Thanks for the helpful observations. How about the so-called car supermarkets. Are they a good place to buy a cheap car? If so, can anyone recommend one in Dorset Hants or Wilts? (One with a lot of cars and vans under £1000 would be ideal.)
Cheers,
JOlder deisels a bit noisier especially at tickover. Personally I find that deisel chug sort of solid and re-assuring. Newer ones you wouldn't know the difference. They can be maintenance free for life - just change the oil, filter and cam belt at proper intervals and perhaps change the glow plugs once or twice. I guess this is due to the fuel itself being oil, unlike petrol which is a solvent and dilutes oil. cheers
jacob
... between them and combine harvester. If you were deaf-blind, anyway.
In what way is this "maintenance free"?
(I hate diesels, in case you haven't guessed.)
Why? (I just want to know if itps the same reason I've disliked them in the past). You've got to admit they are cheaper to fuel though, yes? And with petrol prices going ever skyward, that's got to be worth thinking about, no?
J
Yes, I'm probably still thinking of that cement mixer I used to work with when I was 17, standing there all day breathing its fumes and deafened by its clank-clank-clanking, and all the refinement of Stephenson's Rocket.Though, I have to say, I drove a deisel Citroen in the early 80's and it wasn't much nicer... I must have a go in a more modern deisel car and see what I think.
Can anyone give us a clue as to how much cheaper a deisel car is to run (regards the fuel cost, at least) than an equivalent-powered petrol engined car? Is it as simple as looking at the difference in price between a gallon of deisel and a gallon of petrol? Or is it more complicated than that? I suspect it is, since they are not both likely to do the same numer of miles per gallon, right?
Cheers,
J
Because I dislike driving everywhere very slowly and noisily in a large cloud of black smoke contaminated with the most carcinogenic substance yet discovered.
Not much more complicated, though. Price per gallon is very little different - a few pence in each 80, no more than 5% tops. The bigger difference is in consumption - at a very rough guess you'll get 10-20% better mileage out of a diesel than with petrol. So simple fuel costs win you sthg around 15% - not huge, not quite negligible.
But there's a lot of variability - a recent petrol engine is likely to give you better fuel consumption than an older diesel, driving style makes a big difference, and so on. If you like to feel oomphage in accelerating, petrol engines are likelier to satisfy you; if you prefer a bit cheaper running and slightly lower maintenance costs, diesel wins. Either way it's not a huge difference for sort-of similar models...
Stefek, who[se family] runs one of each - both 1996 VWs. (And, stupidly enough, the insurance company allows our teenager to drive the petrol but not the diesel one, even though the petrol-engined one's a little more powerful. Logic? Nah...)
A fairly direct comparison. For ran a Fiat Brava 1.4 petrol for 48K miles, average consumption
35mpg. Now I've got a Fiat Marea Weekend 1.9JTD (silly name for the estate version of the same Brava platform). Arguably worse aerodynamics than the hatchback, but over 36K miles average is 51.6mpg. 47% further on fuel that's about 4% more expensive. The JTD engine is a much better drive, both much faster and more relaxed.
Ha! I was going to say something different until I spotted the fact that you had already driven a Citroen!! The newish ones are quite drivable (can / worms / open) I'm now on my 2nd Xantia (2l HDi), and apart from the fact that I broke the 1st at 130k miles, I'm pretty happy (well I bought a second one!) You can get a lot in one, and I've only got the hatch. Sun roof on the first was an advantage. 4-5m lengths of timber etc. On a long run, Crp journey out, good one back, total 340 miles using
30l of diesel, seemed very good to me.
iantenance on a diesel is a little higher - they need new oil AND fuesl filters everytme to be realiable, but mostly after a whle teh fact thats ALL they need for mile after mile pays off.
Don't assume they WILL be more fuel efficient though. My Landrover TD6 barely scrapes 24mpg, and that if its kept below 60mph. At 85 (top speed) it drinks as much diesel as my jag drinks petrol. Cheers,
A Landrover has the aerodynamics of a housebrick. Brilliant for what they do, but quick and efficient; sorry but no. ;-)
I know...but....45000 miles and no major problems, (lots of silly ones) and still another 5-10,000 miles left on the original tyre treads, and an annual service bill that is about £2-300 only...and will take anything anywhere. And still do 85mph all day.
