I need a diesel car to replace my Opel Astra

I currently drive a 2008 Opel Astra SXI with 44,000km on the clock. I commute in to Blackrock everyday from Maynooth and with the recent increase in petrol prices I just wonder if is worth my while, as it's costing me €80 a week in petrol, plus tax, insurance etc. I'm thinking of changing cars, to a diesel model. How much do you think I would get for a private sale or trade-in on the Astra?

Any suggestions on what to get instead? I really love the Astra, so ideally something similar in drive and style. Would it be worthwhile looking at the diesel Astra?

Chloe Walsh (Maynootth)

Mar 2011 Filed under: diesel

---

Expert answer

Hi Chloe,

The fact that you really seem to like your car would signify that perhaps you should simply change to the 1.7-litre diesel SXi version of your car and save yourself a few quid in the process. You will probably get around €11,000 - €11,500 for your car at current market prices, but that should leave you well placed to replace it with a diesel model without too much trouble.

There weren't too many SXI models in Ireland with diesel engines but there do appear to be a few Vauxhalls imported with this spec that might work for you unless you had any particular objections to driving a Vauxhall over an Opel. 

You could have a diesel version for in and around the same money so perhaps you could even get into a slightly newer model if you were prepared to invest a few more quid, but since money saving seems to be the aim here then maybe just swap into a diesel. 

Aside from that you could perhaps look at getting a Volkswagen Golf BlueMotion, which is incredibly fuel efficient. This would make a great buy for you really and something like this would be very cheap to run. 

I hope this helps,

Complete Car Adviser