Advice Needed: best motorway cruiser for £2kish

[farmershort]

Hi All,

First post here, so please excuse me. I always look here for my cars, and I decided it's time I jumped in properly!

I'm after some advice, and if you're anything like me, I imagine a fair few of you quite like recommending cars for other people.... a bit like the "ready, steady, cook" of automobiles.

Anyway, I'm about to start a new job, which involves a long motorway commute twice a week. I've done the sums, and based it looks like a petrol car actually works out cheaper. I'm basing this on 35mpg for a petrol (on the motorway run) and 50mpg for a diesel. I'm also factoring in that a diesel seems to cost about £1000 more than the equivilant condition petrol car.

Anyway, maths aside, I could really do with your advice on what my money would be best spent on. I have been dead-set on a saab 9-5 aero estate, but they're hard to come by with the right level of service history. I wouldn't even consider buying one without a service history. I've also been limiting my search to manuals, estates, and cars which are generally 2002 or newer, with less than 100k on the engine.

basically my requirements are thus:

Reliable (meaning I can't afford for it to break down every 5,000 miles!)
Youthful (enough to cope with me putting 20k - 25k miles on it a year)
Big Comfy Cruiser (I've driven quite a few cars in my time, and the most comfy yet have been a saab and an old volvo)
Estate (if at all possible! I'm a scuba diver, and a hobby farmer, so the more space the better)
Capable of 35mpg on the motorway
Plenty of poke (currently drive a dying Ford mondeo ST24 170bhp)
Not a V engine - too many potential expensive problems.
Cost around £2k. I dont mind stretching to £2.5k for a shining example.


Ok, I think that's about everything covered. I'm flexible on the estate thing, but I would prefer it to be an estate.

Thanks all for reading, and fingers crossed your years of experience will help me out!

Thanks

Adam

[Roadrunner23]

Volvo S60

[farmershort]

Roadrunner23 said:

Volvo S60

thanks, I have looked at the S80 actually, but the S60 comes in estate form (by which I mean the V50/70), so might be a better shout indeed.

Edited by farmershort on Wednesday 18th May 20:47

Edited by farmershort on Wednesday 18th May 20:49

[magpies]

I say welcome to another SCUBA diver - deffo need something to take all the gear!!!

you may be struggling for 'big' and not a 'V'

[farmershort]

magpies said:

I say welcome to another SCUBA diver - deffo need something to take all the gear!!!

you may be struggling for 'big' and not a 'V'

well, the 'V' thing comes from my garage tbh. They keep giving me a telling off for buying things with daft engines. I'm sort of with them up to a point. and the 2.3 4 pot in the saab aero gives waaayy more than the V6 in my old mondeo, so I was happy with that. Now that I'm struggling to find the right saab though, perhaps I need to re-think...

saying that though, are there any V's which can *actually* do 35mpgs regularly? the mondy only gets about 32mpg on a really really good run.

EDIT, thanks for the welcome!

[hornetrider]

E39 523/8i Touring.

Or, if not estate, E38 728i. Massive boot.

[Nik Gnashers]

I was going to suggest a BMW E36 328i touring, but you wanted something newer.
Dont see why you shouldnt consider oone though, they are well built, better than more modern cars tbh, and perfect for what you are looking for.
Close to 40mpg at motorway speeds, plenty of poke, straight 6 (not a V), reliable and extremely comfy.

Edited by Nik Gnashers on Wednesday 18th May 21:06

[hornetrider]

ie

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/2822435.htm

or

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/2542774.htm

or

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/2741077.htm

[farmershort]

Nik Gnashers said:

I was going to suggest a BMW E36 328i touring, but you wanted something newer.
Dont see why you shouldnt consider oone though, they are well built, better than more modern cars tbh, and perfect for what you are looking for.

at this point, I'm pretty open minded tbh.

One or two things concerns me though - I've never owned a bmw, so I know bugger all about the availability of cheap parts, etc. Also, I've always gone with the "traditional" car advice, i.e. if buying a petrol, it should have done less than 100k. All of these old things seem to have done well over that, and it worries me that I'll be putting on plenty of miles of my own. surely a younger engine is going ti survive better?

Thanks

[farmershort]

hornetrider said:

ie

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/2822435.htm

or

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/2542774.htm

or

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/2741077.htm

they do look good mind! love the service history/story with the 130k miles one, but like the condition of the 92k miles one. hmmmm, now you've got me thinking.

