To buy a new car..

[poppyflower1803]

Hi,

Not sure if I'm on right topic, however I need help on whether to buy a new car at the moment or not! So need real life experiences with costs etc as opposed to fuel cost calculators on the internet! Car I currently have is a 1.2 litre petrol VW Polo 2003, obviously small engine means fuel costs are cheaper but I am now starting to commute about 60miles a day there and back (around 30 each way) and have obviously started using more petrol. I have a 7month old daughter and would like a bigger car to feel safer, however most are diesel which I know is more fuel efficient for longer journeys. The car I'm looking at is a Nissan qashqai 1.5l diesel.

People with similar cars/engines, how much are you paying for petrol? Are diesels worth it- I know environmentally they are abysmal and will be outlawed soon but I cannot afford a hybrid, or alternatively do I stick with a petrol engine?

Any input is much appreciated! X

I have a diesel focus 1.6.

The good points are the tax is cheap (£20). Fuel consumption it will do 60mpg on motorways if you drive at the speed limit.

Bad news is diesels are more complicated engines than petrol, so repairs cost more, although the low tax more than compensates for it. You should only really use diesels on longer runs as well - otherwise the dpf will get clogged, but 60 miles per day is fine. But they are not great for short runs. Also, some cities are banning older diesels now, or at least charge you for entry with an older car. Diesel is also becoming a bit more difficult to get. And of course the NOx emissions are worse, although the CO2 emissions are less than petrol, so it is not all bad news.

I think if you got a new diesel you would not get the tax benefit, but may avoid some of the emission zone charges.

If I had my time again would I have bought the diesel ? Dunno. It's been reliable and cheap to run. The £400 injector replacement was a bit of a shock though, and a DPF replacement/dual mass flywheel replacement requirement would probably make it a write off.

On the feeling safer point; why not do an advanced driving course? Cheaper than a new car.

Unless you regularly have 4+ people in your car, I'd stick with a small car - everything is more expensive with a bigger car, and I don't really get the. idea of feeling safer unless you do a lot of driving in high winds, and that's not really a feature of everyday driving in Britain.

Bigger cars do tend to be safer. You are safer in a BMW 7 series than in a Fiat 500, if only because of the sheer mass of the thing makes sure that in an accident with the majority of cars on the road you will have the greater momentum.

OTOH bigger heavier cars are going to cost a hell of a lot more to drive around. If you don't fill it with passengers then you are effectively lugging around tonnes of extra metal for no reason except that it might help you in the remote chance of an accident. In short, that extra safety really does cost.

As the pp said, for me you are better improving driving skills and taking precautions like not driving close to other people and using winter tyres than lugging around tonnes of extra metal in a safety arms race with the rest of the world. Esp with the cost of fuel being what it is.

@FuckabethFuckor @GasPanic thanks for your replies, I'm more than confident in my driving as I drive generally incredibly safely and cautiously, I am more concerned about other road users hitting me 😬

All good points to consider though, thanks!

I have a 1.2l petrol Qashqai and really like it. It has a turbo so is still powerful pulling away etc.

My commute is 25 miles each way mostly on motorways and 50mph a roads, no problems at all. We also have 2 young kids and find it has enough space for all their stuff/car seats without being too big.

We flat out refused to consider diesel as I work and PIL live in the ULEZ zone and restrictions are only going to get tighter.

Test drive a 1.2l petrol one, I was very pleasantly surprised!

I also do feel safer being slightly higher up and it is so much easier to get the kids in and out the car than it is in DH's Honda civic

Fair enough. I figured, since you posted this in Cost of Living, I'd go for the ultra moneysaving angle first!

@FuckabethFuckor yes that's mainly what I was trying to gauge from peoples real experiences, whether it was THAT much more expensive, or whether it was worth the extra costs for the extra mpg diesel tends to give you , or if it was better to stick to petrol due to the rising costs of fuel etc. :)

Do you know what year it is? My dad had a 1.5dci which he passed to my brother when he passed. I did a 50 mile commute and travel on top and would occasionally borrow the car to put some miles on for him to give it a run. In my experience it was a great car for mileage better than all my diesels and I’d consistently get 60mpg travelling round the country which is a rare thing for a manufacturer rating to be correct. This was mainly motorway travel. One thing I would say is the larger model they brought in about 2014 -2020 (I think they have a new model) was prone to electrical faults and something my brother is now having to deal with. That was the only reason I didn’t buy one when looking for a new car. However if it is the older model then they are highly rated all round on reviews.

That's reassuring! I was looking at a 2013 plate :)

I'll have to have a look! Thank you for the recommendation

I'd say research very carefully. Download your car model manual and read the fine print.

