Interesting what car from dull criteria! Please help!

[Spares1]

Struggling to find a car that suits the following criteria. Please advise...

45 pence per mile expenses up to 10,000 miles (10 ppm thereafter)

Car used every day at least 25 miles a day, can be up to 200 miles round trips some days.

Has to have a nice interior as I spend most of my time looking at it (2nd office!) handling and performance should be good and reliability is paramount!

Don't need 4/5 doors although happy to have them, I do need a biggish boot as carry a bit of equipment. Would like a coupe or saloon but consider anything.

Don't like fords, vauxhalls, renaults etc anything bread and butter, mundane and heavy depreciating. Don't want a silver diesel insignia!

Interestingly I would consider a petrol but must do north of 35 mpg combined.

Would like as new/modern as possible, although if an interesting 'modern classic' I would hear suggestions, for my MAX £7,000 budget ideally less is best!

Thanks for reading/responding.

[mnkiboy]

Volvo C30 D5? Might not be the greatest handing car ever but will have decent straight line pace, and is a bit different from the norm both interior and exterior. Check the boot is good enough though, as it has a narrow opening.

[Bill]

The handling isn't the best and I suspect the mpg won't hit your target but you could do worse than a Mk1 Audi TT.

[M3DGE]

Saab 9-5 1.9TDi? Massive metal for your money, drives well, unique Saab interior (it's a pre-GM car) - a bit sluggish due to diesel/ size but not terrible, and 40MPG should be easy.

[danp]

Pushing the criteria but an interesting car IMO - z4 3.0si coupe.

265bhp, 1300kg, decent boot.

Combined is 33mpg but my roadster used to do 35/40 easily.

[mnkiboy]

danp said:

Pushing the criteria but an interesting car IMO - z4 3.0si coupe.

265bhp, 1300kg, decent boot.

Combined is 33mpg but my roadster used to do 35/40 easily.

For £7k? Z4's are in budget, but it will be the old shape 230bhp convertible.

[danp]

mnkiboy said:

For £7k? Z4's are in budget, but it will be the old shape 230bhp convertible.

There is a 2006 265 bhp coupe on trader for £7295. 105k on it admittedly!

[mnkiboy]

Didn't realise they were getting that cheap!

[TurboHatchback]

That money would get you a nice Mk5 Golf GTI. The interior is excellent, it has all the performance you could need on the road and the handling is rather good for a fwd car. As for fuel economy I am averaging high 30s to the gallon and often 40+ on longer trips in mine.