20k ish to spend, what’s the most reliable car out there?

[StefanYHU]

Hi ladies and gents,

So to cut a long story short, I’m looking for a car for my wife, she does 400 miles a week give or take and all B roads.

So the important bits

1. Reliability - she likes range rovers but at the same time she complains when any light come on in the dashboard and I can’t be bothered listening to her…..plus she in a profession where a business cannot operate unless she is on the premises, so if she breaks down there are big issues for everyone.

2. Something reasonably fast and large in size - she has been eyeing up bmw 640d gran coupes, however I am unsure how reliable these are and I’ve very bad experiences with diesel BMW’s

3. Must be a diesel


Are 640d gran coupes reliable?

All opinions appreciated

Thanks!

[FSEngineer]

needs to be reliable? Forget BMW

There's definitely some crossed purposes here. As far as I can tell the hit list is:

- Reliable - it's business critical
- Fast
- Large
- Suitable for 20k miles annually, mostly on B-roads
- Diesel
- £20k budget

I could be wrong here, but I do wonder whether the car you're after actually exists. You can get a big fast diesel for the budget, but it definitely won't be the best tool for B roads and I doubt it would be reliable - and you can probably get close to the hit list generally, but not within budget or close to it...

I'd suggest working out which of those requirements are most important. You mentioned range rovers, they aren't fast and certainly aren't reliable - and you don't get much for £20k. 640d Gran Coupes are nice but again not reliable, and yes they're "large" but not really in a usable or practical way.

What's it actually going to be used for? Is she a mobile vet or an accountant? Something that's perfect for one would be completely useless for the other!

[otolith]

The "diesel" bit is at odds with the "reliable" bit. Lexus still does really well in reliability surveys, but they don't do diesel. If you want fast, and you want diesel, you're probably looking at Germany, and the impression of engineering integrity there is living on past glories.

[fflump]

Generally newer cars are more reliable.

Something like a 2021 Focus 2.0 EcoBlue ST (190 ps) might be a balance of the various things you are after.

A bit bigger, a bit faster, a bit older and a bit more of a risk would be a 330/335d. Cracking diesel engines.

A Volvo S90 D5 is another option if size is important.

[Silvanus]

otolith said:

The "diesel" bit is at odds with the "reliable" bit. Lexus still does really well in reliability surveys, but they don't do diesel. If you want fast, and you want diesel, you're probably looking at Germany, and the impression of engineering integrity there is living on past glories.

I'd be looking at a hybrid Lexus, something like an RX 450h