General Long distance Panda commuting - good or bad idea?

[Creamola]

I have a new job that will initially involve me commuting to the office 2-3 days a week. The office is about 75 miles away - approx 15 miles of which is A/B roads and the rest Motorway. For various logistical reasons, it looks like (for the first month at least) I am stuck with the Mrs's 1.2 Dynamic.

Does anyone have experience of regularly doing this sort of mileage? Will I regret it (I am 6ft) and will the car break down every week? etc, etc. i.e is this a bad move or will it put a smile on my face?

Thanks,
Creamola.

 

[doblo]

I used to travel 110 miles round trip a day for work with no problems. Mine is the multijet but the petrol should handle it the same.

 

[pandissimo]

First, get a 1200cc motorcycle. If this is not practical then your 1.2 will be fine, although on motorways you may wish for a little more urge and a little less road noise. I haven't driven a Multijet, but imagine it would answer the urge issue.

As to comfort, I'm 6' too and have no problems with the Panda, with its adjustable seat height and steering wheel height. Occasionally on long motorway trips I miss the comfort and peace of my Mercedes C230 Kompressor, (with Sport Pack) but I don't miss the running costs, the depreciation, the 'we don't give a $£*!k ' attitude of the Merc dealers, or the difficulty of finding safe parking and hoping the wheels are still on it when you return.

So I keep my Panda. Any thoughts of buying another premium saloon are dismissed by the fact I can hire a large new Volvo estate for thirty quid a day, and not have to pay service charges, road tax, depreciaton or insurance.

Will your Panda break? There are few tales of breakages here as you know, but you will wear out tyres and clutches, use oil, and wiper blades. And you will have to budget for extra servicing, plus depreciation if you buy another car. Depreciation on a new £6000 Panda over the first year is around £2400.

If you commute 3 days a week for 50 weeks you're paying £48.00 A DAY in depreciation to use that car in the first year. Plus road tax, insurance and servicing.....

A small hatch can be hired daily for £26.00. less if you negotiate a regular user discount.


Tricky, huh?

 

[santa]

...If you commute 3 days a week for 50 weeks you're paying £48.00 A DAY in depreciation to use that car in the first year. Plus road tax, insurance and servicing.....

A small hatch can be hired daily for £26.00. less if you negotiate a regular user discount.


Tricky, huh?

I think you have miscalculated there. If you drive 3 days a week for 50 weeks, it's 150 days of driving. If depreciation is £48 per day, it totals to (150 days*£48=) £7200 for the first year. Not quite the £2400 you mentioned earlier. It should more likely be £16 per day (£2400/150 days = £16 per day).

Unless of course my math is totally wrong

 

[pandissimo]

I think you have miscalculated there. If you drive 3 days a week for 50 weeks, it's 150 days of driving. If depreciation is £48 per day, it totals to (150 days*£48=) £7200 for the first year. Not quite the £2400 you mentioned earlier. It should more likely be £16 per day (£2400/150 days = £16 per day).

Unless of course my math is totally wrong

Sorry, yes, you're right, £16.00 a day. I was interrupted by a neighbour chopping down a tree in my back yard. It's my tree,

Where were we? Plus road tax= £85/150= 0.56 pence. My insurance is about £150.00, so thats an extra £1.00 per day. Servicing plus bits like wipers and spare oil was about £160.00 this year. Call it £150.00/150, so we get:

£16.00
£0.56
£1.00
£1.00
-------
£18.56, plus petrol and a bit more for tyres and one of those Tree shaped Air-Fresheners. Call it £19.00.


Hmmmm... Of course, you get to use the car for the rest of the year too, and these figures don't mean much if you keep the car for three years.

On these figures nobody in their right mind would buy a new car..

Anybody want to come up with the figures for years two and three?

 

[pantastica]

Or you can keep the car until its driven into the ground, my previous car was a Seat Cordoba 1.6 SXE bought new in 1996 and replaced this year with a Fiat Panda 2006 bought cash and I attempt to have it for the next ten years. So depriceation is not an issue for me. A modern car will easily last for ten years if you do regular maintenance, I had no breakdowns with the Seat, just regular service.

 

[Z11]

Hi Creamola,

My partner and I traded in a 60,000 mile, 3 yr old Punto for a brand new Multiject Panda in November 2006 - She has already driven nearly 9k miles, she commutes once a week to Cardiff from Dorchester and once a week to Bristol and then once a month to Yorkshire and it also gets used everyday for the school run and most weekends we also go away.

It has proved very reliable so far, and it is fantastic on the Diesel - Generally the computer tells you that it's averaging between 58 and 66 mpg - but doing the correct mileage / litres calculations myself I find that the computer is overestimating by about 3 mpg each time.

But thats just fine as any car that only costs £50 a year to tax, does over 55 mpg and capable of 95 mph gets our vote.

Oh, nearly forgot - We are taking it - or is it taking us ! - to Hungary on the evening of the 16th feb.

Now that should give it a 'proper run'. Have done it many, many, many times before in allsorts of large engined vehicles, and twice on a bike - This will certainly tell us if it's comfortable on a long (1107 miles each way) run.

 

[bobian81]

i commute from near howden east yorks to bradford every day in a multijet diesel panda, I am also 6ft 3 ins, I have no problems whatsoever, the economy is the best I've had in any car, 60 + to the gallon.
I never feel uncomfortable when I get out of the car.
Since fiat launched the new panda in 2004, it is beyond belief that they didnt start off with a diesel panda.
In my oppinion its the best small car I've ever owned, you wont have any problems with your commute, the engine is bullet proof.

 

[Creamola]

Thanks to you all. Brilliant input - I really appreciate it. Unfortunately you all seem to enjoy commuting in the Multijet - but of course this is the 1.2 - which might be a different proposition...

However, we do need another larger family car and noting one of the comments about the Grande Punto in another thread, I went out on Sat and bought a Ford Focus to do the commute in. Sorry... but the M4 is a wild, wild, place and the NCAP 5 star on the Focus was particularly attractive - even though the car isn't.....

We'll still keep the Panda though - and as others have mentioned - I would trade the whole lot in for a Multijet 4X4 any day.

 

[mountainmachine]

The Focus is a nice drive if you got one of the 'healthier' variants ie 1.6 and up, and will cope well with the commute.

 

[thefishdude]

i have had the 1.2 as a courstey car. engine wise and performance its a hoot to drive fun and reasonably lovely and handles the dual carrageway 70mph runs i done in it fine.

comfort wise it wasnt good. im 6ft 1 and big with it. and there is no way i could handl a long journey the prob i have is with the leg room not hight of leg but the width. i found the corner of the console were the gear lever is dug into the side of ma leg when i had in my normal position for driving. also i i rest my elbow on the window ledge when i drive lol and found the window ledge of the panda was uncomfortable and not in right place lol

 

[Creamola]

The Focus is a nice drive if you got one of the 'healthier' variants ie 1.6 and up, and will cope well with the commute.

Yes - it is the 1.6LX. I get a petrol card with the new job and it covers private and business mileage and as the tax (on the petrol card) is based on the CO2 - I needed to get something as low as possible - but in a car large enough to fit the family.

Mind you, the current company car (which now needs to go back) is a Verso T180 - so I think I am going to notice the difference in the right foot department....

Now if only I could somewhere with those Philips X-Treme Power light bulbs in stock - I'll at least be able to see where I am going in the Focus.....