Hello collective wisdom I’ve been searching around for a new (2nd hand) motor as the family is now down to one car. We’ve got a journey to South of Italy end of August for 3 weeks so am looking to take the opportunity of seeling the diesel Bravo for £4k and adding to get something bigger.

no matter how much searching is done, i’m either top end of 70Kmiles for a good diesel estate for that bucks, o it’s French – why don’t I trust French cars, am I right to not trust them.

So 4-5 year old,
£7-8K
diesel
Large Hatch/Estate
good MPG figures (can I realistically better 45-50mpg for that money)
some half decent gadgets (esp climate control)

cheers folks

People who buy diesels tend to do more miles than average so 80k or so is pretty normal for 5 years old.

I’d probably buy a Honda Accord or Mazda 6 estate and not worry too much about the mileage. Avensis estate looks slightly better vfm if you don’t mind how they look (although a facelift one should be doable and looks much better). Else Insignia estate is boring but capable and cheap.

I’m in the exact same boat at the moment.
Was looking at Mercs, BMWs and Fords, but think it’s going to be a SAAB 9-3 estate of some sort. The 1.9 diesels achieve 55+mpg apparently, plenty of toys, loads of space and they certainly look the part. A lot of GM/Vauxhall parts used too, so fixing shouldn’t be an issue despite the passing of SAAB themselves.

Would a Touran fall into that budget? Not sure how they hold their price but you might get an SE trim 1.9 or 2.0 tdi, can manage late 40s early 50s mpg if you are reasonably careful.

no heavy right foot anymore (kids) so always quite conservative with fuel. might have a look at pushing 70Kmiles plus

Astra estate. I paid £7.5K for mine in 09, less than 2 years old with 20K miles, top spec diesel, £21K new! Drove it for 4 years went all over europe and it was faultless. Didn’t even lose much in depreciation when I chopped it in last year.

All the toys you might need, if cruise isn’t on the car it’s a £20 stalk and 5 mins on the computer to activate it.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201305146753282/sort/pricedesc/usedcars/engine-size-cars/1-7l_to_1-9l/price-from/500/fuel-type/diesel/price-to/10000/transmission/manual/body-type/estate/model/astra/make/vauxhall/onesearchad/used/onesearchad/nearlynew/onesearchad/new/page/1/radius/1501/keywords/design/postcode/b12ej?logcode=p

Focus estate also good but holds value a bit better.

Volvo V50 2.0D – Cheap to run, no cam-belt change required until 100k miles – Great for gear with a Thule Rack on top for 4 bikes.

Citroen by Parkesiemtb, on Flickr

Citroen by Parkesiemtb, on Flickr

New shape c5 77k on the clock all the toys cost me 7k fantastically comfy car room for oodles of kit and does 45 mpg average in 2ltr diesel.

Yes it’s French but no problems to report and nothing other than servicing and a new battery has been needed since new. Has sat nav stereo with 10gig hard drive electric memory seats dual zone climate control auto wipers lights turning lights double glazing motorised boot open and close and the hydraulic suspension that gives it the comfy ride. Even has a sports button.

Octavia? Maybe a C-max if MPV type preferred

What about that Mazda estate Renton on here was selling, lowish mileage 59 plate and he’d been offered £8k.

Thats was a good idea b r, & it looked very nice too.

Honda F-RV 2.2 diesel. six seats, three up front three in the rear, all adult sized. Plenty of room for bikes. Plenty of leg room, full climate control with full auto setting. cruise control etc etc. Big boot. on a long journey we get around 52-58 to a gallon fully loaded. Engines are amazing and really reliable. our first one had 190000 on the clock before some twonk wrote it off. Passed every mot until it’s demise.

link to some in your area. Link to auto trader

DO NOT buy the 2.0

Crazy idea, don’t get a diesel. Unless you do high mileage you might be better off with a petrol. Last year my worn out diesel estate was replaced with a large petrol hatch back. When I was looking a petrol model car was around £2k and the diesel model with same miles/age was £5k! The petrol version I bought returns 36 – 39mpg and a diesel would do 45-50mpg. Do the maths on if diesel suits you. Also don’t forget petrol actually costs less in the first place and can be better if you do shorter journeys.

Problem with high mileage diesels is everything else on the car will wear out just as fast as the petrol so be sure to check all the other elements of the car and price accordingly.

I’m doing approx. 12K a year so i’m right on the tipping point for petrol vs diesel, though add in the long journey down south 1300 miles and the diesel starts to win favour. As i’m in a household where the bike is seen as the work of the devil (so I too am), massive load lugging isn’t so much an issue and the missus wont drive a massive car.

The Honda FRV I had been a fan of for quite a while, but as this will be the one and only car the missus will go all goey eyed for a badge. My mind has been straying to 08 plate 3 series 320d’s and 318d’s as well – still plenty of space in them and v. good on mpg

Contrary to danrandon above, I’ve had a 2.0 petrol frv for juzt coming up to 7 years and it is fantastic. Granted I only get mid 30’s to the gallon but its easily the best engine I’ve had in a car.

Honda’s really do take some beating.

searches renton

Contrary to danrandon above, I’ve had a 2.0 petrol frv for juzt coming up to 7 years and it is fantastic. Granted I only get mid 30’s to the gallon but its easily the best engine I’ve had in a car.

Honda’s really do take some beating.

