Daily Driver - £8 - 12k Price Region

[EnzoUK]

Hola lads,

My Lexus IS220d F Sport is nearing end of life - flywheel knocking, clutch on it's last legs, it's been crashed into twice, rear calipers and sliders are seized, and a repair to the rear wheel arch years ago where it was also crashed into is now rusting pretty bad from the inside out. Kind of an end of life vehicle and all repair jobs now outweigh the cost of the vehile while it hops along.

Car is a 2010, on 176k miles now. She's been a warrior.

I know **SOON** it's gonna need to be replaced.

It is a terrible car to drive, though mapped etc... but all that is another topic!

Replacement checklist:

- Ideally good size boot
- Needs to be a saloon / hatchback (airport / tips runs) (already have an M4 coupe as other car)
- Good seats, ideally with nice lumber support.
- Premium sound system
- Nice cabin.
- A car you can be moderately proud of for a daily.
- 190bhp+ so I'm not having my soul destroyed via slowness / boring drive.
- Reliable, and potentially easy to work on so I can sevice and fix things myself as they age.
- Diesel (probably)
- 40 - 50mpg
- Something that isn't going to suffer huge depreciation and annoy me.
- ideally a manual, as I really don't enjoy the detactment with every auto i've ever drive.
- No fear of high mileage with good service history.


Shortlist:
- BMW F30 320d
- BMW F32 420d
- Audi A5 Sportback
- Skoda Octavia?

I really feel the two BMW's kind of hit and tick every box for me... though not ultimately set as already have a BMW.

I drive around 35 miles daily.

Explored some 330e's also, but their reduced boot due to hybrid system and weight put me, the faff with hybrid batteries and potential high replacement costs down the line is ughh... no thanks.

Suggestions welcome, and reason!
I don't really want to finance anything as I hate loans / debt / monthly payments. Prefer low outgoings and all my net in investments.

But I am open to all suggestions if logic can twist my arm in a reasonable way.

Budget is around £8 - 12k.

[MustangGT]

Mercedes with the older 2.1 diesel engines. C Class estate maybe?

[joshcowin]

As a daily workhorse I can recommend a Q5.

I have a v6 tdi (auto), it's very relaxing to drive, has a great B and O stereo. Rear seats fold flat, it's not terrible when you push on.

Not overly complicated mechanically, not that I do anything myself. Get a 13 plate or newer as that then has all the phone Bluetooth and streaming.

I wouldn't suggest this if you didn't have the m4 already. But for the boring everyday miles this is great.

[EnzoUK]

MustangGT said:

Mercedes with the older 2.1 diesel engines. C Class estate maybe?

Don't really have use of the wagon, further than a standard saloon hatch. Will check them out on Auto trader tonight though, cheers.

joshcowin said:

As a daily workhorse I can recommend a Q5.

I have a v6 tdi (auto), it's very relaxing to drive, has a great B and O stereo. Rear seats fold flat, it's not terrible when you push on.

Not overly complicated mechanically, not that I do anything myself. Get a 13 plate or newer as that then has all the phone Bluetooth and streaming.

I wouldn't suggest this if you didn't have the m4 already. But for the boring everyday miles this is great.

Never even thought of these and I am actually surprised at their price point! I did look at X5's but I just felt they were overly big and unneccessary. Will have a look shortly, cheers man!

[CG2020UK]

If you explored 330e how about a Tesla Model 3 if you can charge at home?

Honestly best daily driver we’ve ever had by a considerable margin and we had a from new G21 330e just prior.

Worth a test drive to see how you get on if it works.

[Shnozz]

MustangGT said:

Mercedes with the older 2.1 diesel engines. C Class estate maybe?

I did a fair amount of research and these came out a winner for longevity. Vito vans do millions of miles after all.

[ZX10R NIN]

EnzoUK said:

Hola lads,

My Lexus IS220d F Sport is nearing end of life - flywheel knocking, clutch on it's last legs, it's been crashed into twice, rear calipers and sliders are seized, and a repair to the rear wheel arch years ago where it was also crashed into is now rusting pretty bad from the inside out. Kind of an end of life vehicle and all repair jobs now outweigh the cost of the vehile while it hops along.

Car is a 2010, on 176k miles now. She's been a warrior.

I know **SOON** it's gonna need to be replaced.

It is a terrible car to drive, though mapped etc... but all that is another topic!

Replacement checklist:

- Ideally good size boot
- Needs to be a saloon / hatchback (airport / tips runs) (already have an M4 coupe as other car)
- Good seats, ideally with nice lumber support.
- Premium sound system
- Nice cabin.
- A car you can be moderately proud of for a daily.
- 190bhp+ so I'm not having my soul destroyed via slowness / boring drive.
- Reliable, and potentially easy to work on so I can sevice and fix things myself as they age.
- Diesel (probably)
- 40 - 50mpg
- Something that isn't going to suffer huge depreciation and annoy me.
- ideally a manual, as I really don't enjoy the detactment with every auto i've ever drive.
- No fear of high mileage with good service history.


Shortlist:
- BMW F30 320d
- BMW F32 420d
- Audi A5 Sportback
- Skoda Octavia?

I really feel the two BMW's kind of hit and tick every box for me... though not ultimately set as already have a BMW.

I drive around 35 miles daily.

Explored some 330e's also, but their reduced boot due to hybrid system and weight put me, the faff with hybrid batteries and potential high replacement costs down the line is ughh... no thanks.

Suggestions welcome, and reason!
I don't really want to finance anything as I hate loans / debt / monthly payments. Prefer low outgoings and all my net in investments.

But I am open to all suggestions if logic can twist my arm in a reasonable way.

Budget is around £8 - 12k.

Q70 Sport, the downside is that these are auto (due to the Mercedes drivetrain) only but they tick every other box.

You'll get a nice low mileage example at the lower end of your budget they're easy to work on drive well & will be a nice foil to your M4:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-search?advertisin...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202503260...

If you're looking at the Skoda then I'd suggest test driving an Insignia in Elite Nav spec for me it's the better car:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202505292...

Or the 508:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202508155...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202506173...

CLS250d:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202507314...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202506203...

[confused_buyer]

A 330e in this price range I'd take a barge pole, attach a further barge pole, then attach something to that and still run a mile.

A Model 3 10x better suggestion although a £12k one will be leggy and prices are pretty firm at the moment. Meets the criteria apart from home repairs.

The F30 I don't know if it is me or are they suddenly looking and feeling a really old car, particularly on the inside? Perhaps its just me.

Edited by confused_buyer on Saturday 23 August 17:21

Edited by confused_buyer on Saturday 23 August 17:22

[Matt_T]

You can probably find a Stinger in your price range...
https://www.pistonheads.com/buy/listing/18860342

[the-photographer]

Edited by the-photographer on Sunday 24th August 10:27