What's the best "Shut out the rest of the world" car?

[AlexNJ89]

At the moment I drive an Alpine A110 every day and absolutely love it. However, I have a budget for another car and I need something more practical but still can be exciting.

I'm looking for something which I can load it up with bags etc and drive in to central London with little effort, I often have early starts and come back to the car after a hard days work in London to drive home for 2 hours.

So I'm looking for a car which is comfortable, has a nice luxury interior, easy to park in a multi-story if I need to, an SUV would be nice so it's higher up for London traffic and is one of those cars where you shut the door and feel cocooned with no outside noise.

I'd be happy to spend anything from £5k to £50k, preferably under 60,000 miles. With the ideal budget being around £30k.

I don't do that many miles so MPG isn't a concern.

I've looked at things such as:
Mercedes CL500
Porsche Cayenne
BMW X5
Bentley Continental GT
Range Rover Sport (reliability is scaring me)
BMW 540i estate

My dream car would be an Aston Martin Vanquish but it's out of budget unfortunately.

Any options I have missed?

[AlexNJ89]

Maybe an S class coupe too.

[A500leroy]

Big Lexus saloon.

[AlexNJ89]

A500leroy said:

Big Lexus saloon.

I drove an LC500 V8 and absolutely loved it.

Unfortunately, it's just a bit out of budget.

What would the saloon equivalent be?

[mikebradford]

I'd have thought lexus RX, their big SUV
Notorious for reliability and comfort

[aponting389]

L322 Range Rover, 2012 last of the old shape. V8 diesel or petrol, acoustic glass, air suspension, soft leather.

[georgeyboy12345]

Range Rover 5.0 V8 Autobiography
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202202172...

[LightningBlue]

Lexus RCF could be worth a look. They look great and V8 power. There’s other engines available with the RC if that’s too much power

[agent006]

It's over your mileage but there's a lovely 540i SE up at the moment that someone has ticked all the right boxes on:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202202152...

[NiceCupOfTea]

aponting389 said:

L322 Range Rover, 2012 last of the old shape. V8 diesel or petrol, acoustic glass, air suspension, soft leather.

Not a pre-2015 diesel if you want to drive into London.

[AlexNJ89]

LightningBlue said:

Lexus RCF could be worth a look. They look great and V8 power. There’s other engines available with the RC if that’s too much power

I didn't even know this Lexus existed, could be worth a look:
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202202082...

[ZX10R NIN]

AlexNJ89 said:

At the moment I drive an Alpine A110 every day and absolutely love it. However, I have a budget for another car and I need something more practical but still can be exciting.

I'm looking for something which I can load it up with bags etc and drive in to central London with little effort, I often have early starts and come back to the car after a hard days work in London to drive home for 2 hours.

So I'm looking for a car which is comfortable, has a nice luxury interior, easy to park in a multi-story if I need to, an SUV would be nice so it's higher up for London traffic and is one of those cars where you shut the door and feel cocooned with no outside noise.

I'd be happy to spend anything from £5k to £50k, preferably under 60,000 miles. With the ideal budget being around £30k.

I don't do that many miles so MPG isn't a concern.

I've looked at things such as:
Mercedes CL500
Porsche Cayenne
BMW X5
Bentley Continental GT
Range Rover Sport (reliability is scaring me)
BMW 540i estate

My dream car would be an Aston Martin Vanquish but it's out of budget unfortunately.

Any options I have missed?

The CL500 is the pick with it's effortless (make sure you get one with the air cooled seats) power from the twin turbo V8 just make it the pick, you can get a very nice one for just over half of your budget:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202202212...

[AlexNJ89]

ZX10R NIN said:

The CL500 is the pick with it's effortless (make sure you get one with the air cooled seats) power from the twin turbo V8 just make it the pick, you can get a very nice one for just over half of your budget:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202202212...

Yep, I love these, I also like the model before it from 2004-ish. I find the rear end looks a little American but I could live with it.

I also like the CLS come to think of it.

[ZX10R NIN]

AlexNJ89 said:

Yep, I love these, I also like the model before it from 2004-ish. I find the rear end looks a little American but I could live with it.

I also like the CLS come to think of it.

The CL is a clear step up from the CLS but it's a decent alternative.

[ChocolateFrog]

Always admired the LS600h.

There's one later model on AT for around idea budget, I don't know if that's actually good value or not. Was probably approaching £100k when it was new I'd guess.

[ChocolateFrog]

Or something silly like a Bentley Arnage.

Probably fails the carpark test.

[Froomee]

V8 Vantage… I used one a daily for 2.5 years and 18k or so miles.

Last models with the updated dash would be at the top end of budget (or a touch over), plenty of slightly older ones (including approved used) in budget.

[fflump]

Flying Spur is super comfy and quiet
Latest gen QP is also lovely double glazed windows
Cayenne with PASM a good option too

[AlexNJ89]

fflump said:

Flying Spur is super comfy and quiet
Latest gen QP is also lovely double glazed windows
Cayenne with PASM a good option too

A Quattroporte!!

That is absolutely the reason I started this thread, that's a car I hadn't considered at all.

[AlexNJ89]

AlexNJ89 said:

A Quattroporte!!

That is absolutely the reason I started this thread, that's a car I hadn't considered at all.

Maybe a Ghibli would be better for my use case.