What executive type car for commuting miles?

Hi Chaps,

I may be facing a long’ish commute on motorway miles, so need to get something to eat up the miles. Looking at secondhand, and between £7k and £10k… been looking at things like Volvo S30, Saab 9-3… something a bit executive and comfy.

Any recommendations of something I should really be considering?

(This is to supplement the Mid top Mk7 Ford Transit I have, which isn’t really the right vehicle for commuting).

Cheers

Ricks

Mk7 is a comfy thing for the miles 🙂

Whats the problem noise or fuel?

I’d probably go for something diesel and auto with cruise. Then whichever has the comfiest seat.

I’d probably go for a company that still exists!

A decent Mondeo diesel will give you some room and comfort at a decent price, although a Volvo V50 diesel was my car of choice for a long time.

Passat diesel, but get the B7 with tdi engine.

Coming from the left field grab a merc clk 320 diesel full of barge goodness pokey and much more pleasing as a bit of road art than a mondeo..

I’ve got a golf diesel for a 50 mile each way commute

A3 S-Line Sportback 2.0 170
Half leather, cruise, DSG, towbar, 70k miles, one owner.
£8250 puts it on your drive 😉

<stw cliche>

My A4 2.0 tdi is lovely for my weekly drive to London and back. Cruise control, very quiet and comfy and gets between 55 and 60 mpg.

It is now 9 years old, with 150k on the clock, but still smooth as anything.

Dave

</stw cliche>

The comfort/quietness of a proper sized Exec is on different planet to mid-sized cars.

Best one I’ve had for distance, speed and all-round comfort/safety was a big-engine Omega. A E39 came second. Both are old now though.

And a 9-3 is just a re-engineered Vectra. So just get the Vectra (which I have now).

Lotus Elise

VW Phaeton. 3.0 TDI or 5.0TDI. My ex boss had the 3.0 and it is the comfiest and most relaxed car I’ve ever been in. On a par with A8 and S class.

In your price range too.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/search/used/cars/volkswagen/phaeton/postcode/bd62jx/radius/1500/price-to/10000/fuel-type/diesel/price-from/7000/onesearchad/used%2Cnearlynew%2Cnew/page/1/sort/locasc

For pure comfort and quietness i would go for a BMW or Mercedes. VW and Audi are ok options but no where near as refined. Avoid anything with sport contact low profile tyres as they add a lot of road noise.

Phaeton is a very good call!

Think of it as a testbed for some of the stuff that ended up in Bentleys and Bugattis rather than a posh Passat. As above, it’s S-class luxury on a budget.

However, don’t rule out an older luxo-barge like a S Class. Some really good high milers can be picked up for next to nothing. As long as they’ve been well looked after, they’ll go for ever!

Failing that, see if you can pick up a mint W123 diesel. It’ll still be running silkier than a cashmere copdiece after the apocalypse. Super comfy autobahn-storming comfort and some old skool cool to go with it! 😀

Think big. RS6 is your only option.

Lotus Elise

Possibly the least pleasant car I’ve ever driven on a public road.

I’m surprised no one has mentioned a Skoda Octavia VRS diesel.

Lexus?

I have a 3-series and its the best put together car I’ve ever owned. Very quiet at motorway speeds although for a long commute I doubt you’ll be wanting the 3l straight six I have! That said, I can easily get well over 400 miles out of a tank doing motorway driving.

Other (cheaper) suggestion would be finding a really good, really late (the odd one knocking about on a 57 plate) Mondeo ST TDCI. Its almost my default answer for questions like this but I did 35k in 18 months in my old one and it was an absolute pleasure. If it wasn’t for the fact we wanted an auto, we’d have possibly got another last month when we got rid of our Octavia.

Diesel Octavia vRS? While my old Octy vRS was a good car, I don’t think it was any better put together than my old Mondeo was and at 80k+ it started to fall to bits whereas I bought my Mondeo at over 80k and ran it towards 120k and it still felt as solid as when I got it.

Lotus Elise

Possibly the least pleasant car I’ve ever driven on a public road.

Now you don’t actually think I was being serious do you? Do you?

Any modern diesel sedan should do the job, 3 series, mondeo, c lass, volvo s40 or 60.

They all cruise well, are nice and quiet to be in on the motorway and if maintained can get over 150 thousand miles with few issues.

You pay your money and take your chance.

Mazda 6 Sport 2.0D is right in your price range. Got all the comfy bits, 4 years old, 65K miles when I bought it last year, £8K

It’s been great over the last 20,000 (my annual mileage)

Bit of an under the radar option IMO – every bit as good as an Beemer 3 or 5 or an A4’just cheaper to buy.

I have a 3-series and its the best put together car I’ve ever owned

+1 I’ve just handed back my 150k 320d SE (59 plate). Very quick (considering), and a nice place to be. I travel a lot for work with regular four hour (non-stop) drives. Always arrive feeling pretty good. Also very economical considering once on the motorway I’d set the cruise control to more than the speed limit, sit back and blast North (I do my major journeys at night when there is considerably less traffic). I got 620+ out of a tank easily and saw 700 a couple of times when driving like my Gran.