We bought a diesel back when the government said it was better for the environment (sob). We found we couldnt keep it because the Diesel Particularate Filter blocked up too easily - our car's onboard computer needed to log that we were doing motorway driving in order to kick in the process to clean the filter (required the engine running at over 50mph for at least 30 mins; my normally journey to work was 45 mins to 1 hour each way but that wasnt long enough for the car to run the cleaning cycle).

Had two occasions the dpf failed causing the engine to de-power as a safety measure on the motorway and we had to coast down to the slow lane and limp home, felt dangerous to me.

We found it very costly to clean the dpf via a car mechanic.

Sold the diesel and will never purchase one again for the above reason (now mostly wfh or 10 min trip to my office!)

Your current car will be much cheaper to run and is perfectly safe. Save your money (and the planet) and stick with what you’ve got.

Because that doesn't make a blind bit of difference to how all the other idiots on the road behave now does it Seriously

To be fair, I should probably add my current car is slowly falling to pieces, hence why I am looking at a new one 😅 just trying to weigh up my options, most likely will stick with petrol but just wanted to hear peoples experiences with it :)

I would stick with a smaller car if your worried about fuel efficiency. What about a new polo or golf. I had a 116 which was great for years but once things started going wrong was expensive to get parts as the computer didn't like a lot of after market parts.

I've currently got a 5 door mini JCW (I know mini fans it not a real mini) it's a little tank, had one previously and forgot how chunky the doors are! On a motor way run it gets around 45mpg the non JCW gets 50+mpg.

It's things like the Ford Focus+fiesta, Kia Rio, fiat 500, and Nissan note to avoid.

No. But it improves your ability to predict, avoid and/or get out of dangerous situations no end. You can’t control other people on the road, but you can control your own response to them.

@MrsMinted

Diesels are better for the environment in the respect that they emit less CO2 than petrol so they are better for global warming. But they emit more NOx, which is bad for peoples breathing.

If you are driving a lot in built up areas where people are, emitting a lot of NOx is bad, which is why diesels are slowly being banned from city centres. But if you are mostly on motorways/rural to me they are better for the environment than petrol.

I agree with what you say about the dpf etc. Diesels are really bad if you are doing lots of short runs, so to the shops/kids pickup from school. You really need to be doing at least one long-ish trip a week to clear the filter.

Probably for smaller cars the diesel petrol switch isn't worth the hassle in terms of fuel consumption unless you are doing massive mileage (which you are unlikely to do in a small car anyway). But once you start running these massive SUVs like Range Rovers the fuel consumption becomes a real issue and the benefits of diesel a lot more apparent.

I’d get a petrol car. A diesel that is a few years old is a dirty polluter. Not just the environment in general, but the particulates it emits are horrible. I got a diesel in the days when the govt was telling us to get diesel (think the car tax was tiny or free). I won’t have another diesel, I have petrol now. Also you can fall foul of city centre charging with a diesel a few years old. There are lots of newer cars that used to be diesel only that have petrol options now.

It is safer to be in accident in decent SUV rather than Toyota Aygo...

Simply because of the age of your car I would look to replace.

Some small cars are much more solid than others. I'm also a Mini driver - it feels much more solid and safe than the Polo I get as a courtesy car when mine is in for a service, but is economical (particularly on longer journeys).

Not all larger vehicles, a lot of them now also do petrol versions - ie VW T-Roc, Tiguan etc.

Not sure what your budget is but there might be a hybrid on the market that fits. They’re becoming more accessible now. Our hybrid SUV costs me £60 in petrol a month, and £80 in electric a month to do the work commute (15miles x2), school commute (12miles x2) and all the other stuff I drive to as we live in the middle of nowhere. Of course it could be cheaper in a smaller car but this car suits my needs & budget.

What about a Toyota CHR as a compromise on size and economy? Kia Niro? Or there are Nissans out there with a tiny battery to diminish the stop-start emissions in urban driving.

Lastly, don’t buy diesel. Not worth it - we sold our diesel estate for a myriad of reasons but the final straw was the second diesel shortage this year that left me unable to leave the village. Never mind the constant threat of the prices hitting £2 p/l.

Just to say small cars do just as well as larger cars in crash tests, you just need to choose wisely!

Don't buy diesel, a petrol hybrid is a better option. I have a hybrid and use about 1/3 less petrol than I did with a fully petrol car - I suspect I could do even better on fuel economy.

Don't buy an SUV please, they are such anti-social cars for several reasons. And if you are used to driving a small car you probably won't be able to drive it (and park it) properly (like 90% of the people who drive them, badly).