Best of all worlds car advice - £15-20k

Original Poster

102 posts

94 months

Monday 16th September

This forum helped me back when I bought my current car, a 2016 XF RSport 180d, so belated thanks if I never got round to updating you!

Its now in the mileage / age zone where I'd like to chop it in. (high 70kmiles) and I should get £8-10k trade in for it, with another £5-10k I'm willing to add.

Looking for an equivalent really, although I would go smaller as I no longer need to worry about an oversized buggy, as long as rear room is OK for the childseat and her legs and potentially a passenger in the back. Boot should be able to take a set of golf clubs though (bought a Jag, took up golf, considering a flat cap, barbour jacket and shouting angrily from the Kent coast soon) or my mother in laws small wheel chair).

Tempted by plugin hybrids, but more keen just to ditch diesel because with a couple of school runs a week, the gym, and golf, most of my driving has dropped to >5mi journeys and I only supplement that with 1 day in the office every week (25miles) and the occasional 3hr jaunt down the m40.

Comfort still needs to be a factor, as does a little bit of fun when it's just me in the car.

Mostly just want trouble free motoring, don't mind doing little bits myself, have serviced the Jag myself and done brakes for example, but when the thing starts to threaten to cost real money, I'd rather skip it.

The mrs has a fear of estates, possibly due to it speeding up my descent into old-man-hood, but that's not a hard stop if I want one. The car needs to look reasonably premium as it does get used (judged) by customers.

Cars I've looked at so far:

320i (apparently a little gutless)
320d (only because of the above)
330e (charge control unit issues are a worry though)
same as above but in 5 series size
Alfa Romeo Giulia (reliability issues?)
C Class and E Class Saloons, mostly petrol (I'm less familiar with Merc model names/numbers)
Skoda Octavia VRS (had one before and liked it, but will feel like a step back from the XF i think)
Other VAG cars suffer from the same as the interior just reminds me of the Octavia, but some of A4s and A5s seem to fit the bill
The standout though is the Arteon that I really like to look of and has a nice rarity factor that makes up for it being wrong wheel drive.

I really just need to narrow it down, so any advice on reliability of particular models/powertrains would be great, but if anyone has any wild-cards to throw in I'd be most appreciative.

17,407 posts

202 months

Monday 16th September

https://www.pistonheads.com/buy/listing/16866322

I don't think I'd be worrying about mileage.

Mammasaid

4,321 posts

104 months

Monday 16th September

Volvo S60 (or V60 if you need more space)

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202409103...

Original Poster

102 posts

94 months

Monday 16th September

Mammasaid said:

Volvo S60 (or V60 if you need more space)

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202409103...

I've looked at Volvos before and found them quite dull to drive, but I was mostly put off by the touch-screen-only interface.

Original Poster

102 posts

94 months

Monday 16th September

AB said:

https://www.pistonheads.com/buy/listing/16866322

I don't think I'd be worrying about mileage.

You mean the miles the car's done? or mpg?

Maybe not, but I do need to factor in insurance group...

Original Poster

102 posts

94 months

Tuesday 17th September

Anyone got any views of the 2l petrol engines in the Mercs and BMWs?

Or an easy way to spot the later revision of the charging unit on 330e?

VeeReihenmotor6

2,341 posts

182 months

Tuesday 17th September

darrenham said:

.. keen just to ditch diesel because..

Comfort..

as does a little bit of fun..

..Mostly just want trouble free motoring..threaten to cost real money, I'd rather skip it..

.. reasonably premium..

.. advice on reliability of particular models/powertrains would be great, but if anyone has any wild-cards to throw in I'd be most appreciative.

I think you should consider a Tesla Model 3 LR.

It's in your budget and meets all of the above criteria. They don't even need servicing annually so meets you trouble free cheap motoring.

Master Bean

4,010 posts

127 months

Tuesday 17th September

MK 7.5 Golf GTI.

Original Poster

102 posts

94 months

Tuesday 17th September

VeeReihenmotor6 said:

I think you should consider a Tesla Model 3 LR.

It's in your budget and meets all of the above criteria. They don't even need servicing annually so meets you trouble free cheap motoring.

I have as much of an image problem with Tesla as the wife does with Estates. I'm also not sure I'm ready to go the full electric route for our bigger car, maybe for the smaller one when my wife's 08 Civic finally dies.

There's also a thread on here titled "EVs no one wants them"

Original Poster

102 posts

94 months

Tuesday 17th September

Master Bean said:

MK 7.5 Golf GTI.

Boot space is all that's putting me off these, I think if I was looking at Golf GTIs I'd go for another Octavia VRS instead, getting more toys and loads more space for less money.

ZX10R NIN

28,381 posts

132 months

Tuesday 17th September

CG2020UK

2,027 posts

47 months