[hornetrider]

Well... to give you my experience. I've bought my first ever BM, a 728i for 850 quid a few months back, its done 116k and I have to say its as sweet as a nut. Bought to munch commuting miles, currently getting 34mpg cruising at 80 in utter silence along the motorway, I've put 4k miles on it in 2 months and it hasn't missed a beat. It's not mint but everything works and its perfect to eat up the miles in. There's plenty for sale with high mileages so frankly, I'm not worried about it.

[farmershort]

hornetrider said:

Well... to give you my experience. I've bought my first ever BM, a 728i for 850 quid a few months back, its done 116k and I have to say its as sweet as a nut. Bought to munch commuting miles, currently getting 34mpg cruising at 80 in utter silence along the motorway, I've put 4k miles on it in 2 months and it hasn't missed a beat. It's not mint but everything works and its perfect to eat up the miles in. There's plenty for sale with high mileages so frankly, I'm not worried about it.

That's good to know, thanks. I've also never owned an auto, so that's another unknown for me. driven a few old uk ones, which were awful. drove a brand new one in the usa last year - that was terrible! everyone keeps telling me that modern(ish) uk ones are pretty good now, so I should try a few.

is there much difference between a 528 touring and a 728, in terms of ride comfort, etc?

[Nik Gnashers]

farmershort said:

Nik Gnashers said:

I was going to suggest a BMW E36 328i touring, but you wanted something newer.
Dont see why you shouldnt consider oone though, they are well built, better than more modern cars tbh, and perfect for what you are looking for.

at this point, I'm pretty open minded tbh.

One or two things concerns me though - I've never owned a bmw, so I know bugger all about the availability of cheap parts, etc. Also, I've always gone with the "traditional" car advice, i.e. if buying a petrol, it should have done less than 100k. All of these old things seem to have done well over that, and it worries me that I'll be putting on plenty of miles of my own. surely a younger engine is going ti survive better?

Thanks

The 2.8 straight 6 is a very reliable engine, and if serviced when needed, will go on to 250k miles with ease. The things which do go wrong on these are suspension bushes mainly.
Bit biased as I have owned a couple of E36, currently have a 328i coupe which is a peach of a car.

[Yachtworker]

All I know is I put over 75K trouble free miles in the utmost comfort on a top spec 1995 Volvo 850 2.5 20v estate and she came to me with 115k on the clock.

The volvo you could sit in all day with no aches, went well and the 5 cylinder sounded great when wound up, only niggle was the boot door trim was a bit ropey and I used a few sets of front tyres.

carried my entire life in it more than once, I checked online the other day and its still running so must be over 250K by now.

[hornetrider]

farmershort said:

That's good to know, thanks. I've also never owned an auto, so that's another unknown for me. driven a few old uk ones, which were awful. drove a brand new one in the usa last year - that was terrible! everyone keeps telling me that modern(ish) uk ones are pretty good now, so I should try a few.

is there much difference between a 528 touring and a 728, in terms of ride comfort, etc?

It's my first auto as well and it's perfect for the car - it just works. Auto is perfect for bargey commuting. As for 5 series v 7 series, both very wafty and swallow miles with aplomb. First time I drove an E39 I was very impressed. Try one out and see if it suits you.

I'm by no means a BM fanboy (even though I come across as one!) - like I say, its my first one and cost lesss than a grand! Can't go wrong!

[chrisr29]

E36 323i Touring. Mines done 163k and runs sweet as. Load bay is surprisingly vast. Easy to work on and parts cheapish from GSF etc.

[farmershort]

OK, I'll check out some *28 beemers. Although, the fuel economy stats on auto trader do look a bit tight.


anything else I should be considering? I did think a subaru legacy 2.0 sport would be a good shout, but they seem to only be 125bhp.... I may as well walk!

[davidjpowell]

If your doing miles, given your criteria I think a Volvo of some description will be hard to beat. Saab 9-5 estate might also be an option.

Personally I stayed away from BMW's in this price range as I thought the Swedish cars were better value for money, with newer lower mileage better equipped examples available. You do lose out on the 'fun' element though.

[5paul5]

Classic impreza turbo wagon, job done.

[Matt UK]

hornetrider said:

E39 523/8i Touring.

Or, if not estate, E38 728i. Massive boot.

Totally agree.

Also, from a reliability viewpoint, I'd much rather a bigger n/a V engine (or straight in this example) than a blown 4 pot.