Help me choose a car

[Borris-Bear]

handing back my company car soon and looking to buy my own and looking for some ideas or any advice on the cars i'm currently mostly drawn to.

Budget is around £12k and currently thinking about a Jaguar XF (ideally a facelift late 2011) or a Mercedes CLS.

Any pitfalls with either of these two options (expensive to maintain or unreliable etc.) or could you recommend any other cars i haven't thought of? Requirements are that it must be 4 door to fit two car seats for the kids and has a reasonable amount of power.

I'm coming from from a BMW 335d and think a 2.0 diesel may feel a bit underpowered also discounting BMWs as i think i'd be annoyed driving an older lower spec car to the one i'm driving now.

thank you

[ZX10R NIN]

Why wouldn't you get another 3.0d? They'll have all the power you're used to & still be well equipped:

XF Premium Luxury

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

CLS350 (be mindful of the later 2.1d's as these have started to show timing chain issues due to a redesign)

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

[Borris-Bear]

yes been looking at the XF 3.0d just wondering if there were any issues to look out for on either car or any other cars i may not have thought about?

[Romp]

why are you handing back a 335d company car to get an older much lesser car?
unless youre doing it to make money out of your car allowance?

after 9 years with a company car (ok cars) I opted out of the scheme and went on pcp for a bmw 520d m sport.

not sure id ever opt out to get an older lesser car

[Borris-Bear]

it was a 1 year special deal due to my companys relationship with BMW which is no longer available so just getting car allowance instead.

Was paying less than £300 per month so not much available on pcp as i dont have a deposit to put down. So decided to buy a car with a car loan then i'm flexible if the scheme reappears in the future rather than tied down to a pcp deal for 3 or 4 years.