I have to say if I had nothing else, I'd keep the old gal. Snow, ploughed fields, 3ft water - she's done the lot. Tows anything. Seats 12 if needs be. Carries best part of 3/4 of a ton too.
I used to fill her up every week - about 300 miles on 50 quid of diesel doing around 15,000 miles a year. 200 a year. Ok I might have saved what - 20 quid a week - a whole 1000 quid a year on diesel, but its amazing how 15000 miles will eat up a set of standard car tyres every year. At what - 300 quid? Cost me near enough a grand to replace a wheel and tyre when the jag hit a pothole the old gal wouldn't have even noticed. She's about 200 quid cheaper to insure than yer average saloon as well..
Now doing less than 7000 miles a year, fuel costs are not so important as maintenance tax and insurance costs, and those ARE low.
Its very instructive to do the sums on a vehicle.
You can pick up a good middle aged TD5 county station wagon for less than 10 grand. I was going to trade this one, but the trade in was crap, and the new ones no better than what I already had, so on she goes. I can do without central locking.
Nah. Fit it yourself. Motors cost less than a tenner each and maybe an hour a door (probably much quicker on a landie). Fitting the central locking is one of the first things I do when buying a new vehicle...
Christian.
I can recommend the Maplin kit at 30 quid for four motors and controller. Extra motors are available too. Easy to add a remote also.
Glad to hear you say that - I've just bought one (for 19.99) from Maplin, and plan to fit it on Saturday to the van.
Alarm gets fitted at the same time, so hopefully they'll talk to each other OK!!!
(20mm conduit all around the inside of the van load area, so will take the opportunity to add some lighting at the same time)
If you're fitting an alarm with central locking outputs, you don't actually need the full kit, just a 2 wire motor for each door. The alarm system will drive these directly.
However, you can still fit the 5 wire motors and controllers if you wish. The main effect will be that the central locking will also work from the key, but I prefer not to bother.
Christian.
P.S. What type of van is it? If it is a Boxer/Ducato/Relay, I might be able to help you with a suitable cable routing...
It allows you to lock the doors when on the move - if you feel this might be necessary. Most systems make provision for this.
One wee note about the Maplin kit. I used it to modernise the system on my old Rover - where the drivers door didn't have a motor, but merely a switch, which prevented remote operation. The wiring and controller had rather too much voltage drop to handle the existing motors which I retained for rear doors and tailgate. And I suspect the same would apply if needing maximum effort from the supplied motors. The multi-pole connector to the controller was the main culprit, so I simply soldered direct to the PCB, and beefed up the PCB with copper wire soldered across the tracks where needed.
Hi Christian,
Just seen your reply!
The van is a Toyota Hiace (1995). It has no provision for central locking at present, but the cable runs don't seem too tortuous. For the rear door, I managed to get a cable down inside the existing groomet/boot arrangement, and into the lock area. This then runs inside the roof lining, to a convenient Tee point, just above the centre of the side door. From there, I have dropped a piece of cable to enter the side door at the top where it meets the B pillar on closing. This is the only exposed piece so far, but only because I can't see any other way to connect into a sliding door.
All cabling has been done in 1.5mm twin flex. Haven't done the front doors yet (ran out of light), but don't see them being particularly onerous.
Am using the 5 wire motors for the front, mainly because they are in the kit! It will be handy to be able to lock the payload doors whilst on the move.
Thanks
Gary
You can get sliding door contacts for this, as someone suggested to me a few months back. I haven't yet had time to fit them, unfortunately. They consist of a couple of spring loaded plungers which contact fixed contact plates on the door pillar. Obviously, they only work with the door shut, but you only need to operate locks in that condition, really.
Christian.
D'Oh - I can't believe I didn't think of that - especially as I've just replace the one on my wife's car boot!
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