Anyone else considering downsizing?

[MickAP]

Hey all.

I'm the proud owner of a 54 vec which I really like. Its great on the Mway and has enough size to transport pretty much anything I need it to.

However with the price of fuel the way it is, and the way it seems to be going, I'm really thinking about getting rid....

Back last time when the fuel price went really high (about 120p for unleaded round my way) oil price hit nearly $150 a barrel.

Now the oil price is about $98 a barrel, and we're paying more at the pump..

I've not seen an explanation for this anywhere, but as far as I can see, the pump price goes up IMMEDIATELY when oil goes up, but pretty much stays the same when oil goes down, think about it, oil price fluctuates up and down all the time, but when did you last see the pump price go down?, and my worry is that if the oil price continues to climb and hits $150 again, what would the pump price be like?

I'm getting 48.5mpg on a 1.9cdti (120bhp), which isn't bad I know, but there are smaller diesels out there capable of about 70+mpg....

Anyone else concerned and having these dark thoughts?

Think yourself lucky you own an economical car at the moment, I do and glad I changed. The last diesel I owned whilst better than petrol did around 46mpg on a run. My Signum 150 CDTi currently does around 44 just local use upto 56 on a longer run. It's winter so you will see less mpg, come summer you will see those mpg figures rise. I doubt changing cars will see any financial gain, and for a smaller car. As said, get it serviced and it could give you better figures. I know mine needs a new stat, think that will give even more mpg at the moment.

Mick

[Bigtee]

I don't see how buying a second car to help out with fuel costs is going to make it work, The cost and running of the second outweighs the fuel bill on the vectra surley?

But i do agree with downsizing if you sell the vectra and have enough in the pot to buy the next car without spending any cash, But if you have to add £3-4k in cash to the deal you may aswell stay with what you have.

[rogerp]

Yep - I'm going through exactly the same process. Me and the wife have the 150 SRi CDTI Auto and a Suzuki Jimny. Thats about £250 every six months to tax. We both work less than 3 miles from home, and depending on our shifts, we could use the bus almost door to door - but not when on nights etc. May have to resort to the pushy!

Kids are getting older and don't come with us so much, and driving holidays in Europe have stopped, joined the coach brigade a couple of times.

I am seriously considering something like a Corsa 1.3 diesel, with low tax and reasonable economy. And with unlimited warranty on new and even second hand Network Q cars, no worries for big repair bills like I dread coming with the Vectra.

Add to that the misery of driving on pot hole ridden, congested roads, high car parking fees, etc, etc, the joy of motoring has gone. I for one am fed up with the continual taking of our hard earned money from government, energy companies, insurance and financial campanies. Time to fight back, and do all we can to halt this daylight robbery.

[CLOMP]

with the really small cars, i'd go petrol. there's a new fiat 500 2-cyl turbo coming out soon which claims 71mpg http://www.whatcar.com/car-news/fiat...-driven/251285 and £0 road tax (92g/km)

not sure about small cars and the MPG claims, last year I had a nissan pixo, now this was a great little car however I never got anywhere near the claimed 62 MPG, closer to 50mpg. Apart from one little thrashing it was around town runabout,, nissan micra a few years ago, my car at the time was a Kia MENTOR 1.6, on a regular run I do it would give 38 mpg, the Micra gave 34 mpg on the same run, at least with my Vec it does more than the stated MPG. a friend has a small diesel the only time it gives the stated mpg is on a long Mway run,

[markj23]

we have the siggy its used as a van most of the time for my work and a brand new mini to run around in but the mini is fun to drive but gets nowhere near the mpg they stated when we got it when we said about it they told us the figures stated would kick in after 10k when its run in

[peadar]

i down sized to a mk5 1.7cdti astra for 6 months and boy did i regret it , i missed all the comforts of the vectra ie cruse control , arm rest auto dim mirror ect. and the big boot and it only done about 4mpg more than the vectra

[sheepish]

I think if you own a Vectra and you're thinking of selling it to get a more economical car, you really need to do the maths first. Vectras depreciate very rapidly so you have to consider what you've lost on that and what the depreciation will be on another car to see if you will ever see any pay back from better mpg and lower tax.

Me personally, I've got a 1.8LX, paid £5k for it with 30k on the clock 5 or so years ago and it's now got 91k on the clock. When I buy a car I aim to loose no more than £1500 per year in depreciation, so to me the car is now free (and only worth, what, £800 tops?). The longer it runs, the cheaper it becomes and as soon as anything goes wrong that I can't fix myself, it'll be off to the scrap yard. But until then it's saving me depreciation on another car that would far outweigh any saving I'd make with better mpg.

...just my thoughts...

[Big Sig]

It's probably a better idea to buy an old astra or escort and run it into the ground. Then hide the vec away from prying eyes and lawyers

[john_k_sri]

IMO It really doesn't make financial sense to downsize from a CDTI150 to one of the new super-frugal small diesels, whose fuel economy figures are grossly exaggerated to encourage people to buy them, at an inflated price to pay for all the new fuel-saving technology.

It is also possible that one may be tempted to drive them hard to suit one's driving style, thus making them more expensive to run.

[Chappers.]

We looked into "downsizing" from the Vectra estate (150 CDTi). Mainly because the wife likes the look of the Astra and decided that the Vectra was costing too much to fill up each time she visited the pumps.

As I pointed out to her, on a run it gives us almost 50mpg (it's usually with cruise control on, fully laden with 4 passengers, 2 labradors and enough luggage to move house). A smaller car wouldn't give us that flexibility - which is the whole reason we went with a Vectra in the first place.

Being a diesel, unless we went for something tiny we would struggle to find something that gave similar or better fuel economy (it's mainly urban use), and the VEL is only £155 a year.

I borrowed a 1.7 CDTi Astra from work and on a run it is worse on fuel than the Vectra (and I was the only occupant) not to mention more uncomfortable etc.

Also, if you look into how much you won't get for the Vectra if you trade it in, I think you'll find that the several thousand pounds deficit will cover the cost of a lot of fuel (or in my case, help to pay for a new inlet manifold to be fitted )