£1500 on a diesel run around

[KasZam]

Hi guys,

First post on here.

I'm after some sort of diesel workhorse. Not a clue what to get. I've had various Vectras over. Most boring car in the world I know lol.

Anyway, similar sized car I'm after. Maybe an estate. Ideally something that'll see about 45-50mpg and something that works. I'd like to get something not Vauxhall and not Ford because of the quite frankly s*** quality inside, but beggars can't be choosers.

Any suggestions? Also, it must have a centre arm rest.

[exelero]

Volvo S60/ v50/v70. Or 5 series, maybe 530d?

[anonymous-user]

If it's just going to be a runaround how many miles will you be doing a year? Even at this end of the market diesels are at a premium and especially at this end of the market can land you with much bigger bills than a petrol so if you're not doing big miles I'd seek out a petrol instead.

[Hainey]

The man above beat me to it, but he is right. On the big venn diagram that is reliability, comfort, frugality and pace that generation of Volvo in D5 spec is very hard to beat.

[Andy-gozd1]

If you're just doing local driving keep away from anything with a dpf on it.

[Hainey]

Andy-gozd1 said:

If you're just doing local driving keep away from anything with a dpf on it.

The Euro 3 Volvo as above doesn't have a DPF. Thankfully!

[FidoGoRetroGo]

MX-5 and a trailer

[brrapp]

There's a reason Fords are common, I wouldn't go past a Mondeo if you're looking for a diesel in that price range.

[SWoll]

charltjr said:

If it's just going to be a runaround how many miles will you be doing a year? Even at this end of the market diesels are at a premium and especially at this end of the market can land you with much bigger bills than a petrol so if you're not doing big miles I'd seek out a petrol instead.

Totally agree with this. The premium you'll pay for a diesel would buy a lot of petrol, you'll never see 45-50MPG at that age anyway, there's a lot more to go expensively wrong and you're limiting your options.

I had a £1500 Mondeo 1.8 petrol snotter a few years back as a commuter/workhorse for 6-12 months. I personally found it far nicer in every way than any of the Vauxhalls I've driven over the years, it didn't miss a beat and returned 40MPg on a run. The estate version is also very practical.