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Post by impresario08 on Nov 19, 2014 21:37:45 GMT 1
My 1999 ford focus is dying a slow death. I am contemplating buying a cheap/older 4x4 to help with getting to the yard in the winter. Are they really as expensive to run as people say, just so I can get a better idea?  |
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Post by lizpurlo on Nov 19, 2014 21:49:17 GMT 1
I have a 1996 Subaru Legacy, which oddly enough I bought to replace my '99 Focus which sadly died! Insurance is just under £200 a year, so not a lot more than the Focus. Fuel consumption - no, not a patch on the Focus, but I live on top of a hill and at the foot of a steep drive, so I use far more petrol than most people would, just going down to the town and back - about 26 mpg round here, but about 40mpg on a long drive on A roads. Thirsty on motorways - it needs a sixth gear really, for motorway cruising.
Parts are reasonably cheap, and as it's blessedly low in electronic garbage, it's straightforward for my local mechanic to work on, which is one of the reasons why I bought it. (That, and the fact that it only cost £420!!)
It comes into its own in winter weather though. Absolutely brilliant going up the one in four icerink which is the drive here after several hard frosts and frozen snow. I honestly can't praise its winter driving performance enough, it is truly superb.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 20, 2014 8:10:58 GMT 1
I had a 2000 Forrester and sold it as the fuel consumption was so poor. I got 27mpg. Swapping to a fiesta that does 60mpg saved me about £150 a month. I suppose how much the mpg bothers you depends on how many miles you drive day to day
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Post by jennyb on Nov 20, 2014 9:01:05 GMT 1
I'm a lucky girly and have got a new Honda CR-V. Not sure how older models compare, but I'm getting about 40mpg (it's diesel) on average driving. Definitely get less mpg than my BMW but obviously this has 4wd and is more practical. Only the big engined manual diesel cars have enough oomph for towing though.
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Post by arabiangem on Nov 20, 2014 11:31:22 GMT 1
Nissan Terrrano 3.0 diesel - very similar running costs to the Isuzu trooper I had before.
Mpg is around 30mpg. Most of my driving is on single lane A roads and around town so I don't think that's too bad. £300 a year to insure. Tax is expensive at £270 per year, though having just swapped to monthly installments that is easier to budget for.
I live in rural East Devon, and the lanes flood a lot, so the car is very practical. I tow with it regularly, chuck feed in it, and bikes as the boyfriend won't put his very expensive bike on a rack, so for our purposes it is very handy.
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Post by antares on Nov 20, 2014 13:30:21 GMT 1
Well OP they aren't called 'gas guzzlers' for nothing
Some clarity might help - are you wanting to tow or is this just to get about?
Older big 4x4s are not very economical - you don't really state your budget so hard to say but I'll give you a quick list of what I have used over the last 15 years or so
1993 LWB Shogun 3l V6 petrol manual - I didn't do too bad with this one, very big, petrol with a decent amount of power and I got about 20mpg on average, less if I floored it lol But towing wise it was brilliant!
1997 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4l petrol automatic with an LPG conversion - the auto box I loved, it was great for towing as very smooth gear changes and with a 4l engine had plenty of go! Unfortunately because of that I was getting between 10 and 12 mpg lol that's not good. So I had it converted to LPG, I say converted but really the LPG is additional so you can still drive on petrol but have the option to switch to LPG as and when. For me this worked really well because we have 3 petrol stations locally that sell LPG, may be different in other areas. It doesn't improve the mpg but at the time LPG was only 65p a litre or there abouts so around half of the cost of petrol. You do lose a little performance but when you have a big engine like that it's not really noticeable under normal driving conditions
2002 Mitsubishi L200 - erm... yeah - a bit better economy wise but very basic and a little tail happy I have to say. I was getting low 20s in mpg but I didn't like doing more than a few miles as it was really pretty uncomfortable - handy though to have the flat bed especially as we were doing a lot of fencing at the time
Now I have a 2004 Toyota Landcruiser - 3l turbo diesel - love this car. I get about 28-30mpg in normal driving and actually a little more towing as I drive a lot slower. It's only a SWB though so not much room for moving bales and the like about but I generally have the back seats folded forwards for more space and if I need to pick a lot of stuff up I use the trailer.
If you are looking for something older then just do your homework - in some models diesels are more reliable than petrols and some models the other way around. Regular issue with older turbo diesels is that the turbos fail and this can be an expensive fix so just have a look online at owners clubs or similar and they usually list the regular known issues.
