A new or used car to do a 60 mile daily commute - ideas please?

[wisecamel]

DH has just got himself a new job, but it is 30 miles away. He's been working a short walk away for years so we need to get a car to get him there and back. We are looking at Citroen C1, Peugeot 107 and Hyundai i10 because they are tiny and fuel efficient. The car would be just for his use as we already have a family car for trips etc. that I take to work. The journey is fairly rural, no motorway but a mixture of 30 limit villages and 60 limit country roads.

Basically, this and the petrol in it will eat up our savings for now, but hopefully will be worth it in the end. I am after something as cheap as possible (but then I won't be driving it!) I have seen a 2009 107 for £5,500 but this has 30,000 odd miles on the clock. He'd prefer something new as he wants it to be reliable. There is no public transport link so it needs to start in the mornings. The Hyundai can be had new for £7000 near us and does have a 5 year warranty - but the cost makes me anxious, I'd rather stick to £6000, I think (plus we've never bought a new car before.)

Basically, I've been mulling this over for 24 hours now and looking at websites, reviews and stuff and I am losing the will to live. Does anyone have any ideas? Is it worth buying new in this case? We have marked out tomorrow morning to buy something as we've put it off as long as we can.

Thank you

Hi we were in the same situation 3 years ago and weighed up all the options you are doing. We went for the i10 new and it has been brill, low tax and insurance does 280 miles on a full tank and is roomy enough to not feel like you're driving a shoe box. We have had no mechanical problems and other than an annual service and new tyres have spent no money on it. I have seen deals for 5995 for them at our local dealership so look around. Hth

Thanks for that. I am tempted by the Hyundai, mainly for the warranty, so I will shop around a bit and see what we can get. We're on the UK south coast so I don't know if that makes a difference to price.

The warranty does give peace of mind although you do have to get it serviced by their approved centres. I am up north so maybe that's why a bit cheaper here!

'New' isn't synonymous with 'reliable' - a warranty is great for fixing things that go wrong, but it still means the car is in the garage and a complete hassle getting it sorted (if they uphold the warranty claim).

Also, small isn't the last word in fuel efficiency/economy - I'm averaging about 50mpg from a medium-sized hatchback with a 2.2 diesel, and that's without any special mpg-watching, just a mix of normal and 'slightly spirited' driving.

On a 60 mile commute I would say the biggest factor should be comfort - I had a 1.2 Corsa as a courtesy car and it was the most painful driving experience ever, torturous. And that was over an 18 mile commute (each way).

If you're looking for high mpg, I'd personally go for a Fiesta Econetic or Polo BlueMotion - both are looking at 20mpg more than a 107 according the Honest John's RealMPG database. Likely to be more expensive to buy (I'd still suggest secondhand) but will be worth more when you come to get rid as well. Probably more reliable than the Peugeot or Citroen too; French cars don't have the best reputation.

We had the same situation (although ours was complicated by me needing it to be auto/semi auto) and ended up getting a brand new Toyota Aygo (same basic design as a Pug 107 but with Toyota electrics and warranty) on the 0% finance they offer. It's going to cost a little more overall compared to second hand but not by as much as I thought and you have the 3 year warranty.

Thanks for this - I see the point that smaller is not necessarily more fuel efficient, but I am also thinking of cheaper tax and insurance too. I am coming at this from a cost rather than an eco point of view as in my head, everything we spend on getting DH to work comes off his take home salary and I would like this to be as small as possible, although he does need something that actually gets him there, so it's a bit of a balancing act (also I am quite mean and all he cares about is that it goes and he can plug in the mp3 player!).

We've never sold any of our cars, just bought cheap ones and run them until they drop, so resale value hadn't even occured to me...thanks for your help. Need wine now.

My dh who has the i10 is 6'1" and finds it comfortable on his 50 mile round trip. I agree that smaller doesn't always equal lower fuel but as you say the commute is not motorway I think smaller it's better and will also keep maintenance costs low. I also love getting the £30 tax bill :o

I had a wee Mazda 2 - DP drives it now - fab wee car, very reliable and good fuel economy. If it's warranty you are after have you considered a Kia?

I have 2 work colleagues with peugeot 106 s and they average near 70 mpg., both love them, say they are fun to drive and cheap to run.
I wouldn't worry about a car with 30k on the clock, it's barely run in - disclaimer last car i ran until; 198597 (very disappointed not to make the 200000 mark) current car (crap zafira) has 107000 on the clock.
The one that did nearly 200 000 btw was a citroen, much much better car allround than my current awful zafira.
I will probably do similar next year, buy a tiny commuter car (and an old landy to tow with)

We have just had this issue. DH's commute went from 17 miles to 49 miles each way, so we wanted something economical and reliable. We looked at loads of cars and researched them on the Internet.

In the end we went for a 2009 VW Polo 1.4 TDi. It had 18000 miles on the clock and cost us £7999. The road tax is £35 a year and the insurance is £226. DH gets nearly 600 miles from a tank of diesel and the engine should last longer than a Citroen or Peugeot. DH is 6ft4 and is comfortable driving it, we have just insured DS1 to learn to drive in it and he loves it, he is 6ft3. I love it, it is so easy to drive.

We had a Citroen C1 as a courtesy car once, I walk with sticks and it was so small I had a job getting my crutch in. I didn't really feel safe in it because it was so, so small!

Well, thanks all. We went for a 6 month old Hyundai i10 in the end and kept to under £6,000 so a result as far as I'm concerned and DH has somewhere to plug in his ipod during his long journey. It has a five year warranty but fingers crossed we won't need to use it.

would be very interested to have an update in a few months as to how you have got on with it