New dive car

[Martin Owen]

For economy the Passat estate TDi (110 bhp) is the one to go for, this will return up to 60 mpg, but if its power you want then the TDi (130 bhp) is the best, but expect to loose 10 mpg for the economy.
The 110 is more than quick enough tho' IMO.

For ease of loading your kit an estate is a must as there is no lip to lift it all over.

[NotDeadYet]

You can pick up Merc diesel C-class estates for £3-4k if you don't mind looking like t'owd mon gawn t'bowling club. Huge boot and pretty good fuel economy.

A few years ago I had an old style Jeep Cherokee with an LPG conversion. Absolutely massive boot, cheap to run, very comfortable, very fast, reliable, handled more like a car than a 4x4. You can get them for £2-4k pre-converted to gas, was working out about 12p/mile so not dissimilar to a normal petrol car costs. I'd heartily recommend one, avoid the Grands or newer Cherries though as they are awful. 18k miles was nothing to one, I used to do about 40k a year in mine, they happily run to 250,000 and beyond.

Subarus make good dive cars as well. I've had two Legacy estates and an Impreza estate. Incredibly reliable, fastest cars I've owned, all did about 35mpg on petrol. The non-turbo versions still have all wheel drive, tons of space in the back (even the Impreza, it's deceptive) and are brilliant to drive. Again, they'll eat miles (both my Legacies were at 120k and not even a splutter) and you'll easily get one for £3k.

But if you can avoid the VAT (or recover it) then I'm a big convert to vans for diving. Cheap to insure, cheaper to tax, cheap to run, good fuel economy, masses of space and a lot harder to knacker by chucking stuff about in it.

Cheers,

Stuart

[endoman]

Thanks all for the advice, given me a good starting point,

I was looking at a few LPG options, but don't know huge amounts about it's availability. Have a mate who had one, and he loved it, but needed a larger van to fit his windsurfing and kite surfing stuff inside.

[Horndog]

How about the Saab 9-5 Estate, you can easily get a good one for less than £3k, there is a choice of 2.0t (bit low powered) 2.3t or 3.0t petrol engines. There is also a choice of 2.2 or 3.0 TDi engines(but may be hard to find for less than 3k). These cars regularly run up to 200K with minimal problems, interiors are very well equiped and well built, service every 12k and are good cars to drive
Marc

[Woz]

Originally Posted by NotDeadYet

But if you can avoid the VAT (or recover it) then I'm a big convert to vans for diving. Cheap to insure, cheaper to tax, cheap to run, good fuel economy, masses of space and a lot harder to knacker by chucking stuff about in it.

Oooooooo bloody good point. If I didn't need 3 seats I'd have a van. They're brilliant for diving.

[tom]

Originally Posted by woz

If I didn't need 3 seats

you could always get your arse liposuctioned, then you'd only need one seat like the rest of us

[dry suit diver]

Originally Posted by NotDeadYet

A few years ago I had an old style Jeep Cherokee with an LPG conversion. Absolutely massive boot, cheap to run, very comfortable, very fast, reliable, handled more like a car than a 4x4. You can get them for £2-4k pre-converted to gas, was working out about 12p/mile so not dissimilar to a normal petrol car costs. I'd heartily recommend one, avoid the Grands or newer Cherries though as they are awful. 18k miles was nothing to one, I used to do about 40k a year in mine, they happily run to 250,000 and beyond.

But if you can avoid the VAT (or recover it) then I'm a big convert to vans for diving. Cheap to insure, cheaper to tax, cheap to run, good fuel economy, masses of space and a lot harder to knacker by chucking stuff about in it.

Cheers,

Stuart

I am with stuart on this one, I have a N plate cherokee on LPG get about 18-20 mpg on gas on a long run, which combined with the fact that LPG is abooot half the price of petrol gives a reasonable MPG. went to scapa in it this year with all the kit and clobber needed for a week for 2 divers on twins and there was oodles of room, they are going quite cheap in autotrader at moment as lots of people think they are bad news for the wallet but they are not that bad.
LPG stations are dotted all over the place- they even have one in wick !!!! so running out is never an option rreally.

failing that my other dive wagon is a 51 plate octavia and that gives 65mpg on the long runs and never less than 40 in town. the estate versiion is bigger but the hatch has ooodles of room.

[NotDeadYet]

Originally Posted by Woz

Oooooooo bloody good point. If I didn't need 3 seats I'd have a van. They're brilliant for diving.

I've got a double cab Isuzu pickup through the company, 4 door, 5 seats and very generous on space inside, a lot bigger than the L200 double cab I had. It's got 1000kg of load space so gets the "van" designation.

Bloody brilliant it is too, 3L turbo diesel engine but it does near enough 40mpg on the motorway, 4wd at the touch of a button and makes you look like a pikey (handy for me).

Originally Posted by dry suit diver

LPG stations are dotted all over the place- they even have one in wick !!!! so running out is never an option rreally.

I drove to Scapa in mine as well. IIRC there's quite a few up north of Inverness on the way to the ferry. Make sure you fill up before getting on the ferry as there are none in Orkney. There are plenty of stations on the motorways and usually the more rural you go then the more LPG stations there are. I bought mine mainly for going to France in because they have far more of a network there than here. The downside is that you have to plan long journeys around LPG stations in the UK.

Cheers,

Stuart

[Digger]

Why not put in an offer on the NDC's minibuses? They've been heffing dive gear around for ages. I reckon you could get one for £3. THen spend the other £2,997 on booze and diving.

Digs.

[Bantam]

Originally Posted by Horndog

How about the Saab 9-5 Estate, you can easily get a good one for less than £3k, there is a choice of 2.0t (bit low powered) 2.3t or 3.0t petrol engines. There is also a choice of 2.2 or 3.0 TDi engines(but may be hard to find for less than 3k). These cars regularly run up to 200K with minimal problems, interiors are very well equiped and well built, service every 12k and are good cars to drive
Marc

You must have had the only 9-5 on the road that didn't need to go to visit the saab dealers every fortnight.
my old man has a 9-5 griffin which although it's powerful, drives like it's got porridge steering and jelly suspension, and now it's got 100k on it sounds louder than my agricultural diesel pathfinder.

Surprisingly he's getting rid of it soon to replace it with one of those new shaped jags that looks like a cut and shut marriage between a mondeo's arse and a lexus front end

For 3k, you'll be able to pick up a decent 51/52 plate estate diesel from someone like peugeot, vw or even audi.