[N@Z]

Well, since the search function is not up yet I can't really check whether this has been discussed before.

I'm curious to know from owners/drivers of the above mentioned. Preferably ordinary saloon/hatch/estates (not 4x4s or MPVs). I'm contemplating on getting one as I have to commute a fair distance for work nowadays. Presently using a petrol engine car at the moment, I'm beginning to feel the pinch.

Some criterias I'm looking at:

1. Cheap price
2. Comfortable (interior)
3. Fairly quiet
4. Good ride/handling compromise
5. Good highway cruising speed in relation to engine revs (min. 120kph [~75mph] @ 3,000rpm
6. long service intervals

As an indication, I've only tried the Peugeot 406 2.0HDi & Ford Focus 1.8i TDdi. I've heard good things about the Peugeot 206 1.4HDi but is it powerful enough for the cut & thrust of daily driving (overtaking/merging with traffing etc) & quiet at highway speed? Also interested in a Ford Mondeo estate but when I tried the Focus TDdi the engine sounded a little 'agricultural' compared with the 406.

 

[pbirkett]

Modern TDI's are great.

I drive a TDI hot hatch, which would have been a concept that would have been laughed at a few years ago, but this car embarasses many of its petrol rivals with a turn of speed that would surprise anyone who has been getting the wrong message about these cars.

TDI's in general sound pretty good, mine suffers none of the "tractor" like engine note you expect and associate with these types of car. My car does 3,000rpm @ 100 mph so as you can imagine it is quiet. My car has more torque than a Porsche Boxster S, and this is a concept pretty much unique to TDI's, they have lots of torque, which gives them excellent in gear urge. I rarely have to drop a gear to accelerate on the motorway, and I can often leave some pretty fancy machinery in my wake just with the press of a throttle.

But the best thing is, while my petrol engined rivals are struggling to return 30 mpg, I can get over 50 mpg out of my car.

Turbo diesels make sense.

The best TDI's are made by the VAG group (Audi, VW, Skoda and Seat) IMO.

 

[marios_mar]

are you going to go new or used?

Pkbirkett has the Fabia RS which has a tuned up VW TDi engine placed in a small hatchback. The "normal" VW TDi engine won't give you as much performance if placed on bigger car like the Golf for example. But stilll it will be good enough. Just not too sporty.

Take a look at the Fabia RS for round 18-19.000 EUROS for 130hp and if you cannot afford that much money go for the diesel Fabia with 100hp which is still enough for a 1100Kg car. Being a turbo engine it can easily be tuned to give more power later on for no big amount.

You can try getting a used Gold IV with the TDI motor. The 1900 cc TDI engine is very popular within the VW group.


The Fabia has the size of a Golf III to get the idea if you dont already know it.

Personally I would go for any VW group car.

Besides the engine issue you have to take into account other properties of the car.

The thing I would complain about VW (and their group) cars is bad electric system.

Owning a VW Lupo we had a broken window motor that cost 200 EUROS to repair. At our other VW group car we had again failure of one of the power windows. The Lupo had not so good breaks and a pretty terrible gearbox. Otherwise it was excellent.

The Fabia though has EXCELLENT brakes great handling good built quality. I would say to seriously look into it.

 

[lindrone]

Any specific reason why to go with TDI over hybrid engines.. or are there not enough hybrid engine cars available in Europe yet?

 

[marios_mar]

the second Id say. Are there in the US many hybrid cars?

 

[ooheadsoo]

I think a nice TDI will give pretty good pep. I don't think the hybrids have much of that. Electric cars are monsters in the torque department though.

 

[lindrone]

I think TDI's do give more pep than gas-electric hybrids. I think in the long run, if fuel consumption is the primary goal, hybrids save more money than TDI's though. I think achieving 40~60 miles per gallon is pretty easy with current generationof hybrid vehicles. Although there is a departure in driving experience from hybrid to against gas vehicles.

I guess the view from my side of the world is a little skewed... I live in California, where there's some government mandate for car companies to sell hybrids or something. Most of the produced hybrids gets shipped here to California, and I think Texas, maybe a few other states? Most of the other parts in US can't get them either.

Toyota's newest hybrid is especially attractive, they throw in a lot of semi-luxury features that normal gasoline powered car in its price range wouldn't have. For example, most cars in that price range doesn't even have HID headlights.

 

[N@Z]

So what do you guys think of the Ford Mondeo Estate Duratorq Common Rail Turbo Diesel? This is probably the closest I can get to a TDi that is readily available here. Would it matter if I got the '03 model instead of the upgraded '04 model which in theory is available with 115/130PS power & 6 speed manual/5 speed auto transmission?

 

[KYTGuy]

Avoid like the plague any electric/hybrid car in desert heat...they die early deaths in high heat.

<Owner of TurboDiesel, DEFINATELY "AGRICULTURAL SOUNDING" 6.7 liter 4X4>