What car to do 50k miles a year in?

[kal_ay]

A nice 520d M Sport or a D3 Tdi.I know of a 520m if your interested Amar.

[Singh]

It will be 80% motorway miles, by poke I mean a 2.0 D and 150 BHP with a decent torquey turbo'd engine at least. I drove my 320D to Holland and back and it was perfect, the right amount of power. Couldn't do with any less really though. A D3 TDI commute car and an E39 M5 V8 toy would be a bloody good combo.

[Adrian E]

Seat Leon/A3/Golf range with low-ish powered diesel - loads available ex-lease at auctions for buttons. The vast majority get serviced on time and you can soon rule out any turds at auction just by looking round them and ignoring the scruffy ones.

Go for a manual if your route isn't too congested - less to go wrong and if it costs you a clutch during your ownership it won't break the bank.

Learn to drive it in a way that reduces wear and tear and you'll have lower repair bills as a result.

The old PD 1.9 will go on for 200k miles with relative ease and the only nightmare scenario is an injector failing which will cost you a leg, unless VW group are still paying out for any repairs needed as they were last year?

The later 2.0 CR diesel is much nicer than the PD but it's also much newer. If you really want that one then the best home for it is an Octavia vRS.

I'd be tempted to buy at 3 years old and aim to keep it for 3 years or less at those kind of miles.

Take out roadside assistance with homestart etc so you're never left in the lurch and a warranty if you can get one at that annual mileage.

If you can live with rent-a-shed interiors then go for something French (PSA, not Renault) or Ford and run it till it dies, then buy another. A million taxi drivers can't be wrong.......

[Singh]

Thanks for your input Adrian, it would need to be fairly comfortable, and I'm not a fan of the driving position in my sisters Golf or ride, and that is a fairly loaded one with heated reacaro leather seats, I prefer bigger cars really, but a good suggestion, just not for me. I already pay the AA £35 a month, actually I think its more as I have the works and I have also been nice enough to get the family cover so my sisters and dad are covered too, plus they get £500 worth of work covered should their cars need it. I need to cancel that as have a feeling I have just renewed it every year without asking for a better deal from 2008 , the RAC cover the car upto £2k which will be more useful with the RS6....

[47p2]

A nice W220 S-Class 320CDI, best I managed in mine was 54mpg but more like 45mpg on the motorway.

This was travelling from Fort William to Glasgow, no motorways and heavy congestion where I sat in a traffic cue for an hour on the banks of Loch Lomond

[Singh]

Do these have adaptive cruise control and how does it compare to the D3? I have been in one and was shocked at how cheap some of the buttons and plastics felt in comparison to my S8 at the time.

[limoncello]

Two men driving home stuck in the same traffic jam, both had horendous days at work. One is driving an old ford escort the other an audi a8

The question is - does the A8 driver feel any better than the escort driver on his way home.

the Answer is - No - but he doesnt feel any worse

get the D3

[The_Laird]

Originally Posted by limoncello

Two men driving home stuck in the same traffic jam, both had horendous days at work. One is driving an old ford escort the other an audi a8

The question is - does the A8 driver feel any better than the escort driver on his way home.

the Answer is - No - but he doesnt feel any worse

get the D3

I think the answer is yes - it's a much better place to be, even in a jam.

But back to Amar's dilema - are these miles to and from your place of work or are you 'out on the road' all day? At over 200 miles a day, that's a lot of time in the car and a hell of a commute, if it's the former. I do around 70 a day and it can take up to an hour each way - not fun. Have you considered moving? Or changing job?

[daviesbike]

W12 with LPG cheaper way of wafting the miles

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5020/5...51c4c58c_z.jpg

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5297/5...b3c67dab_z.jpg

[B@fink]

Is it too bold to suggest the weekend toy and for the commute something like a kia cee'd weasel. 7 year warranty, 65mpg on a run, cheap to buy, considerably better than train and probably cheaper than train annual ticket, suprisingly well equipt for the money and lets face it, you are not after the last word in dynamics, just efficient, reliable comfort (thats better than a train!) to go to work.