Looking for a workhorse type thing to get me back and forward to work.

 

My last job, which they shut down and made us all redundant was a 10 mile a day trip. As I use my Dodge Ram as my daily, 5.7ltr Hemi it wasnt that bad.

A gallon a day took care of the work run !

However, start a new job next Monday and its a 65 mile round trip !! Do the maths !:crying:

 

Looking for a cheapo runaround, but would need a kinda medium type size car, ie,

Vectra, Mondeo etc. Had a few Vectras, but never a diesel.

 

Any recommendations ?? Heres the tricky bit !:ohmy:

Budget is limited ! Can stretch to £2000, maybe a few quid more if its a good un. Fire away troops.

 

Alan............

My 1.9cdti 150 is great.

 

+1 I have a 120bhp varient in my astra, not a bad motor for a diesel! :)

sorry to say but as a mechanic i can say i have seen nothing but trouble from veccy diesels and astra diesels. far too many common faults like a,g,r, or inlet manifolds, or injectors, or turbos. i wouldent touch one with somebody elses money let alone my own:(

 

odd that, as I said mine has been absolutely fine, it does have a full service history though.

I use VW diesels in my fleet at work - the Golf, Jetta or Passat with the 2.0 140ps TDi engine is pretty good and the cars are nicely built!

 

Richard:biggrin:

not every one of them will be crap mate. lol. where i work we have the contract for a firm who have around 200 veccys. the 150bhp ones. and i bet more than 50% of them have had some majour work due to one of these faults:(

 

lol, yeah I know mate. They are very common reps cars, so I guess a lot of them will be ragged..

its not just them ones though just yesterday a guy came in with a 56 plate one and it had a missfire. quick look found that number 1 injector had failed.

 

a failed injector is a common fault on them.

its not just them ones though just yesterday a guy came in with a 56 plate one and it had a missfire. quick look found that number 1 injector had failed.

 

Quick look?-do want a job! LOL!

Had problems with the DPF yet?-bag o shite!

 

Sorry Al,I'll feck off your thread now!:sweatdrop:

"qaultiy and alfa's" should never be used in the same sentence unless that sentence includes the words "has no" lol

 

LOL too right. I've had 2 Afla's , including a 156 . Quality is the last word I'd ever use to describe it. Unique Styling but very poor quality parts and build and not a patch on the performance or handling of my Bmw with the same size engine. You cant compare the two, completely different leagues.

 

Plus everything that could go wrong with them, did go wrong. They have a big list of very common issues.

Edited February 4, 201114 yr by Yowser

LOL too right. I've had 2 Afla's , including a 156 . Quality is the last word I'd ever use to describe it. Unique Styling but very poor quality parts and build and not a patch on the performance or handling of my Bmw with the same size engine. Plus everything that could go wrong with them, did go wrong. They have a big list of very common issues.

 

I've never understood why they say that your not a proper petrolhead until you've owned a alfa? I've always thought of them as being unreliable.

I've never understood why they say that your not a proper petrolhead until you've owned a alfa? I've always thought of them as being unreliable.

 

I think traditionally you have to be a bit mad about cars to buy one.....becuase of there known issues as an actual car. The older Alfa's fit thise stereotype better, A car your would buy yourself but would'nt actually reccomend to others.

 

The 156 is a bit too mainstream though, while still having reliablity issues. The older Alfa's had more character. I had a 155 V6 also, and it was definatly more of a drivers car than the 156 was.

my friend had a 2 year old 156 spark (or something or other lol) and he was deluded like most alfa owners are, he was told all the rear bushes and suspension needed replacing and would be done under warranty and he refused to believe that it needed doing so quickly as it was an alfa, 3 years later is worth nowt and he is paying a fortune to keep it on the road

 

he also has to have the belts done at every service?

 

nice looking motors, but not the most reliable around lol

I think traditionally you have to be a bit mad about cars to buy one.....becuase of there known issues as an actual car. The older Alfa's fit thise stereotype better, A car your would buy yourself but would'nt actually reccomend to others.

 

The 156 is a bit too mainstream though, while still having reliablity issues. The older Alfa's had more character. I had a 155 V6 also, and it was definatly more of a drivers car than the 156 was.

 

makes sense, cheers bud :gunsmilie:

yes mate. i forgot that one aswell. although most of the time if you take it off and steam clean it through it clears the fault:)

 

is that on the preface? cos the facelift one recharges itself doesn't it?

what the hell are you talking about? lol

 

the dpf!! do keep up :tt2:

diesel particulate filter.

lol. i thought you where being thick and just winging it. lmao

 

no Im well smart me. lol

They do Regen (around 80%) IIRC.I just cured one,drilled a 12mm hole straight thru' the fecker! LOL!

