My A6 is now over 200k and I’m looking for something slightly smaller. I usually buy ex-lease, 3 years old. Looking at 3-series touring, Volvo V60 – what else should I be looking at? I do quite a lot of miles for work so it has to be comfortable.

A4 🙂

The current V60 has a tiny boot

3 series, A4, Passat, Octavia, Mondeo, Avensis

Loads of sensible cars in that class, really depends on budget and how much you’re looking to spend.

3 series is great to drive long distances, but even the tourer version you will find the boot space small.

How about the 5 series tourer?

Skoda Superb? Not sure if it is smaller as it has a huge boot but it may be shorter overall as the A6 does seem a stupid size for the interior space you get.

Skoda Superb saloon has a huge amount of leg room in the back even with the seats right back not sure about the boot as it’s a mates car and I haven’t had a rummage around.

I love our V60. Boot is more than adequate and its lovely to drive

I’ve got a 3 Series Touring – boot is adequate but gets full of bike very quickly – engine (2 litre petrol) is underpowered though – once it’s moving its ok…

Would I buy another? Yes, but it would have to be a bigger (diesel) engined, M Sport jobbie….

I recently changed from a MK5 Golf to e91 3 Series Tourer. It’s a 2 litre petrol like frackit and it’s a comfortable cruising car. It has the M-Sport spec so looks pretty good to my eyes.

After having diesels for the last 10 years it’s nice to get back into a car that runs really quietly. The only downside is the cost of the tyres are the rears are an obscure profile in run flats so come in around £230 a tyre. I’m looking to changing to normal tyres but will need to do all 4 at the one time, after looking into it you can run normal and run flats on the same car.

So far getting 34 mpg.

Burnsybhoy – I generally buy tyres from mytyres.net or blackcircles.com – much cheaper – generally pay sub £100 a corner, then get a local fitter to bung them on.

I wouldn’t move away from Runflats without checking with my insurers first – it’s changing the manufacturers spec of the car in a fundamental way.

Off the wall,
Hyundai i40 estate
Jag XF estate
Alfa 159
random ideas but one might float your boat

@frackit cheers mate I have been looking around, it’s the rears that are weird. 255/35/18.

Cheapest on mytyres.net is £205.30 for a Pirelli P Zero and best price on black circles.com is £210.49 for a Yokohama Advan Sport.

Octavia VRS diesel esatate. Had mine for 6 months. Bloody awesome. Nearly went for a 3 series but the boot was way bigger and the engine sounded nicer on the Octy. The 330d touring though is a peach !

V70?

I’ve just got myself a 13 pl!ate Peugeot 508 estate, 2L diesel. Huge boot, great MPG and cheap tax. The build quality seems spot on, mind you, my last car was an Alfa!

Thanks for all the suggestions. The only one that really tempted me was a 159 – I really quite enjoyed a 33 Cloverleaf that I had 20-something years ago. In the end I saw what appeared to be a very tidy V60 with a good spec so I’m giving that a try. It seemed OK on the test drive, picking it up tomorrow.

Nice. As much fun as the Alfa will be a bit of practicality won’t hurt. It’s such a crime those Cloverleafs where so badly built as you can imagine how popular they would be now as weekend cars if there where any left.

3 series estate here, lovely drive and big enough for my needs. Its my second, the last one had close to 200k miles on the clock.

I have the e91 320d and I get 52 MPG average with 50% of my time on motorways and 50% in town and b roads. No cambelts to change and conditional servicing means the running costs are reasonable.