved, 1.5 litres of oil over 30,000 miles, no DPF problems. This was in an A3 DSG.
Unfortunately it did have thousands of pounds of warranty repairs.
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9k for an 07 S40 diesel - not where i live (even if it's done a silly mileage)! They're more like 11k round here (oxford)
I must get out the county more...
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Unless I've missed it, I'm surprised nobody's mentioned the Ford Focus. The advantage of buying Fords secondhand is that they depreciate more than the cars you've named, so that you'd get a newer one for your budget.
Road tests always rate the Focus high in the driveability stakes. If you prefer VAG, I'd go for a Golf or Octavia over an A3, again simply because you can get a newer one for your money. The 1.9 PD engine is slower than the 2.0 but from what people say on this forum it's less prone to major failure long-term.
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Audi A3 3.2 Quattro, best car I have ever test driven and not bought, still not sure why, I think lack of "toys" the driving experience was great, but it wasn't cheap and fairly basically kitted out, missing elec seats, remote on steering wheel, auto dimming mirror, rain sensitive wipers.. at the time (2 years back) I was in to all that stuff, now I drive an old Jag!
I recently drove an A3 2.0 T Quattro and felt it was under powered to be honest. Go with a 3.2 Quattro and ENJOY.... Honda Civic is not even close.
guy
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Did you read the bit in the OP about fuel efficiency, Guy?
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If I could find a good, newish A3 3.2 for £9k I would have one tomorrow...I know a neighbour who had one..he now drives a TTRS convertible. It looks a million dollars in a deep metallic blue.
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