Recommendations: £15k quiet comfy motorway cruiser

[Hammersia]

thargon said:

silentbrown said:

250 motorway miles a week is only a 25 mile commute. Hardly needs a big barge.

Actually I had my figures wrong now I check but it's 80 motorway miles each way to the office at least once a week, possibly twice a week if I choose to come home instead of staying over (in the office two days a week), hence the desire for a barge.

Are you, er, sure you know where your office is?

[silentbrown]

thargon said:

It's not 50 miles a day. I'm in the office two days a week. It'll be either 85 miles*2 if I stay over on the first night, else 85*4 if I drive down and back both days. Best part of 3 hours for a return journey. High pressure job, anything I can do to make life easier is worth doing.

That makes more sense, but personally I'd still stay clear of the big barges.

IMO, high pressure job requires a reliable low-pressure car. Last thing you want is to be worrying about big bills or what's going to break next. 3 series, A4's or even a well-specced Golf would do the job nicely and soak up the miles.

[Ankh87]

Volvo V60 (2017 onwards)
Volvo S90 (2017 onwards)

They have the best seats I've ever sat in.

[thargon]

Hammersia said:

Are you, er, sure you know where your office is?

Yes, I just overestimated the distance before I actually checked it. I'm moving somewhere new you see.

[OutInTheShed]

thargon said:

I'm going to be doing about 300 miles a week, 250 of them on the motorway, and I've decided I want something appropriate to leave me fresh after the drive to/from the office. My criteria:

Quiet
Comfy ride
Economical (diesel likely I guess) - no EVs
Auto preferable
Saloon/estate sized. Rather not have an SUV, but could be convinced
£15k ish, could go a little higher

I was thinking along the lines of 5 series, Skoda Superb, Volvo, etc. Am I missing obvious other options? Recommendations please!

One big question with £15k cars, is what timeframe do you expect it to last for, hold value for etc etc.

Do you want it to serve you for the next 5 years, or 2 years then expect good residual value?
I think there are a lot of cars poised to lose a lot of value over the next few years.

Also the car I'd choose for 70 miles up the M5 'off peak', might be a bit different from 70 miles of M25 combat.

A 530D SE which hasn't done too many miles might be worth a look?
Assuming IULEZ doesn't apply.

[CABC]

OutInTheShed said:

Also the car I'd choose for 70 miles up the M5 'off peak', might be a bit different from 70 miles of M25 combat.

I would counter that a good way of dealing with prime time M25 is not to enter the combat mentality.
not being snarky as I fully appreciate the issue. By deliberately not having a powerful car I can more easily zone out, if I were in an XFR it wouldn't be easy. Lexus with CVT that punishes any enthusiasm is a good call

[thargon]

OutInTheShed said:

One big question with £15k cars, is what timeframe do you expect it to last for, hold value for etc etc.

Do you want it to serve you for the next 5 years, or 2 years then expect good residual value?
I think there are a lot of cars poised to lose a lot of value over the next few years.

Also the car I'd choose for 70 miles up the M5 'off peak', might be a bit different from 70 miles of M25 combat.

A 530D SE which hasn't done too many miles might be worth a look?
Assuming IULEZ doesn't apply.

Not M25 thankfully. M40 just before/after peak rush hour.

It's a good point on how long I expect to run it though. Perhaps the more bog standard option is safest, though I'd hope a good chunk of the depreciation has gone from a 640d for example, but who knows what fresh stunt they might pull to force us into EVs, fuel prices etc. In the end though that can't be anticipated very well.

[OutInTheShed]

CABC said:

OutInTheShed said:

Also the car I'd choose for 70 miles up the M5 'off peak', might be a bit different from 70 miles of M25 combat.

I would counter that a good way of dealing with prime time M25 is not to enter the combat mentality.
not being snarky as I fully appreciate the issue. By deliberately not having a powerful car I can more easily zone out, if I were in an XFR it wouldn't be easy. Lexus with CVT that punishes any enthusiasm is a good call

On fast but busy motorways, I find a car which can swiftly get from 65 to 70-several enables a timely move the RH lane, avoiding the bickering knots of traffic clumping together in the middle lane and dragging one another down to 50.
This wants to be possible uphill.
A gutless car, or when I'm towing, it's mentally harder work IMHO.
On the M25, it often seems to me the main thing is quiet tyres, comfy seat and something relaxing on the stereo. Go with the flow and bore your passenger with reminiscences of 'getting overtaken at 120 here, 30 years ago'.

[CABC]

OutInTheShed said:

CABC said:

OutInTheShed said:

Also the car I'd choose for 70 miles up the M5 'off peak', might be a bit different from 70 miles of M25 combat.

