Potential new owner

[Jonost24]

Hi All, looking to get a second car to travel to work, approx 22 miles per day.
I've liked the DS3 since it was launched and now this has given me the possible reason to get one.

I have a budget of about £5-6k. I like the idea of great mpg of the diesel and minimal/no RFL, but is approx 110 per week worth it,
or should I consider the petrol variant? I've heard horror stories about petrol & diesel engines, but that happens with all makes of car.
Some people change the oil on diesels about every 10k?

Any advice would be more than welcome,

Cheers, Jon

[Jo67]

Hi. I came from diesels to a petrol and for the miles I do (below 100 a week), it's made no difference to me really. I've got the 1.6 THP and over the whole tank's worth I get 42-43mpg every time. I was only getting 45-46mpg out of a 2.0 diesel. Road fund licence can be paid monthly now so that's only about £12/m. When I made my decision between diesel and petrol, I went with how the car felt to drive. I liked the petrol better so I had it. Unless you're doing long journeys, I don't think it makes that much difference over a year between the cost of petrol and diesel but I suppose it depends how much you micro manage your money. We all have different priorities. As for the cost of upkeep, IMO that's always fluid and depends on lots of factors not necessarily under your control (previous life of the car, the way you drive/maintain it, sheer luck).
No doubt you'll get plenty of pros and cons from the wide range of owners on here, but there's my tuppence worth to get started.

[BenS]

HDi (Diesel) - Very very reliable, comes as 90bhp or 110/115bhp (both 1.6 I think)

VTi (Petrol) - Also pretty reliable, available as 1.2 (82bhp) 1.4 (95bhp) or 1.6 (118bhp)

THP (Turbo Petrol) - Has a few horror stories, gut instinct says avoid one if you want trouble-free driving. 22 miles per day won't get you good MPG unless it's mostly motorway miles. Available as 1.6 150/155bhp, 165bhp, 200bhp.

New Puretech (3cyl eco-turbo petrol) (probably too new for your price range) - Not been around long enough to build up any fault history, but good reviews so far. All are 1.2, in 110bhp or 130bhp.

[lfcrule1972]

Personally I owned the eHDi 115 DS3 and it was a great car with the miles I averaged a year (between 22k and 26k) and had no issues with diesel particle filters etc

I also had it remapped and it was at 145bhp so zippy with average mpg around 56 and free road tax. However once my average mileage went to around 12k a year the diesel was less essential hence my change back to petrol.

If it were me I'd think seriously about whether you need a diesel with the low annual mileage you do. I'll leave others to discuss the pros/cons of owning a petrol DS3

[Jonost24]

Thanks for the replies guys. I think if I was doing maybe 15k+ miles per year diesel would probably be the way to go.
I have a Mountune Focus with about 270 bhp, and get sub 20 mpg pootling round , to about 35 mpg on a decent run, so 40-45 would be a step up in mpg.
The 1.6 VTi sounds like a good option with a bit more zip and decent mpg.

I'll keep a look out.

Cheers

[BenS]

I have the 1.6 VTi and get an overall 38 MPG being quite throttle happy a lot of the time. Could easily get 45 if I drove properly lol.

[Jonost24]

Cheers Ben, that's useful info

[WTF]

Hi All, looking to get a second car to travel to work, approx 22 miles per day.
I've liked the DS3 since it was launched and now this has given me the possible reason to get one.

I have a budget of about £5-6k. I like the idea of great mpg of the diesel and minimal/no RFL, but is approx 110 per week worth it,
or should I consider the petrol variant? I've heard horror stories about petrol & diesel engines, but that happens with all makes of car.
Some people change the oil on diesels about every 10k?

Any advice would be more than welcome,

Cheers, Jon

How are you getting on with your engine/spec choice?

[bazf]

Hi All, looking to get a second car to travel to work, approx 22 miles per day.
I've liked the DS3 since it was launched and now this has given me the possible reason to get one.

I have a budget of about £5-6k. I like the idea of great mpg of the diesel and minimal/no RFL, but is approx 110 per week worth it,
or should I consider the petrol variant? I've heard horror stories about petrol & diesel engines, but that happens with all makes of car.
Some people change the oil on diesels about every 10k?

Any advice would be more than welcome,

Cheers, Jon

Similar situation but do even less miles than you. Coming from a Honda Civic 1.8, so MPG around town is probably 30 or under. Got around £6k-£7k to spend so probably looking at 11-13 plate with 25k-35k miles on the clock. Wary of reading too much into the 'faults' section on here as it does look pretty extensive, expecially buying 2nd hand with no warranty. Lots of cars I've looked up on Cazana seem to have failed MOT for worn tyres/brakes and Nearside Track rod end ball joint has excessive play. Should I be worried too much by this? I'm not really a 'car' person, but just looking for opinions really Thanks

[BenS]

Wary of reading too much into the 'faults' section on here as it does look pretty extensive, expecially buying 2nd hand with no warranty.

I think most of the serious faults you mention are with the THP (petrol DSport engine). Minor ones like exhaust brackets or temperature sensors or suspension coils that are common to all the range are cheap to affordable fixes. Disc brakes just wear out over time, on any car, so not a fault at all.

The most popular option for high MPG and still very nippy seems to be the diesel DSport with the e-HDi 115 engine. The petrol non-turbo VTi models are decent in terms of MPG and are a cheaper initial purchase, but are a little flat on performance.