Estate for £6k-ish
Discussion
This requirement comes up quite often. Answers often include:
Octavo mk2 vRS
Legacy spec B
Mondeo 2.5T titanium X if you can find one.
A4/A6 or Passat with the same engine as the vRS.
Volvo v40 with the Ford 2.5T.
Saab 9-3 Aero
Saab 9-5 Aero (very rare in manual)
Insignia with the 2.0T (217BHP) is supposedly a very good engine. I would have liked to have found/tried one of these before I got my Mondeo. These perhaps represent the best chance of a bargain/newest car.
Not sure a 545i is a very good idea. If diesel is allowed then a 330d with the ZF6 auto.
I would just Google N52 vs N53 engine bay to look for clues if you are set on an E91. Manual estate 330i's are rare.
All prices are up since Covid sadly.
Octavo mk2 vRS
Legacy spec B
Mondeo 2.5T titanium X if you can find one.
A4/A6 or Passat with the same engine as the vRS.
Volvo v40 with the Ford 2.5T.
Saab 9-3 Aero
Saab 9-5 Aero (very rare in manual)
Insignia with the 2.0T (217BHP) is supposedly a very good engine. I would have liked to have found/tried one of these before I got my Mondeo. These perhaps represent the best chance of a bargain/newest car.
Not sure a 545i is a very good idea. If diesel is allowed then a 330d with the ZF6 auto.
I would just Google N52 vs N53 engine bay to look for clues if you are set on an E91. Manual estate 330i's are rare.
All prices are up since Covid sadly.
Ntv said:
You're looking at some cars with potentially quite large running/fixing costs on a small budget?
Yeah, my thinking is that I buy a cheaper car and use the money I'll save against a new car to run it / repair it. My last two cars were brand new but that meant a monthly cost. I don't do a huge amount of miles so it was very frustrating having a new car sitting on the drive while making huge monthly payments on it. Wildcard.....Lexus IS300 "Sportcross"?
3.0 V6, 211bhp, RWD, Auto, all the toys, fairly quirky & rare, well built......and i'm not sure you'll beat it reliability wise. Downsides of course will be mpg, tax, insurance, potential parts cost etc, but nothing too horrendous.
On a similar vane, i'd be looking at a Subaru Legacy or Outback.....again to obtain maximum reliability.....with the added bonus of 4WD on those.
I'm not sure I'd want to be getting involved with anything German, or even European, at that price point.....you just know big bills lurk round the corner on something like an A4 or 3 series......but that's just me / my experience.
3.0 V6, 211bhp, RWD, Auto, all the toys, fairly quirky & rare, well built......and i'm not sure you'll beat it reliability wise. Downsides of course will be mpg, tax, insurance, potential parts cost etc, but nothing too horrendous.
On a similar vane, i'd be looking at a Subaru Legacy or Outback.....again to obtain maximum reliability.....with the added bonus of 4WD on those.
I'm not sure I'd want to be getting involved with anything German, or even European, at that price point.....you just know big bills lurk round the corner on something like an A4 or 3 series......but that's just me / my experience.
MattyD803 said:
Wildcard.....Lexus IS300 "Sportcross"?
3.0 V6, 211bhp, RWD, Auto, all the toys, fairly quirky & rare, well built......and i'm not sure you'll beat it reliability wise. Downsides of course will be mpg, tax, insurance, potential parts cost etc, but nothing too horrendous.
On a similar vane, i'd be looking at a Subaru Legacy or Outback.....again to obtain maximum reliability.....with the added bonus of 4WD on those.
I'm not sure I'd want to be getting involved with anything German, or even European, at that price point.....you just know big bills lurk round the corner on something like an A4 or 3 series......but that's just me / my experience.
I have come across the IS300 in my searches. Weird car but I'd consider it. There's very few to choose from though. I doubt it's much fun to drive though.3.0 V6, 211bhp, RWD, Auto, all the toys, fairly quirky & rare, well built......and i'm not sure you'll beat it reliability wise. Downsides of course will be mpg, tax, insurance, potential parts cost etc, but nothing too horrendous.
On a similar vane, i'd be looking at a Subaru Legacy or Outback.....again to obtain maximum reliability.....with the added bonus of 4WD on those.
I'm not sure I'd want to be getting involved with anything German, or even European, at that price point.....you just know big bills lurk round the corner on something like an A4 or 3 series......but that's just me / my experience.
I've looked for Subarus, including a Forester but again there aren't a lot about at any price point. Especially if I wanted something that's not a boggo spec (I'm thinking Spec B for the Legacy). And I have to factor in the higher tax brackets and insurance that Jap cars seem to come with.
Regarding reliability, it's really hard to know what to do. I've seen horror stories for just about every car including the apparently bulletproof jap cars. For example I was looking at a Subaru Forester STI a while back and found a lot of talk about one of the 2.5l engines that are just waiting to blow up and cost thousands to repair. Then again there are plenty of those still knocking about at well over 100k so there has to be some decent ones.