I would counter that a good way of dealing with prime time M25 is not to enter the combat mentality.
not being snarky as I fully appreciate the issue. By deliberately not having a powerful car I can more easily zone out, if I were in an XFR it wouldn't be easy. Lexus with CVT that punishes any enthusiasm is a good call

On fast but busy motorways, I find a car which can swiftly get from 65 to 70-several enables a timely move the RH lane, avoiding the bickering knots of traffic clumping together in the middle lane and dragging one another down to 50.
This wants to be possible uphill.
A gutless car, or when I'm towing, it's mentally harder work IMHO.
On the M25, it often seems to me the main thing is quiet tyres, comfy seat and something relaxing on the stereo. Go with the flow and bore your passenger with reminiscences of 'getting overtaken at 120 here, 30 years ago'.

I think that problem you highlight was worse 30 years ago because the outside lane was default 90mph. now it's only 75, and so a lesser powered car can nip out and keep up. the irony is that 30years ago the 3rd lane captain only had 150bhp on average, less than my now 'slow' car!

[Baked_bean]

I was in a similar position as you, we do a lot of miles to visit friends and family on the A1, A14 etc. needed an estate for our dog.

Ended up with an E350cdi for half of your budget. Lovely car so far and pleased with our purchase.

[joshcowin]

A6 with the bi-turbo 3.0 diesel would be my choice!

[thargon]

Baked_bean said:

I was in a similar position as you, we do a lot of miles to visit friends and family on the A1, A14 etc. needed an estate for our dog.

Ended up with an E350cdi for half of your budget. Lovely car so far and pleased with our purchase.

I'd just be a bit worried about getting into bangernomics territory. Plus I can happily justify an extra £7k to sit in something I actually want, though OTOH if it's literally just for barging up and down the motorway with the cruise control on, why put the miles on something nicer? I could buy something boring, and something else for the weekend. This is how is starts...

[autumnsum]

thargon said:

Actually we have charging at work, so maybe I should think again about an EV

You can get the super fast long range M3 for under 20K now. Some bargains to be had if you're quick.

[thargon]

autumnsum said:

You can get the super fast long range M3 for under 20K now. Some bargains to be had if you're quick.

What exact model?

[nobrakes]

Baked_bean said:

I was in a similar position as you, we do a lot of miles to visit friends and family on the A1, A14 etc. needed an estate for our dog.

Ended up with an E350cdi for half of your budget. Lovely car so far and pleased with our purchase.

^ this

Acceleration at motorway speeds in that thing will be great and make life safer and less stressful too.

[thargon]

Baked_bean said:

I was in a similar position as you, we do a lot of miles to visit friends and family on the A1, A14 etc. needed an estate for our dog.

Ended up with an E350cdi for half of your budget. Lovely car so far and pleased with our purchase.

Had a bit of a look at these and it might be spot on. Quiet, comfortable, economical, fast enough, good value. Hopefully servicing isn't murder?

[BenS94]

thargon said:

Baked_bean said:

I was in a similar position as you, we do a lot of miles to visit friends and family on the A1, A14 etc. needed an estate for our dog.

Ended up with an E350cdi for half of your budget. Lovely car so far and pleased with our purchase.

Had a bit of a look at these and it might be spot on. Quiet, comfortable, economical, fast enough, good value. Hopefully servicing isn't murder?

Servicing is just oil and filters you can get from motorfactors and any garage will be able to do it. I've never understood the fear surrounding maintaining "premium" brands, so would be very interested to hear your views!

[Browter]

I used to drive Leeds to Portsmouth and back once a week in a 2017 Audi A4 and never thought I needed anything bigger or more comfortable. I’ve only driven a current gen 5 series but thought the A4 was better as a motorway cruiser. It did have lumbar support and the comfort suspension rather than the sport suspension the S Line model has as standard.

[OutInTheShed]

BenS94 said:

Servicing is just oil and filters you can get from motorfactors and any garage will be able to do it. I've never understood the fear surrounding maintaining "premium" brands, so would be very interested to hear your views!

That's the difference between 'servicing', 'maintenance' and 'repair'.

Brakes
Cam belt/chain
suspension parts
clutch if manual
Plus many other things may be predictably needed as a car gets older and goes to a high mileage.

Then there's things which 'may' go wrong, unpredictable bills where you take your chance.

Stuff which can be cheaply fixed by a local garage on a Ford Focus can be expensive on some brands.

[Baked_bean]

thargon said:

Had a bit of a look at these and it might be spot on. Quiet, comfortable, economical, fast enough, good value. Hopefully servicing isn't murder?

Too soon to say, but I did have a full service (B) done for about £350 at a specialist. I imagine some repairs could be costly, but it comes with the territory. So far I am really enjoying the car though and it is making my mileage effortless.