Thinking of buying a new Fiesta. Was looking at Zetec 1.25 5dr, but now wondering if I'd get payback (in terms of reduced fuel & road tax bills - possibly even insurance) with an Econetic. It would be mostly my wife driving - she does a lot of ferrying around of the kids. Fairly suburban driving. I've read that the theoretical figures aren't achieved, but has anyone here done the analysis against a bog-standard 1.25 petrol?

As has been said in another thread Don't forget the DPF fitted to the ECOnetic, although this won't be a problem if you are doing a 20min journey at 50+MPH so the filter has a chance to regenerate. As for the fuel economy, it's all in the driving style, I know people with ECOnetics that are consistently getting 75-80MPG no problem. The only other question I would ask is how many miles are you driving? The Diesel cars are more to buy & maintain not forgetting that the price of diesel is higher than petrol, I would say if you aren't doing 15K per year Diesel would work out more expensive. Yes the diesel tax disc is cheaper but it always amazes me how many people spend thousands upgrading their cars to save a hundred quid a year!!