Possibly having to move to the darkside

[chris s]

Guys as much as I hate the thought I'm having to consider a move to a more economical car having moved house and my commute has increased four fold, my 2yr old twins are continuing to want food and toys, etc, etc.  so if I had to move to a diesel what options would make the change less painful? I've considered diesel golfs, a3, tt and 1 or 3 series beemers. I'd probably only be looking at a £13k budget and it can't be too old, probably 5yrs max... Ideas welcomed

[gazrn]

Before my GTI I had a BMW 120d, was a solid car with fantastic cabin build quality (no rattles or squeaks) but not a massive amount of space inside. MPG wasn't nearly as good as the Mk4 Golf GT TDI I owned before that. I know there is an issue with all 120d engines (1, 3, 5 Series) engines manufactured between 2007 and 2009 where the timing chain has failed, the engine is designed with the timing chain at the rear and therefore the only way to make a precautionary check of the timing chain is to remove the engine !!!! Having said all of that I drove a 123d and its a rear wheel driven twin turbo'd beast 

[chris s]

The 123d has caught my eye too... Not sure on the economy tho... Plus with being very tuneable I'm not sure I could or would resist

[Nodz]

If you need space in the car I'd be looking at an octavia vrs estate

[Andy]

As above the octavia is a good car to look at

[ED30GTI]

Mk6 Golf GTD ?

 

[dansmith180]

Octavia is a good shout, you can get a lot for your money with the Skoda's or an Audi A4/ A6 if they're not too big

[kr15h_ED30]

bmw 123d is a good choice, a friend has one. its a 2.3 twin turbo and once remapped would be 250bhp with over 300 lbs.

[Frodo-anni]

If your wanting space and economy, as above Octavia Vrs, A4/A6 

[garrardrj]

Get an estate car , 320d's are great on economy . 1 series will be too small and i quite like Octavia's  . A4 estate is a bit bland  . 13k and 5 year old max will limit your scope though .
Just bite the bullet and buy a bluemotion Golf and run that for a few years , when the kids are bigger you'll need a car and the wife/partner will too , double every running cost !
We ran one car for a while during our childrens birth - 5 years but had to have two after that . So where we thought we would have one really nice car , sporty blah blah we had two cars which cost as much as may sports cars to run both

[J400uk]

I've recently switched to the dark side. The 2.0 TDI is fairly punchy but lacks the urgency of the GTI. A 6-cylinder diesel BMW may be the answer

[Biano44]

Erm, a CC?

[slider955i]

 i went to the darkside and love it , 170 gt tdi with a p-torque  remap to 208 bhp and 338 ft lb
bloody brilliant car and very quick , mpg brilliant , would not go back to my audi tt if you paid me and that was 260 bhp , would like 4wd again though in future

[Scottymon]

I was very impressed by the F10 530d I drove a while back; horses for courses.  Not sure about the entire range, but I've found a lot of VAG diesel units are quite noisy (mind you so's the TFSI).

[chris s]

I think a 1 series will be too small although the kids usually travel in my wife's car, Octavia is an option for sure.  Not considered the 5 series though will have a look abouut