I have started driving 200 km on highways everyday and was looking to replace my car with a more fuel efficient car for highway driving.
I did some research mostly in ADAC and figured the Audi A3 Diesel and BMW 1 seems to be one of the best for this with 5 litres per 100 km.
Would be great to hear feedback on which cars are the best in this aspect.
Cheers
Audi/VW/Seat/Skoda share the same engines.
The BMW x18/20d does have the timing chain issue but don't be put off by it.
Stop/Start functionality won't help you too much.
If you are commuting 200km a day consider also the quality of the seats and ride. Bigger cars tend to have more luxurious seating which may make your drive more pleasent.
As with all questions - budget is the overriding factor!
Have a look at a Nissan Qashqai 1.6 diesel Tekna. The OH is getting 5.2 at the moment and he does 150km per day.
Some low-rolling resistance tires can get you even better mileage.
Get a standard saloon/sedan/whatever you call them, with a nice diesel, and preferably something newer will be more fuel efficient.
Going from 5 to 6lt/100Km is a 20% increase so it's not unsubstantial.
200Km/day is about 4000Km/month so with diesel prices around 1.66 you're looking at something like 0.083CHF/Km to 0.996CHF/Km for fuel.
=> ~ 330CHF/month up to ~400CHF month.
Realistically you're much closer to the 400CHF mark (6lt/100Km).
An electric car like the Tesla can make a lot of sense if you do your trip and then have a lot of time to charge it before the return. If you commute 100Km to the office, where you have a charging parking spot then your costs can go way down. Especially if it's subsidised charging (or even free like a Tesla Supercharger) then even a crazy expensive electric car can match the overall cost of a cheap "reasonable" car, and enjoy S-class levels of luxury. A plug-in like the Volt has limited range so you'll still pay for petrol and gas with such commutes and I don't think it would be worth the cost.
If you're in sales and just do a couple of stints of 50-100Kms between short stops the electric option might not work so well.
Safest bet? Get something like a Subaru Legacy diesel for dirt cheap. Won't break, won't ask for anything other than consumables and will still get you around at the 6lt/100Km mark. You can get it for dirt cheap, make sure it had some recent maintenance and don't care about the Km on it since you're going to put a lot more on top of them anyway. It's not the torquiest or fastest of motors, but you're commuting so you don't care.
handled the motorway no problem, quite comfortable, all the toys you need (stereo is a bit crap) and cheap as chips both to buy and in fuel
I'd consider a GA instead.
also if you get a car and you're leasing, you will not want to have a situation where you're over the kilometers and they will not want to lease anything to you that comes back to them.
any car you get with 4000km will also have a 2-3 year life unless you're very proactive with maintenance. And people will not rush to buy a 1-year-old car with 50k on it so aim to write the car off in 3 years....
You are going to do 4,000km a month. I'll assume you have a budget of 30,000chf (because you haven't given a budget so I'll just make one up), and I'll assume you want a car that is comfortable for long motorway trips and is economical. You haven't mentioned any particular brand preference or equipment/trim requirements, nor whether you live or work in locations where snow may be an issue. I'll assume you live near a city - drive along a motorway to another city.
Again you don't mention a preference for automatic or manual - so won't filter anything out. Because of the KMs you will be doing I will focus on cars <50k km, and because of the nature of your driving >160ps. I have limited the consumption to 5.5l. I also assumed a size no smaller than a Golf. And also assumed you wouldn't want to drive anything with crap plastic.
This gives a list of cars like:
Alfa Giulietta 1.4T/2.0JTDM
Audi A3/A4 2.0TDi
BMW 120/123/320
Citroen DS4
Ford Focus/Mondeo
Mazda 6
Merc C220/250
Seat Leon TDi FR
Volvo S60/V60
Golf TDI GT
The 123d is the sportiest of the bunch
The Merc and Volvos will be good motorway cruisers - with very good noise suppression and excellent seats
The Volvos ARENT Swiss supplied so won't have the 150k service pack
The Leon is a Golf in drag - and there are plenty of brand new import ones for under 30k
Generally though:
- You won't find too many lower mileage super economical comfy cars that are older than 3 years with mileage low enough to warrant buying
- If you expect to maintain that level of KMs per year consider opting for a nearly new Swiss supplied Volvo - 150,000km free servicing
- Don't go for anything that rides too firmly or with seats that just don't feel right.
If it was me, I'd be taking a close look at the Mercs.
Also hp is the last thing you need in highway driving. You're cruising along at 100-120Kph, never have to overtake in a single-carriage way, so hp is absolutely irrelevant imho.
Modern cars have a lot of tech that limit the overall consumption, but most of them are actually beneficial in stop&go traffic or general in an urban cycle. When in the highway, it's all about aerodynamic drag, not too many cylinders (the more you have the more friction within the engine, the less the inherent efficiency), and preferably something that can scoot along at a slow engine speed (the friction in an engine increases with a power of 3 for linear RPM increase). Skinny hard tires that are blown to the full pressure advised by the manufacturer can also help.
Beyond that it doesn't really matter if you're driving a 5 ton armored Merc, or an aluminum A2. You're not accelerating and braking, you're doing 95% of your driving in steady state as far as the engine is concerned.
Buy cheap, buy reliable, drive it to the ground, get rid of it without caring after you're done with it.
Parts can be very cheap second hand from DE, and consumables also with a little searching. Good thing is that highway driving also puts a lot less stress than city driving. Give me a taxi that did 200k on the highway over the same exact car that was driving 5km a day for its entire life (exaggerating to illustrate a point obviously )