@shifter, what sort are you getting when you drive to work? Luckily I’m not in stop-start traffic – it’s either short hops done in 10 minutes or a long journey of one or more hours, on reasonably traffic free roads..

Mid-forties over 12 miles, half town and half dual carriageway at 65ish, in a lighter car (Ibiza). Maybe my expectations are too high but I can get quite close to Vauxhall’s figures in my Astra.

OP – these are bumps to keep your thread going 😉

How many miles do you do per year? How much is short trips rounds town

If you don’t do many miles then I wouldn’t recommend a diesel. The servicing costs are Higher and the engines are more complex and expensive to repair.

I’d avoid the Saab. It’s based on a 14 year old car and the world has moved on

Id be looking at

Octavia estate (golf based so a bit narrower than other cars with the same load space)
Mondeo estate
Focus estate
Mazda 6 estate
Seat exeo – based on the last a4 but not great for load space
Alfa 159 (because it looks niiice)

Would run a mile from anything with an electric parking brake and any vw group dsg (auto) gearbox.

Good luck with that! I called it a day when our Volvo hit 130K miles. The servicing costs were getting ridiculous

Our V70 is just over 130k miles, requires no more servicing than it has for the last 80k miles in our ownership.
Rear handbrakes require a fair bit of attention, has had front wishbones and alarm sounder needs replacing or battery swopping.

I use genuine Volvo parts and change the oil every 5k miles and spanner it myself.

Absolutely brilliant car-probably best I’ve ever owned would buy another tomorrow……..but I bought a 2.4 non turbo petrol-no way would I buy any manufacturers diesel nowadays although I had no option with our van which keeps me awake at night with the threat of diesel related bills!