It's looking like a Škoda Fabia Combi with a 70 hp diesel (for environmental considerations and fuel costs). It's huge for a supermini/subcompact, as big as the same company's Octavia used to be and almost as long as the '92 Subaru Legacy wagon back in the States.
Because it would be on an operating lease, I was thinking of a bare-bones "Classic", but the salesman convinced us with typical Estonian passive sales technique -- and in fact arguing against many of the features -- that the "Ambiente" would be better.
So basically a kind of Volkswagen. The only question is whether the 70 hp, which is also not quite as efficient as the 80 hp version, will get us up a hill in Slovakia, in case the world does not collapse and we take a family road trip to the Continent one of these summers.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
11 comments:
As far as gas prices go, prices for diesel fuel have shot much higher than those of regular petrol. Wonder if it's going to continue that way...
Ooh, there's a new Combi. Hadn't realized that.
Now that I think about it, it seems like a good choice... not as big or probably as reliable as a Ceed SW, but a more pleasant place to be, and comfortably the roomiest car in its class (there aren't that many B-segment estates left, and what there are, are French). You don't get air conditioning for your money though - are you sure you can live without it? Not just for the hot summers, but for the damp winters, when aircon's ability to dry out the air inside is very welcome indeed.
Looking at the website, Ambiente trim gives you rear disk brakes (useful), front electric windows (eminently useful), remote central locking, heated mirrors, trip computer (not appreciated until you've had one), slightly more clever seats, and a crap stereo. Probably worth the extra 10k. You might also want to splash out for the heated seats and rear electric windows.
I'm not entirely sure if the diesel will be a wise choice - the Fabia is a very heavy car, and the diesel is both 25k more expensive to buy and two kroons more at the pump. You could get a decent 105bhp petrol for the cost - not as economical though. If you definitely want a diesel though, it will probably make sense to pay for the better one. 70bhp is woeful for a car that weighs 1.2 tons dry.
Wonder if it's going to continue that way...
Almost inevitably, as clean Eurodiesel is more difficult to produce than decent petrol.
Sounds like a good choice but I'd get the bigger diesel if it were me. I love the diesel in my 2004 Ford Mondeo Estate. With the rise in diesel fuel it did cost me almost 1000 EEK to fill the tank today though. But, I get exceptional fuel mileage for such a big car and often go so long between fill ups that I forget all about the fuel gauge until the low fuel warning chime goes off.
Mine is a 90bhp and while relatively gutless in 1st and 2nd until the turbo kicks in, it pulls very strong in 3rd-5th and is a great highway cruiser. For more fun off the line though, I'd get a bigger diesel. As a practical family car, 90 really is enough and I would think 80 in a Fabia would serve you well.
Don't know much about automobiles in Estonia, but I have been a diesel fan here. It used to be a good and popular idea here to drive a diesel, and the European and Japanese engines were good, but then GM killed the diesel enthusiasm by converting gasoline engines to diesel that would not hold up to the compression ratios of a diesel engine. And also diesel fuel became more expensive and still is, today about 33% more than gas.
My truck and loader are diesel, but neither go on family outings. Of the two diesel cars I have owned, the turbo charged Isuzu SUV was fine and almost powerful enough to compete with gas engines, but at the sacrifice of mpg. It still got better mileage, but not 33% better. The other was a VW diesel that got about the same mpg as it had horsepower, 50 to 60. It was fine around town, but on the open road pretty bad when you had to make way to loaded tractor trailers on even a slight uphill grade. Flasher is probably correct in his concern about 70 hp being adequate.
A selling point for diesel engines was longevity, but I feel gas engines today will last every bit as long, and are cheaper to buy and fix.. Anyway, my Tundra weights about 5000 lbs gets about 16 gas miles per gallon while the diesel Ford at 7500 lbs gets about 14 mpg, most likely from the weight difference and gear ratios. Because of the higher price for diesel fuel combined with a higher purchase price I would continue to buy gasoline engines. I don't believe the additional mpg, if any, would offset those costs.
How about a Subaru, a vehicle that you have some familiarity with?
Subaru's are much more expensive in Estonia than the U.S. Not near as good of a value. I had 2 Subaru's back in the States and love them, but I can't justify the cost of them here.
I confess I didn't really know what an estate car was. I thought it was something inherited. I guess my old Subaru Legacy wagon is an estate car in two ways.
Anyway...to the comments.
Yep, Subarus are pricey here. Alex beat me to it.
Hmm, I can live without AC. I started going west in the summers to escape the East Coast heat, but I still didn't have AC in the car. I'm going to have to conceal this comment from my wife -- dampness is her issue with our apt.
Diesel engines -- haven't seen any separate negative issues with the 70bhp in reviews. But OK. We would have to drive a whole lot to recoup the extra money we sink into the 80bhp, though -- probably over the mileage limit.
But I feel better about the Ambiente.
Per volume at rated average consumption, the weaker diesel is 35% more efficient than the 1.4 gasoline engine. I don't know if that is the valid comparison or not. Right now the price difference between petrol and diesel is only 10-12% in Estonia.
Now we have to haggle I guess. Only a 3.5% discount from the dealership. Residual value from a sample leasing quote was 30% after 5 yrs -- seems low given diesel's longevity.
Residuals on an operating lease are going to be under market value by default. They presume you will either trade it in and put the gap towards a new car, or sell it on the open market (you will find a lot of ads on auto24 with people offering you to take over the lease).
We lease our vehicles for three years and move into a new one at lease term. One reason is that except for a few miles, the car is fully covered by warranty. The other and main reason is that here a leased vehicle is a total write off as a business expense. I don't know if the tax laws there allow that, but in the US it is almost worthwhile to start a business just to get that perk. Along with the lease being a write off, so are associated expenses like insurance, fuel, maintenance, etc. And it is possible to lease with no money down, being another advantage. Perhaps that shoe will fit also on the other side of the water.
My thought about diesel cars, trucks is that diesel engines do last a long time. Probably longer that the rest of the machine. Therefore, the advantage is for owners who cover great distances. In that case, the initial expense becomes minimal if divided by a million miles or more as with long distance truckers. My loader has probably outlasted gas loaders after several thousand hours on the engine. The Ford has not traveled the miles to have justified the initial extra expense for a diesel engine, even taking into consideration that a similar truck that gets ten miles less per gallon of fuel. But as I said earlier. gas engines on today's vehicles last many miles. I remember the comments from early visitors from Estonia when they saw the mileage on my Toyota. They were stunned that the tires on the Toyota lasted longer than the life span of Soviet era cars then. That was then, but there is no reason a gas engine car should not give you 200,00 to 300,00 miles or better.
All companies who have a sales taxpayer number can get a full sales tax refund on any form of car lease.
Fuel can be deducted, but then you need to pay a steep flat fringe benefit tax, or keep a log (ie, lie about how each trip in the car is an operating expense).
Post a Comment