Hello from Aberdeen, thinking about a Type S diesel

[Dawson]

Hello.

A quick intro. I'm 23 from Aberdeen and currently drive a 2006/06 Focus ST-2 in orange. Under the bonnet lives a lovely Volvo turbocharged 2.5 five which develops around 225bhp and sounds utterly fantastic. Overlooking the interior rattles, the main problem with it is fuel economy, typically returning 22mpg. In January I'm moving into a new home and will be covering 22,000 miles a year so I'm considering changing to something more economical.

The current favourite is a Civic Type S in Nighthawk Black. As a good looking economical sporty diesel hatchback it sounds like it could be a great car to own. Switching to the Civic will save me save me in the region of £200 per month between fuel and insurance costs, which totals a whopping £2400 a year. Big money to a wee nipper like me.

I'm test driving the car on Saturday and if all goes well I'll be ordering one in NHB. I'll reply at the weekend detailing how the test drive went. For now I'll leave you some pictures of my ST to oogle/laugh at. I'm going to miss it....

(clicky for larger versions)


*d

PS. Could I be the youngest Civic owner in the world?

[czechplastik]

No! I'm 21 and i think 'Danko' is younger still. I fancied an ST for a while, but the insurance was just too much

[IWANTACIVIC]

22 mpg ! you must be harmering too much.
yer i like the civic good balance between power and fuel , driveing mine insane for 1,200 miles i got ave of 49.8 mpg so i was impressed . then went on 200 trip with famaly so could not beat it i got 56,7 ( 90% motorway but doing the speed limts so not hanging around) so im very impressed now, so you mite miss the power abit but the cdti goes well and when you think about all the money you will save, you should enjoy it as much as the focus , if not more yer i bet insucance it a bit high isnt ? £1k+ i bet

[Dawson]

Originally Posted by czechplastik

No! I'm 21 and i think 'Danko' is younger still. I fancied an ST for a while, but the insurance was just too much

It's a superb car, but the fuel costs will murder me. It's group 17 insurance so it's not that bad.

Originally Posted by IWANTACIVIC

22 mpg ! you must be harmering too much.
yer i like the civic good balance between power and fuel , driveing mine insane for 1,200 miles i got ave of 49.8 mpg so i was impressed . then went on 200 trip with famaly so could not beat it i got 56,7 ( 90% motorway but doing the speed limts so not hanging around) so im very impressed now, so you mite miss the power abit but the cdti goes well and when you think about all the money you will save, you should enjoy it as much as the focus , if not more yer i bet insucance it a bit high isnt ? £1k+ i bet

22mpg is just normal driving. Drive it hard and it'll sink into single figures/low teens. On a long run it'll achieve 25mpg but that's sticking to the speed limits and driving like you're treading on egg shells.

The money saved will certainly ease the pain of getting rid of the ST and probably be saved towards purchasing a second car. Hopefully something silly.

Insurance on the ST with 2 years no claims and 4 points on my license costs me £800 a year. Changing to something like a Type S should drop this to around £500.

[Dawson]

Update. I ordered a Type S i-CTDI in NKB and it should arrive at the dealers on January the 7th, give or take a couple of days.

[Pottsy]

Dawson - you'll love it. Remember though that for the first 500 miles it will sound like a bag of spanners, and you'll want to chip it to make the most of the diesel fun

[Dawson]

Originally Posted by Pottsy

Dawson - you'll love it. Remember though that for the first 500 miles it will sound like a bag of spanners, and you'll want to chip it to make the most of the diesel fun

I hope so! It'll be the worst decision ever if I don't.

Chipping is certainly an option I'll be considering very seriously after I've got a couple of thousand miles on the car. Step down to the diesel, get used to the different driving technique for a couple of months and then chip it to bring back the grin from the Focus.