They do Regen (around 80%) IIRC.I just cured one,drilled a 12mm hole straight thru' the fecker! LOL!

 

:lol:

This is gonna be a longer night than I thought !!

 

My budget dont help much, I know. Just been made redundant, so give us a break !

 

My Ram works out at almost £100 a week, give or take. Great to drive, but a bit pricey.

 

As a means of throwing jobby in the fan, my mate has a 05 Vectra,CDTI, 88,000 miles and fault free. My other mate has a 51 plate Vectra DTI, 170.000 miles and only had to replace the power steering pump ??

 

Any other makes or models I should be looking at ??

 

Alan......

I use VW diesels in my fleet at work - the Golf, Jetta or Passat with the 2.0 140ps TDi engine is pretty good and the cars are nicely built!

 

Richard:biggrin:

 

Gotta say I'd agree with this! If I ever need another 'normal' car I know what I'd have straight away - diesel Passat. You can pick them up for pretty cheap if you go for a slightly older one as well - recommended them to my Dad and a few months ago he picked up a '01 (I think) 110bhp saloon with a fair amount of goodies (climatronic air con, 6 disc changer etc) for £1300 and I've had it do over 70mpg on a run. He does a 60 mile commute each way in rush hour every day (uses mostly motorway but the M6 so it's still a nightmare with stop and start mostly at the Birmingham end of his trip) and the average is always high 60s. The mileage soon stacks up on any of his cars and so far he's not had a single problem with this. Proper decent quality cars :)

Gotta say I'd agree with this! If I ever need another 'normal' car I know what I'd have straight away - diesel Passat. You can pick them up for pretty cheap if you go for a slightly older one as well - recommended them to my Dad and a few months ago he picked up a '01 (I think) 110bhp saloon with a fair amount of goodies (climatronic air con, 6 disc changer etc) for £1300 and I've had it do over 70mpg on a run. He does a 60 mile commute each way in rush hour every day (uses mostly motorway but the M6 so it's still a nightmare with stop and start mostly at the Birmingham end of his trip) and the average is always high 60s. The mileage soon stacks up on any of his cars and so far he's not had a single problem with this. Proper decent quality cars :)

 

So would this be worth a look then ?? I know its an estate, but I aint fussed !

 

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201105378705114/sort/priceasc/usedcars/price-from/500/fuel-type/diesel/price-to/3000/model/passat/make/volkswagen/postcode/ml60ln/page/1/radius/60?logcode=p

 

Alan......

Looks maybe slightly overpriced to me matey - worth a look though! You might be able to knock them down a couple of hundred quid! But I would certainly recommend going to look at one before you bought something else to have a look what you think of the build quality and drive of them etc.

So would this be worth a look then ?? I know its an estate, but I aint fussed !

 

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201105378705114/sort/priceasc/usedcars/price-from/500/fuel-type/diesel/price-to/3000/model/passat/make/volkswagen/postcode/ml60ln/page/1/radius/60?logcode=p

 

Alan......

 

VAG all the way for diesels mate!:thumbup1:

Gotta say I'd agree with this! If I ever need another 'normal' car I know what I'd have straight away - diesel Passat. You can pick them up for pretty cheap if you go for a slightly older one as well - recommended them to my Dad and a few months ago he picked up a '01 (I think) 110bhp saloon with a fair amount of goodies (climatronic air con, 6 disc changer etc) for £1300 and I've had it do over 70mpg on a run. He does a 60 mile commute each way in rush hour every day (uses mostly motorway but the M6 so it's still a nightmare with stop and start mostly at the Birmingham end of his trip) and the average is always high 60s. The mileage soon stacks up on any of his cars and so far he's not had a single problem with this. Proper decent quality cars :)

 

How do you manage to get that mpg out of it when parkers guide gives nowhere near them figures?????

the most a 110bhp passat has on there is 53mpg when new.

How do you manage to get that mpg out of it when parkers guide gives nowhere near them figures?????

the most a 110bhp passat has on there is 53mpg when new.

 

It's probably the on-board mpg... I've got e46 320d which averages an actual 52mpg but the dash indicates 60mpg.

How do you manage to get that mpg out of it when parkers guide gives nowhere near them figures?????

the most a 110bhp passat has on there is 53mpg when new.

 

Strange but feasible I guess.....

 

....about 5 years ago I fired one of our sales reps. He kept his company car for his month's notice but when it was time to return it; I decided to make the trip up north myself to collect it.

 

It was 2005 Passat 2.0 TDi 130 HiLine - I filled it with diesel as I left Darlington and drove it pretty fast back down south. Some 240 miles later and I had barely used 1/4 of a tank!!

 

Richard:huh::blink: