Commuting options

[Big H]

It's almost all motorway miles I believe

Have to do Galway to Citywest maybe once a month for the day and while yes, it's motorway most of the way, once you hit say Kilcock @ 7am, it can be a crawl, like 1st and 2nd gear for a lot of the remainder - soul destroying (maybe Covid has changed that as i haven't done that journey since Feb).....

Although if I was resigned to getting myself a (relatively) economical diesel cruiser I'd be more excited by something like a RR Sport!

So you want to arrive to work every day in the AA van with the RR on the back then....

[318 iS Cosmos]

I would definitely recommend a trial run if you can. Based on my own experience, it’s not something I would ever consider again. My commute (albeit a mixture of car and public transport) was 2.5 hours each way at a minimum, I had 2 kids under 1 at the time and was working on a very stressful project. I lasted about 2.5 years before I ended up moving back to Dublin!


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[dergside]

I can only speak for myself here, but much as I love driving, I suspect that the ‘enjoyment’ of an M or the like would soon wear off.

I know we had some debate on this when Ketron was looking at a replacement for the 135i but I really feel that the 2 highest priorities for this kind of mileage is refinement (long legged and comfortable) and somewhat cost effective? Keep a separate ‘leisure’ car for the weekends, etc.

A couple of weeks ago I found myself doing a North Donegal-Tipp and Tipp-Dublin (return) in a 24 hour period - just short of 800kms. I did it on the e60 and got out of the car without being crippled, etc. I can only imagine the state of my rib cage and kidneys if I had done the same in the Z. Do something like that a few days a week and I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be feeling that the Z was a treat.

That’s a personal opinion, of course, but based on a decent variety of cars, regular journeys, etc over many years.

[CitizenKane]

Have to do Galway to Citywest maybe once a month for the day and while yes, it's motorway most of the way, once you hit say Kilcock @ 7am, it can be a crawl, like 1st and 2nd gear for a lot of the remainder - soul destroying (maybe Covid has changed that as i haven't done that journey since Feb).....

This is exactly the type of detail that I hadn't really thought about which is why it's great to hear from people with first hand experience (rather than basing the commute time on a Google Maps estimate without factoring in the time of day...).

I think it will be interesting to see the long-term effect of Covid on traffic. On the one hand more people will be working from home, but on the other hand those that commute might be less inclined to use public transport.

So you want to arrive to work every day in the AA van with the RR on the back then....

Point taken, maybe not the most sensible option!

[CitizenKane]

I would definitely recommend a trial run if you can. Based on my own experience, it’s not something I would ever consider again. My commute (albeit a mixture of car and public transport) was 2.5 hours each way at a minimum, I had 2 kids under 1 at the time and was working on a very stressful project. I lasted about 2.5 years before I ended up moving back to Dublin!


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Thanks for the insight. Is that 2.5 hours each way when you were commuting from Kilkenny? If so that really doesn't bode well for a commute that is nearly twice as long as that..

[CitizenKane]

I can only speak for myself here, but much as I love driving, I suspect that the ‘enjoyment’ of an M or the like would soon wear off.

I know we had some debate on this when Ketron was looking at a replacement for the 135i but I really feel that the 2 highest priorities for this kind of mileage is refinement (long legged and comfortable) and somewhat cost effective? Keep a separate ‘leisure’ car for the weekends, etc.

A couple of weeks ago I found myself doing a North Donegal-Tipp and Tipp-Dublin (return) in a 24 hour period - just short of 800kms. I did it on the e60 and got out of the car without being crippled, etc. I can only imagine the state of my rib cage and kidneys if I had done the same in the Z. Do something like that a few days a week and I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be feeling that the Z was a treat.

That’s a personal opinion, of course, but based on a decent variety of cars, regular journeys, etc over many years.

Hard to disagree with the logic of any of that to be fair. Again I am coming at this from someone who's never really had any commute, so I really have no idea how quickly I would get sick of it (probably very).

A guy I work with commutes from Newry to Dublin most days in an F80 and he doesn't mind it, but again that's still not really a comparable commute to the one I'm considering.


If refinement and (relative) cost effectiveness were my priorities, does anyone have any recommendations for something that would best tick these boxes (BMW or otherwise) assuming a budget of say 20-25k? Another guy I know commutes in an Audi A7 and he raves about how good it is for that purpose and I can see the appeal of something like that too.

[NickThePartsGuy]

I drove from Carlow to Dublin everyday for the best part of 18 months in my E90 330d and it does about 42mpg
their great motorway cruisers

[Curran]

(rather than basing the commute time on a Google Maps estimate without factoring in the time of day...).

There is a setting on Google Maps that you can set your departure time and day on....it based the calculation on the average over the past few weeks.
So while you may have checked it at 3pm on a Saturday and its saying 2hrs, you can quickly change it to 5.30am on a Monday and it might report 3hrs...handy function!

I think I'd struggle to use the M135i from Shannon on a daily basis. Would a 640d tick more of the boxes than a 3 or a 5?

[318 iS Cosmos]

Thanks for the insight. Is that 2.5 hours each way when you were commuting from Kilkenny? If so that really doesn't bode well for a commute that is nearly twice as long as that..

Yep. That included - driving to the station, train from Kilkenny to Heuston, bus from Heuston into town then walking to Grand Canal from Trinity.
I did drive in occasionally but the M7/N7 was a disaster.


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[Obriener2054]

I have a Range Rover sport and have done a few long drives in it.... I do be near broke after 3 hours.... I do like to be well inclined to sit well leaned back in a seat which the RRS isn’t suited for .... get about 333 mpg on a motorway run in one ... 2.7tdv6