Replacing A6 - X Type, Saab 9-3 Any good ?

[redgriff500]

I'm replacing my wife's A6 Avant its been a great family car but is now on 170k.

It is an Auto TDi 130 and gives 44mpg.

She fancies a change but she doesn't like the:
Old Mondeo & can't afford the new one.
Passat
Octavia

£4-7k must have leather and 5 doors (hatch / estate for the dog)

Must do 40+mpg in the real world.

We've had a look around and she likes the X type estate and the Saab 9-3 estate.

Are these both likely to be decent cars ?

Any other car suggestions ?

Thanks

[BDZ]

You've mentioned the Passat/Octavia, but also consider Skoda Superb. Similar to the Passat but more legroom and more toys for the price generally.

Also you can't mention estates without mentioning V70!

[zcacogp]

My folks had the same dilemma a couple of years back. Budget was a little higher, but was replacing an ancient TDI Golf.

Mk5 Golf was deemed to be too small, and they didn't like the Passat (I think they fell out with the salesman in the showroom to be honest.)

Volvo V40 (I think) was a nice option but deemed too expensive.

I drove a 9-3 turbo diesel for them and really, really wanted to like it but the handling was dire (yes, really) and the torque band of the engine was narrower than my letterbox. (TDi's are notoriously bad in this respect but this one really took the biscuit.) Shame, as I thought they look lovely and were a great place to sit.

Mondeo was probably the best of the bunch. Stupidly good value for an excellent car. Only thing I could fault was that the dashboard centre console was bulbous. But my folks couldn't stomach the idea of having a Ford so walked away.

They ended up with the Octavia. Good car, VW under the skin (which they wanted), reasonable value. It'll do them for another 15 years.


Oli.

[redgriff500]

Volvos don't seem to be able to get the mpg of the other makes plus we had a hideously unreliable XC90 which puts me off.

Her current car has the infamous multi-tronic box which I'll admit isn't the best from stationary but driving the manuals makes me realise just how good the multi-tronic is at keeping the A6 in the right powerband and its seemed much faster and nicer than the manual 130 A6 and the 150 9-3 I've test driven so far.