I would hope that it's just a case of luck and finding a good example rather than entire brands being reliable/unreliable. Appreciate that looking at more "sporty" cars at a low budget will come with its disadvantages though. Not many people go on forums and post about the car they owned for 80k miles that never put a foot wrong but a lot of people will be straight on the forums if they have a problem.
ElectricSoup said:
That came up in my search a while back. It's too slow and I bet it's rather boring to drive.Edit; apologies if that reads really negatively. Thanks for having a look. While I'm sure Accords are good, reliable cars I don't think they're for me. I'd like something that's a bit more of a driver's car. If i'm paying £340 road tax for the privilege of owning an older car with a high co2 output or whatever, but doing hardly any miles (<5k I reckon), I'd at least hope it's fast!
Edited by mjf1 on Monday 2nd August 11:40
mjf1 said:
That came up in my search a while back. It's too slow and I bet it's rather boring to drive.
Edit; apologies if that reads really negatively. Thanks for having a look. While I'm sure Accords are good, reliable cars I don't think they're for me. I'd like something that's a bit more of a driver's car. If i'm paying £340 road tax for the privilege of owning an older car with a high co2 output or whatever, but doing hardly any miles (<5k I reckon), I'd at least hope it's fast!
Your responses to the last couple of Japanese suggests have indeed been a bit negative, but pretty fair to be honest. The Lexus, Outback and Accord will all be "safe and trusty plodders" - having owned an accord for a few years and driven an IS300 on more than one occasion, none of these will set your world alight. Nor are they quick. Dependable yes. Exciting, no.Edit; apologies if that reads really negatively. Thanks for having a look. While I'm sure Accords are good, reliable cars I don't think they're for me. I'd like something that's a bit more of a driver's car. If i'm paying £340 road tax for the privilege of owning an older car with a high co2 output or whatever, but doing hardly any miles (<5k I reckon), I'd at least hope it's fast!
Edited by mjf1 on Monday 2nd August 11:40
Your probably going to go German for what you need? If so, all good, but certainly spend less up front and keep a few quid to one side for the odd electrical fault, replacement wheels and suspension components, tyres ,tracking etc etc. - anything stiff with big wheels and low profile tyres comes with it's downsides on UK roads....
mjf1 said:
ElectricSoup said:
That came up in my search a while back. It's too slow and I bet it's rather boring to drive.Edit; apologies if that reads really negatively. Thanks for having a look. While I'm sure Accords are good, reliable cars I don't think they're for me. I'd like something that's a bit more of a driver's car. If i'm paying £340 road tax for the privilege of owning an older car with a high co2 output or whatever, but doing hardly any miles (<5k I reckon), I'd at least hope it's fast!
Edited by mjf1 on Monday 2nd August 11:40
https://forums.m3cutters.co.uk/threads/e91-bmw-335...
I’d try and beg borrow or steal a bit extra and get this
I’d try and beg borrow or steal a bit extra and get this
Insignia Elite 220
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202107084...
Mondeo Titanium X Sport 240
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202106153...
V50 T5 SE Lux 230
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202107255...
T6 SE Lux 280
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202107265...
S4
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202107165...
525i M Sport 220
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202107195...
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202107084...
Mondeo Titanium X Sport 240
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202106153...
V50 T5 SE Lux 230
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202107255...
T6 SE Lux 280
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202107265...
S4
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202107165...
525i M Sport 220
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202107195...
The N53 engines have black engine covers...earlier N52s have silver.
I bought a 59 plate manual 525i n53 at the start of the first lockdown for £3.5k, before prices got silly. The good news ended there
Like you I'd planned to keep some funds back to fix niggles, but after £250 on fuel injectors (or, as BMW say: one fuel injector) and with 5 more to go, suddenly the man maths aren't so great.
With dodgy fuel or nox systems forget the mid to upper 30 mpg... you're talking low 20s., but without the performance to match. The 525i is reasonably brisk but not "fast"...a generic diesel SUV thing can walk away from it at dual carriageway speeds. It needs revving hard to get any urgency, and unfortunately imo the aural benefits of the petrol 6 is masked by the (very good) sound deadening. The refinement is one of the car's strong points though...above similar age ford quality I think. Handling is good for its weight, but it's still 1.8t...
The manual box is also nothing special.. it's notchy, and reverse can be hard to find sometimes (my car has 124k miles, so might just be me).
So it's rattle free, refined and feels grown up/hides its age well.
Alternatives for me were
- insignia turbo: couldn't track down
- Mondeo 2.5t - same
- accord VTEC 2.2 looks about long in the tooth
- Saab 95 aero...rust was really starting to attack the ones I saw
- Merc 6 cylinder petrols non existent, and older e class look very dated. Newer c class estates all poverty spec diesel or ultra high mileage.