Not that there is a problem with the 2l version as it’s still a chain driven camshaft 😀 but i found the economy worse than the 2.2 sport i have.

Really love my Hondas and they just keep on going. In fact my year 2000 Honda HRV was sold back to the dealer for £2500 as they wanted to break it and refurb the parts to sell back to customers

Here is what I would do. I would buy a good quality 5k petrol estate with all the bells and whistles and put the extra 2k towards fuel. Diesels are great if they are bought second hand at 1yr old and chopped in before 70k. As I am finding out with my mondy when diesel system repairs are needed the costs are astronomic. I think if your hammering up and down the motorway they make great sense otherwise for general hacking about short and long journeys petrols make a lot of sense.

I would buy petrol estate.

Look at that for value…

Diesels are great if they are bought second hand at 1yr old and chopped in before 70k

I chopped mine in at 156k and 13 years – the diesel parts all still going strong, just other stuff starting to go wrong. Hence why I happily bought another 4yo diesel with 120k on the clock. I would have more than happily bought a petrol one, but in the several months I was looking I didn’t see a single petrol 3-4yo Mondeo estate in my price range advertised.

I would recommend a Mondeo, but they are the archetypal massive car – having come from a 406 it still feels big to drive.

Look at that for value…

10yo car averaging less than 6k miles a year (likely to be lots of short journeys) and accordingly overpriced? No thanks.

Aracer what was it a VW 1.9 by any chance? They are really quite old tech which is why they are so reliable. Quite hard to find a decent 1.9 tdi at a sensible price these days. In fact the diesel parts are fine and everything else packs up. Agreed the mondeo is big but what a car. I looked for a petrol to chop mine in for but couldn’t find one either. Mind when that 130 hp TDCI is working properly it’s glorious.

VW Passat 2.0 cr tdi 58plated onwards, all previous reliability issues sorted. Not as large as mondingo but good car, just how vw should be.

Aracer what was it a VW 1.9 by any chance?

er, I gave a clue in my post…

having come from a 406

it was an HDi, so not that old tech.

Hello renton here….

Thanks for the mention br.

My car is actually a 2010 60 plate and the 8k I was offered was actually by a dealer chancing his arm.

He has since called me back and dropped the price on the car he is selling and upped my p/x price by quite a bit.

Just to give you an idea…..

Its a lovely motor and will do between 46 – 52 mpg all day long, the misses has no problems driving it and as it has front and rear parking sensors she finds it a doddle to park to.

I am looking at £9.5k no offers for a private sale

Email is stevierenton@hotmail.com if you want to chat.

cheers

Steve

As has been mentioned modern diesels have too many fragile ancillaries that are there to reduce noxious fumes which are prone to expensive failure. Unless you are intending to do >20k miles pa any fuel saving you get with diesel would be more than offset if any of these components go pop. (this coming from a diesel driver)
Personally I would look at something with the VAG TFSI engine that has not been on extended services.

At 12k a year you’re well below the tipping point for diesel and petrol nowadays. The high costs of dual mass flywheel, particulate filters and other components that fail mean that for your mileage petrol is definitely the way to go.

I do like that Mazda.

No contest. BMW 320d touring m sport.
Had one from new kept it for four years ran up 120k. Brilliant. Make sure it has FSH. Try one the handling is better than anything else in it’s class. Tryes can be pricey though depends how you drive!

is that the 2.0 litre bmw that watchdog was on about though ?

If you go for the beemer get the swirl flaps done by a good bmw independent garage. A guy at work has a 52 plate 330D its amazing.

Reading too many reviews is enough to make you think that no car is going to last,

BMW – timing chain issues – expensive – also apparently not much room In the back
Volvo – same again, but also water pumps
VW(Skoda, Audi too) – water pumps, injectors, turbo’s

pinch of salt as I know you will always get iffy cars? My mind is well and truly scrambled (as it’s now family money I have to be sure/careful)

As for the diesel vs Petrol argument – I’ve been playing with figures today (instead of working I might add) and to be honest the argument doesn’t always seem to stack up. Yes some diesels need a good oil service more frequently, 8-10K miles as opposed to 20K (which is insane really), but other than that nothing major s long as the car is looked after. To put it this way i’d save 6 per journey swapping to a bimmer doing high50’s on the m’way – that’s £1300 over the course of a working year.

Renton – cheers for the email buddy, v nice looking car just too much money.

Toyota avensis is the answer 🙂

Buy French expect it to fall apart then when it doesn’t be pleasantly surprised.

I have an A6 2.7tdi Quattro 2007 leather interior and SE trim auto/tiptronic with 100k on it (looks and drives like new) its worth about £6k, so with a bit of work you should be able to do better with your budget. Non franchise serving pretty cheap very reliable super comfortable will do 50mpg on the motorway and 120 on the autobahn for hours on end. Outstanding in the snow. Downside is its a bit big to park in a multi-story.

I would, but the steering wheel is on the wrong side.

That would be so plush bumps? What bumps?

I’m another buy French and be surprised when it doesn’t go too wrong camp.

Mrs Pepper bought a 2009 Renault Laguna Sports Tourer, Dynamique 130Hp for £7K with full service history and only 1 previous owner.

Its a brilliant car, stuff what people say about Renault reliability, they all use exactly the same components, that fail in all the other cars in exactly the same way. This has the Nissan 2lt Diesel engine in and drives really well.