I’ve currently got a 70k 318d MSport (60 plate) on loan from the lease company while waiting for my new vRS TDi to arrive. Sharper handling and no noticable discomfor on my long motorway journeys. Down points: nowhere near as quick as the 320, I have to work it much harder through the gears and it’s considerably less economical than the 320 – according to the on-board mpg doofer, I’m averaging 42.8mpg it’s about 3 tank fulls since I last reset it (320 was 49.2mpg).

We considered a Mazda6 Sport but ruled it out because in absolutely no way was it every bit as good as BMW (or an Audi we were considering).

I also considered a new Mazda 6 to replace the BMW above. I had one for a weekend and did my long 4 hour commute in it. Cracking engine, loads of space, but I couldn’t walk when I got out at the other end. Shame really. If the budget could have stretched a few £100, I could have had the Sport version with the comfy seats.

*IF* you get a Mazda 6, watch out for the versions around 2006/2009 that have the DSC – a very expensive fix (around £1800) and a common problem. This only relates to the last model, not the current one.

(Same applies for the 3 and 5 of the same age too)

With that budget, BMW 520d ca. 2008.
Or of course the RS6.
I paid £9k for my 996 911 and it was lovely to drive. Not sure I’d want to be stuck in traffic in it though.

Jaguar XJR. Perfect.

Jaguar XJR

Blimey, they’re expensive for the new models, and the older ones have pretty expensive costs associated for repair – circa £400 an end for wishbones when the bearings go :0

Interesting that everyone is pointing at a bigger saloon, rather than a smaller car for noise and comfort.

It’s going to be an hour each way, but like I said mostly motorway.

Big Merc or BMW diesel – preferably over 3L. Lots of performance and comfort and reasonable fuel consumption.

I would recommend also considering whatever you choose with AWD/4 WD /4 motion/Quattro drivetrain so when the motorways get snarled in bad weather you can head for the a and B roads and still get home. I also recommend 3 litre plus engine normally aspirated so no turbo worries, how many people do you see flying down the motorway dashing into the services and killing the engine with no thought for their turbo! Perhaps because I was careful with mine is why it had done 190000 on the original turbo and was still going strong.

I would recommend also considering whatever you choose with AWD/4 WD /4 motion/Quattro drivetrain putting winter tyres on in winter so when the motorways get snarled in bad weather you can head for the a and B roads and still get home.

FTFY 🙂

In the 3 years I’ve owned my Merc and despite living in Scotland there have only been about 5 days tops when having winter tyres would have been useful, so I just carry a set of the autosocks instead.

In the 3 years I’ve owned my Merc and despite living in Scotland there have only been about 5 days tops when having winter tyres would have been useful, so I just carry a set of the autosocks instead.

Really? I’ve had to brake unexpectedly quite a few times in cold weather.

Do you have an understanding of how cold weather tyres work?

Really? I’ve had to brake unexpectedly quite a few times in cold weather.

I’ve never had any problems with traction on normal road tyres in cold conditions. No accidents or even near misses that could be attributed to traction.

Hmmm, 15hrs to go from ‘what car for?’ to ‘winter tyres’. V slow. STW has gone soft.. 😉

I’ve never had any problems with traction on normal road tyres in cold conditions. No accidents or even near misses that could be attributed to traction.

I’ll take that as a no then, Steve

I hope your good fortune continues 🙂

peterfile – it’s never been an issue. I do adjust the way I drive according to conditions though, so I doubt it’s just good fortune… I suspect that there are as many conditions where winter tyres would be outperformed by normal tyres (I’m not sure I have summer tyres on my car). Anyway if you drive fast enough you can get plenty of heat into the soft tyres I use, even on cold days!

I’m not against the idea of winter tyres (I used them when I lived in Munich) but haven’t seen enough of a need for them here considering how infrequently they’re a factor and how much it’d cost to fit them.

For big miles in total comfort with incredible reliability it’d be hard to beat a Lexus GS300
I know it’s petrol but theyre bombproof (mechanically speaking of course)

peterfile – it’s never been an issue. I do adjust the way I drive according to conditions though, so I doubt it’s just good fortune.

You reduce your driving speed when it’s colder than 7 degrees?

🙂

I was more having a pop at the suggestion that you’d need to buy 4wd to get around when it’s snowy.

You reduce your driving speed when it’s colder than 7 degrees?

Nope – increase it, to get heat into the tyres… 😉

how much it’d cost to fit them.

Doesn’t cost much. Buy wheels and tyres together, then swap them yourself. Initial outlay is more of course but each set lasts twice as long so you’re not really out of pocket at all in the long run.

Some of the cars posted here would cost you an arm and a leg in fuel, and servicing/parts.

I would go for a slightly newer Passat/Mondeo/Accord/Avensis, whichever you prefer. The petrol heads will call them boring, but we are talking about motorway miles, the only sensible way to make motorways interesting is to put the radio on and chill out imo. So you want quietness and comfort.

My neighbour bought a 55 plate 530d a couple of years ago for ten grand, and it’s a lovely car. Another colleague bought a high mileage A6 for the same price – that was very quiet but the ride was rather firm, possibly due to it being the eco label.