Which estate?

[Kwacker]

Need an estate and narrowed it down to two I like but which one.

The budget is a bit small >£6k but there seems to be plenty out there.

So which one

BMW 5 series or Merc E-class

Kwacker

[big_boz]

What Age?

£6k of E39 touring would be pretty reasonable

[trickywoo]

The benz will be a rust bucket. I'd go beemer.

[Ozzie Osmond]

Buy the BMW unless you need a larger boot.
IF you need a larger boot look at Mondeo as well as the E-class.

[anonymous-user]

trickywoo said:

The benz will be a rust bucket. I'd go beemer.

Nothing like a good generalisation, why would you go Beemer?

That budget will easily see you in a W211 series E Class which are not known for rusting so you can ignore the above by and large.

At that age however they were prone to electronic niggles and some - I believe dependent on which year - have auto box problems (google 'valeo radiator e class') but get a good one that's been looked after and they can do starship mileages.

[essexplumber]

Honda Accord?

Skoda Octavia?

Subaru Legacy?

Audi A4/A6?

Lots to choose from. Diesel or petrol, auto or manual?

[Rosscow]

I'm guessing the OP has looked at the alternatives - hence why he has 'narrowed it down' to the BMW 5 or Merc E Class.

Merc is huge and much more practical.

BMW probably a bit less old man-ish.

Both decent though

[ben5732]

I'd go for the BMW. However.... V70?

[DrDeAtH]

V70 T5....

[infradig]

A few months ago I was looking at the same two but with the added condition that it had to be diesel and with a £10k budget. The four cylinder Merc seems to be much more robust than the 520 d, but of the six cylinders the BM's seem better, in the end I bought a Chrysler 300 because I got fed up of looking at clocked e classes and e61's with homemade service histories,this may not be a problem with petrol ones but they are pretty rare in either form.