SAAB, Mercedes, Subaru or Alfa - for £750?

[kVA]

Again - need a car in a hurry..

Which would you go for out of these estates:

2001 Y Saab 2.3 Aero Hot (130,000 miles)

2000 X MB C240 (110,000 miles)

2000 W Subaru Legacy 2.0i (130,000 miles)

Or a left field 2002 Alfa 147 2.0 T-Spark (90,000 miles)

Any advice / experience in terms of likely reliability and maintenance costs, would be appreciated

[Escy]

Alfa for me. I like the 147's, drive nice, engine has character, parts are cheap.

[Rovinghawk]

Avoid the MB for rust & reliability reasons. This is from the middle of their 'bad' period.

I'd go for the Saab for speed, reliability, ease of maintenance & carrying capacity.

[mattman]

As above, avoid the MB as cars from this era rust everywhere!

Saab would be my preference - still looks good, decent space and parts relatively cheap

[cerbfan]

Try and find yourself a Merc W124, love mine and its seemingly bullet proof. The 3.0 litre straight 6 is a great engine as well although mpg is not its strong point.

[s_zigmond]

Saab or Volvo (though I know you didn't have that in your list)

[sawman]

I have a '98 merc c280. They do like to rust. I might be inclinedto look at the legacy. The danger of an alfa is that you might start to love it and then decide to fix it. Which might get costly (alhough this would apply to the others on the list too)

[JM]

Alfa and change the timing belt.

Nothing wrong with the Legacy, but Saab will be faster and more economical, but if you consider 4wd a good thing (winter conditions etc) then it could be a winner. If they are estates I think the Legacy will have the biggest boot if that matters.

[Kitchski]

Saab 9-5 for me.

[kVA]

Thanks again guys - decided to go for the Scooby...

Bloke selling the Saab was an idiot - offered me £50 for my heap of scrap of a Volvo (quoted £200 collected by a scrap metal merchant) and was not at all convincing that everything was working on the Saab...

Complete contrast to the guy selling the Legacy - volunteered loads of info about the history, left some tax on the screen and petrol in the tank, matched the scrap value of the shed, and I will collect it later!

Haven't even got the nerve to advertise this Volvo for spares - the only things any good on it are the two tyres I bought 200 miles ago!!!! LOL

It will be a dog-transporter, so 4WD will be handy, too

Thanks again - love this place for this sort of stuff

PS. Had a W124 once and I agree - couldn't find a 6-cylinder one anywhere for less than a grand though...