Fun estate for not much cash

[S100HP]

I'm getting an urge to change my car. The XC70 has been fantastic but ultimately its an XC70...

I keep looking at Autotrader but just cannot find anything that offers as much to replace it with.

Criteria as follows:

Estate (or something with a good amount of room for dogs etc. I do quite like fast estates however)
Petrol (ideally)
Auto - with flappy paddles (ideally)
Not much older than my current car (07)
Not prone to rot (see shonkey Impreza)
Not £550+ a year to tax
Couldn't care less if FWD, RWD or AWD
Enjoyable to drive (and look at)
Not awful ride quality
I quite fancy something Japanese
Budget 4k (but ideally less)

What have I considered?

Subaru Legacy SpecB (seem to be in the higher tax bracket)
Volvo V70R (had one of these, prices are mostly too high now)
159 V6 Estate (bit on the small side and manual mostly and high tax)

What else should I be considering?

[AndyNetwork]

Skoda Octavia VRS

[blue_haddock]

Saab 9-5 Aero

[cbmotorsport]

Mondeo ST?

[Martyn76]

blue_haddock said:

Saab 9-5 Aero

+1

[Pablo16v]

Mid to late naughties VW Golf and Passat estates were available with the Mk5 Golf GTI engine although they are quite hard to come by.

[Mr Tidy]

E91 BMW 325i ought to fit your criteria - I had one for a year and sold it recently when it was running sweetly on 139K miles!

[John-4xo95]

I was also checking out the 159 V6 Estate but was surprised at the price of most of them......£4K to £6K seems a lot for a year old estate with 100K plus miles even if it is an Alfa. (all the examples I could find where JTD)

I wonder if there seem very optimistic used car dealer pricing going on here?

[anonymous-user]

What about the original Lexus IS (300) SportCross?

Not many about so you might have to search and I see a few have fallen to disrepair - oh, and I don't think the boot is that big - but a 6-cyl Japanese reliable estate with a bit of prestige for peanuts

[anonymous-user]

John-4xo95 said:

I was also checking out the 159 V6 Estate but was surprised at the price of most of them......£4K to £6K seems a lot for a year old estate with 100K plus miles even if it is an Alfa. (all the examples I could find where JTD)

I wonder if there seem very optimistic used car dealer pricing going on here?

Most used buyers want the V6 now rather than the diesel so in a way it's more sought after...

But the holden/GM based V6 isn't as good as Alfa own, and has issues with timing chains/sprockets so be careful as seems an inherent design flaw (same with 4-cyl GM JTSs). There's also issues with the infamous GM gearbox M32 I think, plus in the 159, with 4wd, it's all a bit heavy so performance isn't great.

Despite all that I do like the 159!!