If you don't need to tow then I would just go for an AWD car / SUV as the older 4x4s do tend to be even less economical than the newer ones
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Post by ruthp on Nov 20, 2014 17:33:14 GMT 1
Like Jenny, I have a Honda CRV, 2ltr diesel which can tow up to 2 tonnes. Mine is now 7 years old, and I've had it from new, and if I were in a position to replace it, I'd buy the same again! When not towing I get about 42 mpg, and when I am towing it goes down to about 30 mpg. The four wheel drive is automatic, it senses any sort of wheel spin and adjusts the power to wheels that have traction, very clever, and it makes it incredibly sure footed in slippery conditions.
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Post by bernadette on Nov 21, 2014 12:27:18 GMT 1
we have had in the past old Land Rover Discoveries which have cost us a fortune to run. Then in Spring this year at the beginning of our off site pony ride season upon which we rely heavily for fundraising our last one died. Instead of replacing it with another very old one we got a 7 year old SSangyong Rexton 4x4 which has the same towing capacity as the Discovery. We love it and it was cheap to buy, is much cheaper to run than the Land Rovers but is as big and capable as they were for doing all the jobs we need it for. When it isn't towing it uses less fuel than our Volvo V40 doing general driving.
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Post by lesleyking1 on Nov 22, 2014 13:00:50 GMT 1
This is a good thread
We changed my beloved ford ranger for a Freelander back this spring, the ranger was ridiculous to run, I was getting 21 to the gallon and when we got the trailer there was no way hubby would entertain me using that to tow. Freelander is a great drive and tows trailer and my big TB easily. Hubby did all the financial calculations when we compared them all and when toying up towing power verses buying and running costs the freelander came up best, other than the Volkswagen Touran which had better pulling power but we preferred the look of a land rover. But with no expense spared we would have gone for a discovery.
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Post by mrsfields on Nov 24, 2014 14:35:47 GMT 1
i picked up a second-hand Hyundai Santa Fe last year to tow my Ifor Williams 1.5 trailer - had a few teething problems what with being second hand and maintenance needing doing (luckily under guarantee), but since then, it's been wonderful! it tows really easily, and is a nice smooth drive... not sure off the top of my head about mpg, but it is apparently meant to be one of the cheaper 4x4 to run... i would definitely get another one!
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Post by holi on Nov 25, 2014 21:40:38 GMT 1
Loved my old shotgun but now have a freelancer which I also love. Both fairly economical but for towing get a SWB as so much easier
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Post by clipclop on Nov 26, 2014 14:39:14 GMT 1
When we used to have a trailer, my parents bought a 2.2l nissan x-trail and it was fantastic. Brilliant to tow with, got us out of muddy fields at shows and fab for longer/faster motorway journeys too.
I have since done my hgv test and have a horsebox so we don't need a towing vehicle anymore. The x-trail was coming up for needing a bit of work done and my parents decided to swap it. They liked the higher driving position a 4x4 gives so they went for a honda crv 2.0l. They love it but I hate it. It's not a proper 4x4 - it's an suv that has 4wd. Personally, I don't think you get a lot for your money with the crv - theirs is the top of the range model and the interior isn't a patch on my hatchback. The crv is easy to manoeuvre so long as you use your own spacial awareness and driving ability rather than relying on any of the 'driver aids' (camera and reversing beeper make out you are about 10' closer to things than you actually are).
Think realistically about whether you actually need a 4x4 - most people would find it more beneficial to put winter tyres on a 2wd than swap to a 4wd.
Sent from my GT-I9195 using proboards
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Post by jennyb on Nov 26, 2014 22:09:17 GMT 1
Each to their own Clipclop - I've gone from a ltd edition BMW to my top of the range CR-V and I'm more than happy with it. The reversing aids are perfectly fine, I can use them and park perfectly! Had to educate hubby about the traffic light system on the proximity warnings though - he thought he was close when they were on yellow, he didn't realise they went orange and then red! I wait ynt they're red and it's perfect.
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Post by Catrin on Nov 27, 2014 15:06:27 GMT 1
Had three older Discoverys — paid around £2000 — usually got a three or four years out of each of them before the welding work was more than they were worth to sell on. Cheap to run on cooking oil in summer — 65p to £1 a litre depending where you shop — had to use 1/2 and 1/2 with Diesel in winter or the oil went solid and you had to wait for the sun to come out when it was cold. Would definitely have another if we needed one.
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