A reliable and economical car - HELP!!

[Squash64]

My son in law wants to replace his car (a Bora) with something more economical.  He pays about £70 a week in petrol and only travels locally! 

He doesn't mind what he drives, so long as it is reliable and economical. There are four of them in the family.

Any recommendations?

[Squash64]

[ACE]

[OllieC]

£70 a week just driving locally? That's a hell of a lot of local driving. Even with a very heavy foot, he'd struggle to cost over 20p a mile. That's 350 miles a week... Unless he got the 40L engine they put in tanks?!

When I used to drive up to Wimbledon & Putney from Guildford every day in a Subaru Impreza, it only cost me £50 a week, and they're not famed for their fuel efficiency.

I do know someone who test drove some new "green" Skoda recently & was well impressed with the drive & fuel efficiency.

[saddad]

For four people the old standbys from Ford and GM (Vauxhall)... I drive a vectra... not the most economical on short jobs but when I commuted 70 miles a day it was good...

[lushy86]

My astra is pretty good as was my old mondeo which OH still drives full of dogs and tools and lifeboat grunge  :)

Lushy x

[tomatoada]

I have recently bought a Hyundi i10 which I am very pleased with.   My last car was a Clio and my petrol bill has halved.    For a family I think the next size up would be needed but I believe they are all good on petrol consumption.

[Bill Door]

Hmmm!   what type of Bora?  We have a 1.9 TDi five years old.  I regularly drove to Cornwall travelling about 70mph and get about 56+mpg.  I have been to dawdle on the way down and got 63+mpg. However, i will admit if you drive to the limit up and down the box the fuel consumption, even on a diesel, drops.

Tell him to buy lighter shoes!

|Bill

[BarriedaleNick]

Seriously - do not buy a Saab!

[Chrispy]

My OH sister got a new job where she has to drive a lot of short journeys.
She scrapped her orion in to get the £2000 off a diesel smart car.
I am not sure of the MPG she gets, but when she took it in for the first service after the running in period, she was still on the first tank of fuel.
Personally, I think they look horrible, but for her, and all the short trips she does, she is just loving it.

Me and my OH have a Fabia 1.4 16V, 40MPG normally, up to 50MPG on motorways if driven carfully, but most of the time we take the bus and trains.

[OllieC]

Ah, should've added, our Volvo has a 2.4 D5 Diesel engine & constantly gets 51mpg just trundling around, 60+ on long journeys. Some of their other engines are shocking though! You do have to put up with a terrible turning circle & everyone thinking you're a pillock for driving a Volvo.

[justweed]

Depends what you like. We have an old land rover for long journeys when we have the camping and scooter with us. Does about 23 to 25mph on an average run better if I take it easy and I'm lucky. I also have a corsa for short journeys but have found the best method to save money and fuel is to walk. ;D  

[Digeroo]

My Toyota Yaris has always been very economical, very reliable and until this week was very cheap on repairs.  But I suppose now she is eight that is to be expected.

[cornykev]

What about a Chevrolet matiz.   ???       ;D ;D ;D

[lewic]

If you are happy with a small car, Nissan Micra K11 1.3.. possibly the best combination of power/economy ever. Faster than a 1.6 Golf, ultra reliable, and sips petrol. But.. it might not be so happy flying up hills with four people and luggage! Have just swapped my beloved for an R reg Toyota Corolla 1.3, and it despite the gizmos and fantastic crash protection it has the accelleration of a slug. I miss my Micra  :(

If I was looking for a reliable big car I'd probably be looking at something Japanese and TDI (Nissan Primera?) or perhaps a Skoda Octavia. My parents were very impressed by a taxi ride they had in one which had 400k on the clock!

[ACE]

If you are happy with a small car, Nissan Micra

Just thinking about buying a Micra should be enough grounds to have your driving licence taken away. I get Micra'd so many times nowadays I am thinking of getting some nudge bars on the front of my van just to get the bl00dy things out of my way.

There should be a law that says if a car and driver are incable of reaching the heady speed of 30mph (I have yet to see a micra go that fast) they should be banned and the car squashed.

[manicscousers]

just ordered a hyundai i30 deisel automatic, can't get it until feb, they've ran out  :o

[caroline7758]

just ordered a hyundai i30 deisel automatic, can't get it until feb, they've ran out  :o

Everyone's buying before the VAT rise in January.

[lewic]

I get Micra'd so many times nowadays I am thinking of getting some nudge bars on the front of my van just to get the bl00dy things out of my way

Ha ha Ace, I think this might be down to the driver more than the car, or maybe they had the standard 1.0 version. The 1.3/4 has a quite silly power to weight ratio, Japanese Mini Cooper  :)

[Poppy Mole]

Had to replace my 14yr old Nissan Sunny earlier this year, was intending to get a Micra (have had 2 previously which regularly travelled very fast - I'm not so brave now & in any case there are more speed cameras around!) however I ended up buying a 3 yr old Nissan Almera which was an ex-motabilty car so had been well looked after, low mileage & all the bells & whistles you could want, also as economical & reliable that you expect from the Japanese.