£5000 Fast wagon - Page 1 - Car Buying

Original Poster

4,282 posts

141 months

Friday 10th February 2017

Hey folks

So after a bit of a run in with a Land Rover last week it's beginning to look like my hot hatch may be written off (non-fault luckly, he changed lanes into me sending my flying into a grass verge). I'm hoping for a fairly decent payout as the car was in otherwise immaculate condition, with a lot of work done very recently (wishful thinking, I know). Browsing other motors and I am, once again, toying with getting a fast estate and selling my 4x4. So my requirements would be:-
-Under £5000, hoping for a bit over £3k from my insurance + some cash if I sell my other car
-Doesn't handle like a wonky bus, I've driven a stock Saab before and honestly the prospect of getting a 9-3 wagon doesn't massively appeal to me
-Fast-ish (<8second 0-60)
-Efficient-ish (An achievable combined 25-30mpg would be nice, I need to commute ~10k/year in it)
-Reliable-ish, or at least cheap to repair, not a fan of silly sideways engines and complicated AWD systems biggrin

-As new as possible, <10yr is ideal, with a bit of wiggle room though.
-Don't really have a size requirement, Focus/Astra size would be ideal though, Mondeo (ST220, I know) and Passat (R36) are pushing it a wee bit but would be open to them, particularly the latter with its 2.2ton towing capacity, although they are rare as hens teeth and I honestly don't think I could afford to run one.

Any advice would be welcome
Cheers
CAE

anonymous-user

83 months

Friday 10th February 2017

How about a Volvo V50-T5

Ransoman

884 posts

119 months

Friday 10th February 2017

Alfa 159 SW (2.4mjet, 1.8 tbi or 3.2 JTS) or Volvo V70 t5 would be top of my shortlist with that criteria.

Fastdruid

9,360 posts

181 months

Friday 10th February 2017

In the never ending tradition of recommending your own car. wink

2007-2010 Mondeo 2.5T.

Ticks every box apart from maybe being a bit big.

Rare as hens teeth though.

Original Poster

4,282 posts

141 months

Friday 10th February 2017

Aye Alfa 159 is on on my shortlist, particularly the 2.4 5 banger diesel (I know, I know rolleyes

). The Sportwagon versions seem to be rather rare, particularly with the nice engines. I used to have a boggo 147 1.6 twin spark so I know they tend to be well set up cars.

Out of curiosity how do the volvo's drive? I know they do the hard 'R' version of the old 850 (again, rare as hens teeth & a collectable nowadays), but I've always seen their other options as rather 'soft', 'Comfortable' old-boys cars.

Defconluke

320 posts

183 months

Friday 10th February 2017

Loads of potential cars out there but most fall down on at least one of the criteria and having never driven a Saab I don't have a reference on where it falls on the spectrum.
These are all options that haven't been mentioned yet; Octavia VRS, Insignia 2.0T, Clubman S, Audi A4 2.0 TFSI, Legacy 3.0 SpecB.

What your requirements scream louder than anything though is that you should just buy a BMW E91 325i and be done with it.

BaronVonVaderham

2,322 posts

176 months

Friday 10th February 2017

325i/330i Touring. Great chassis for an estate and a cracking engine. 3L straight-six = smoother than a cashmere codpiece.

ZX10R NIN

30,521 posts

154 months

Friday 10th February 2017

Original Poster

4,282 posts

141 months

Friday 10th February 2017

An S4... a starship mileage C32. You know ZX10 sometimes I despise you, my wallet can't handle such temptations biggrin

. Good suggestions though, it really pains me to have to shoot them down but the realist in me just sees the impending bills.

Cheers for the suggestions though guys, BMW 325. I really WANT to like them but I'll be honest, as much as it sounds fickle I am just not a fan of them, non-M BMWs just don't do it for me anymore as you see them literally everywhere.

Car I am most tempted by is an Alfa 159, a busso V6 would be awesome but honestly I think I'd go for the 5 cyl 2.4 JTDM. Both have great reputations for being fun (and great sounding) engines, the JTDM wouldn't murder my wallet on fuel every week.

I keep looking at Saab 9-3's. The 9-5 is too big, but the 9-3 2.0T is really tempting the 2.0 high pressure turbo is supposedly a little beast compared to the rather underwhelming lazy V6, according to my pal who is a rather large Saab nerd. Although I keep thinking I'll get sick of it rather quickly, they are supposedly not the best handling cars at all.

Mondeo/Passat, I don't mind them, if I am honest I don't need anything near that big, even though I am eternally tempted by the ST220 and would snap an R36 passat wagon up in a heartbeat if a good one appeared within my price range.

ZX10R NIN

30,521 posts

154 months

Friday 10th February 2017

sorry for those biglaugh

the 2.8T Saab is the same engine as you get in the VXR, here are some more sensible options:

ST Diesel Estate (this guy has a choice of three) 155bhp

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2016...

C270 Avantgarde SE

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2016...

A4 3.2

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2016...

Sod it just go & get an E500 estate & be done with it lol

Original Poster

4,282 posts

141 months

Saturday 11th February 2017

E500, my mum's neighbour has an SL500, certainly is a beautiful engine, I'm real tempted but I'm only working part time (I'm a student) right now and have a rather long commute, so big and hard to maintain would kill me.

Although I think I've just found the perfect car, it's a wee bit out of budget but only 40miles from me,
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2017...
I didn't even realise Skoda did an estate version of the Fabia Vrs, I had Mk1 in the past are they are great motors, I know the 1.4 doesn't hold a candle to the old 1.9tdi but it's quick and efficient enough and looks big enough to overload with all the tat I like to fill my cars with.

Havnt got my insurance payout yet but I'm definitely keeping my ear to the ground for these, and clean Alfa 159s

briang9

4,067 posts

189 months