Another which car advice thread...

Arzy

Arzy

Honorary Master
Joined
Apr 18, 2004
Messages
29,516
Reaction score
3,594
Location
Back home...
So, as luck would have it I'm traveling from Alberton to Pretoria on a daily basis, a nice 170km round trip.

The horrid part is the petrol bill associated with this as I'm driving a 2010 Nissan X-Trail 2L petrol and basically filling up twice a week if I don't drive it on weekends.

Now I'm looking to trade this in on something that is a lot more fuel efficient in the R150k-R200k region.

My initial thinking was the VW Polo 1.2 Bluemotion but I'm open to suggestions.

Discuss.
 
So I see the xtrail has a 65l tank and the Polo a 45l and its given range is 1300km per tank and you do about 850km per week for work. You would then only need to fill up once a week and be able to drive on the weekends.
 
supersunbird said:
So I see the xtrail has a 65l tank and the Polo a 45l and its given range is 1300km per tank and you do about 850km per week for work. You would then only need to fill up once a week and be able to drive on the weekends.
Click to expand...

Exactly. The X-Trail was initially my wife's car as she was only driving 16km's a day to her office, it then became mine when we moved.

The issue on the X-Trail is that I only get about 600km's a tank and the current cost per tank is R700 before it goes up on Wednesday.
 
Ouch. That's is a lot of KM.

The 3 cyl Polo Blue motion is very fuel efficient but is slow as can be so won't be much fun traveling 170KM per day and being over taken by trucks. The 1.6TDi is a lot better drive and also very fuel efficient. Just remember to factor in insurance & safety as chances are you are going to be hijacked or car stolen as you live in gauteng and Polo is #1 favorite of the tsotsis.

Also check out the 1.0t Fiesta ecoboost. Will be more fun and a better drive than 1.2TDi bluemotion.

Also remember these small capacity turbo engines will require a new turbo at some point and they are not cheap. Diesels also have injectors to worry about.

Depending on those factors it may be worthwhile to look at a NA 1.4 but you will need to do the sums.
 
Brawler said:
Ouch. That's is a lot of KM.

The 3 cyl Polo Blue motion is very fuel efficient but is slow as can be so won't be much fun traveling 170KM per day and being over taken by trucks. The 1.6TDi is a lot better drive and also very fuel efficient. Just remember to factor in insurance & safety as chances are you are going to be hijacked or car stolen as you live in gauteng and Polo is #1 favorite of the tsotsis.

Also check out the 1.0t Fiesta ecoboost. Will be more fun and a better drive than 1.2TDi bluemotion.

Also remember these small capacity turbo engines will require a new turbo at some point and they are not cheap. Diesels also have injectors to worry about.

Depending on those factors it may be worthwhile to look at a NA 1.4 but you will need to do the sums.
Click to expand...

Mmm, good advice, will have a look at the Fiesta, only concern on the this would be the price. Really not planning on spending more than R200k.

Ideally I just need something small for the time being as work requirements may change again at any stage and I'll be based in Jhb again.
 
I'd go for a Polo TDI. You can get one with around 20k kms for under 200k.
 
Arzy said:
So, as luck would have it I'm traveling from Alberton to Pretoria on a daily basis, a nice 170km round trip.

The horrid part is the petrol bill associated with this as I'm driving a 2010 Nissan X-Trail 2L petrol and basically filling up twice a week if I don't drive it on weekends.

Now I'm looking to trade this in on something that is a lot more fuel efficient in the R150k-R200k region.

My initial thinking was the VW Polo 1.2 Bluemotion but I'm open to suggestions.

Discuss.
Click to expand...

I'd say:
http://honda.co.za/en/products/cars/ballade/ballade-15-comfort/#/model-overview/exterior/

For a few reasons.

I get real world fuel consumption of about 6.6L/100km.
It's comfy and spacious. You don't want to drive 170km in a tin can. You'll go crazy.
Insurance is almost nothing.
Super reliable.
Comes with service plan.

Big enough that you can trade in the X-Trail.
 
Chevron said:
I'd say:
http://honda.co.za/en/products/cars/ballade/ballade-15-comfort/#/model-overview/exterior/

For a few reasons.

I get real world fuel consumption of about 6.6L/100km.
It's comfy and spacious. You don't want to drive 170km in a tin can. You'll go crazy.
Insurance is almost nothing.
Super reliable.
Comes with service plan.

Big enough that you can trade in the X-Trail.
Click to expand...

I actually traded my Civic sedan in to get the x-trail, found it to be a bit underpowered sadly...can't say much about the ballade but I'll give it a look.
 
Arzy said:
I actually traded my Civic sedan in to get the x-trail, found it to be a bit underpowered sadly...can't say much about the ballade but I'll give it a look.
Click to expand...

Well I'm afraid you have to choose. Fuel consumption or power. You can't have both.

The Ballade is 88KW from a 1500cc engine.
 
Chevron said:
Well I'm afraid you have to choose. Fuel consumption or power. You can't have both.

The Ballade is 88KW from a 1500cc engine.
Click to expand...

Definitely want fuel consumption at this tage, just wasn't over the moon with my previous Honda and the ballade is a lower model than that was imo.
 
Cannot beat the 1.2 Polo with fuel efficiency. Anything blue motion from VW is going to save you money. May as well go with a trusted brand that will hold it's value. Even a 1.2 spark uses more fuel than the polo.
 
Do you need a car, could you perhaps go for a bike. At the rate petrol is climbing we should all be thinking about bikes.
 
Maybe a Corolla/Auris 2.0l D4D with low mileage and warranty/service plan intact? I had the 2.0l D4D exclusive - its quick and real world consumption of around 6.4l/100km driving it normally and I had a set of 18" rims on. With the 16's it used to average around 6.5l/100km driving over the speed limit constantly:) Otherwise with economic driving you are looking at like 6l/100km. Its a big car, more than enough power and has all the features and safety features that you would need in a car.
 
What about that new Clio that keeps being advertised above? it Looks good.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X