If I'd doubled my budget maybe a superb V6? The S4 looks good, as it's the same mpg I'm getting but far more umph. Or perhaps swallow my pride and by a decent spec TDI, as dual carriageway pulling power is probably where it will matter most for a large estate car, rather than 0-60 times.
Not sure I'd chance a BMW V8 on a budget. I suspect BMW's reputation for engineering quality can be attributed more to their marketing department than their engineering department...
Hth
Ian
I bought a 59 plate manual 525i n53 at the start of the first lockdown for £3.5k, before prices got silly. The good news ended there
Like you I'd planned to keep some funds back to fix niggles, but after £250 on fuel injectors (or, as BMW say: one fuel injector) and with 5 more to go, suddenly the man maths aren't so great.
With dodgy fuel or nox systems forget the mid to upper 30 mpg... you're talking low 20s., but without the performance to match. The 525i is reasonably brisk but not "fast"...a generic diesel SUV thing can walk away from it at dual carriageway speeds. It needs revving hard to get any urgency, and unfortunately imo the aural benefits of the petrol 6 is masked by the (very good) sound deadening. The refinement is one of the car's strong points though...above similar age ford quality I think. Handling is good for its weight, but it's still 1.8t...
The manual box is also nothing special.. it's notchy, and reverse can be hard to find sometimes (my car has 124k miles, so might just be me).
So it's rattle free, refined and feels grown up/hides its age well.
Alternatives for me were
- insignia turbo: couldn't track down
- Mondeo 2.5t - same
- accord VTEC 2.2 looks about long in the tooth
- Saab 95 aero...rust was really starting to attack the ones I saw
- Merc 6 cylinder petrols non existent, and older e class look very dated. Newer c class estates all poverty spec diesel or ultra high mileage.
If I'd doubled my budget maybe a superb V6? The S4 looks good, as it's the same mpg I'm getting but far more umph. Or perhaps swallow my pride and by a decent spec TDI, as dual carriageway pulling power is probably where it will matter most for a large estate car, rather than 0-60 times.
Not sure I'd chance a BMW V8 on a budget. I suspect BMW's reputation for engineering quality can be attributed more to their marketing department than their engineering department...
Hth
Ian
mjf1 said:
I'd like a reliable but fairly fast estate for a maximum of £6.5k.
Requirements are really just that it's at least 3 series/A4/C-class size, has some go and is reliable, powered by petrol and ideally manual but would consider an auto if it's a decent enough box.
The autotrader search I seem to keep doing is:
-Max price 6.5 or 7k
-Min power 200bhp
-Estate
-Petrol
I've looked (online) at quite a lot of 2005-2008 BMW 325i/330i tourings. They look nice, will have to test drive a few. Some are relatively high mileage but also appear to have a good history.. Even the odd 545i has come up, the V8 one. Tempting but I don't know much about BMWs and that seems like a bigger risk than a 3 series in my head.
Anything specific to look out for with the above BMWs? I've read things about N53 engines having various problems but it's hard to tell exactly which engine a particular car has fitted to it as all I can find is that the N52 was "phased out" around 2007. I also found some threads about the N52 being decent, example https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&... but found conflicting opinions elsewhere on the internet as you'd expect.
Which other cars should be on my radar?
Thanks
Requirements are really just that it's at least 3 series/A4/C-class size, has some go and is reliable, powered by petrol and ideally manual but would consider an auto if it's a decent enough box.
The autotrader search I seem to keep doing is:
-Max price 6.5 or 7k
-Min power 200bhp
-Estate
-Petrol
I've looked (online) at quite a lot of 2005-2008 BMW 325i/330i tourings. They look nice, will have to test drive a few. Some are relatively high mileage but also appear to have a good history.. Even the odd 545i has come up, the V8 one. Tempting but I don't know much about BMWs and that seems like a bigger risk than a 3 series in my head.
Anything specific to look out for with the above BMWs? I've read things about N53 engines having various problems but it's hard to tell exactly which engine a particular car has fitted to it as all I can find is that the N52 was "phased out" around 2007. I also found some threads about the N52 being decent, example https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&... but found conflicting opinions elsewhere on the internet as you'd expect.
Which other cars should be on my radar?
Thanks
I can't recommend any BMWs at that price, but here are some alternatives
Audi A4 Avant 2.0 TFSI Quattro
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202106274...
Vauxhall Insignia 2.0 16v Turbo
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202105082...
Mercedes C280
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202104231...
Volvo V50 T5
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202105142...
Audi A4 Avant 2.0 TFSI Quattro
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202106274...
Vauxhall Insignia 2.0 16v Turbo
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202105082...
Mercedes C280
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202104231...
Volvo V50 T5
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202105142...
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