Comfy long distance "shed" required (Ideally under £5K)

[Mackle]

I've just waved good bye to my Saab 9000 Turbo, unfortunately at a time where I will be doing a lot of trips between SE UK and Frankfurt over the next few months as part of a phased move out to Germany.

The Aero seats in the 9000 were absolutely brilliant for long distance runs such as the 7 hours or so from London to Frankfurt, but the air filtration system was awful if you got stuck in traffic (recirculate did make a little difference, but the car would soon reek of petrol and diesel when stuck in traffic, or even at a long set of traffic lights) and 32MPG was the optimistic best for motorway / autobahn runs, but quite often the journey MPG would be around 23MPG.

So I'm now hoping for something that is reliable and dependable, has seats which are comfortable like the Saabs, but offers much better fuel economy and has a cabin filter that does actually filter.

My budget for this is car can probably stretch to £5K. I was originally looking at Saab 9-3 / 9-5 models but have since heard that the seats are not as good as the 9000, and that the cars are not as reliable. My girlfriends suggestion was a Lexus IS220d in SE-L trim since she was under the impression that the IS had a reputation for reliability, and the SE-L would likely be comfy on a long run - main downside is it likely won't have the midrange punch that we are used to, but you can't have everything (on the cheap).

Are there any more cars that we should be considering?

[VAGLover]

Lease the Skoda Octavia - even the VRS is only 5/6k over a 24month contract

[Mammasaid]

OVLOV

https://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/...

[Mackle]

VAGLover said:

Lease the Skoda Octavia - even the VRS is only 5/6k over a 24month contract

If I were to lease a UK car, and get paid in Euros, because of currency fluctuations it's going to cost a different amount each month.

Also, as my employer offers Alphadrive I get a discount on lease BMWs and Minis anyway - and I cannot go waiting for three months for a car, when I'm going to start shuttling back and forth between London and Frankfurt in a couple of weeks.

[hashtag]

Volvo V70. D5.

[Mackle]

Mammasaid said:

OVLOV

https://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/...

72MPG?!?!

That's bloody impressive. I'd imagine the seats are good for long journeys too.

How does Volvo fare with reliability?

[Mackle]

hashtag said:

Volvo V70. D5.

I just had a quick look on Parkers price guide and saw this about the V70

"The V70 is roomier than before with almost an extra inch of leg room for those in the back. Volvo's seats tend to be among the most comfortable you'll find in any car and the V70 is no exception. The rear bench splits 40/20/40, so the centre seat, where the armrest is, isn't really as comfortable as the outer two, but is fine for short journeys with three in the back.

The exceptionally smooth and refined ride makes this a great long distance car, helped by minimal road and wind noise. A 'Clean Zone Interior Package' is available, which has been recommended by the Swedish Asthma and Allergy Association. Although the interior materials have been selected to give off minimal levels of harmful substances, when the car is unlocked using the remote, the passenger compartment is automatically ventilated for about a minute."


It's sounding very very close to perfect. I haven't previously liked driving estate cars, but I think this ticks most of the boxes thanks

Edited by Mackle on Tuesday 3rd October 17:11

[VAGLover]

Mackle said:

If I were to lease a UK car, and get paid in Euros, because of currency fluctuations it's going to cost a different amount each month.

Also, as my employer offers Alphadrive I get a discount on lease BMWs and Minis anyway - and I cannot go waiting for three months for a car, when I'm going to start shuttling back and forth between London and Frankfurt in a couple of weeks.

Point taken, my only reply would be
1. Some lease deals are in stock
2. If you have the cash now, you can convert into £ and fix the rate

If not, happy hunting

[Mackle]

VAGLover said:

Point taken, my only reply would be
1. Some lease deals are in stock
2. If you have the cash now, you can convert into £ and fix the rate

If not, happy hunting

Are you actually allowed to take a lease car out of the country for a prolonged period of time?

[kieranblenk]

If you don't want an estate then the Volvo S60 and S80 are both within easy reach.

[kurt535]

on the basis a barge for 5k will suffer limited depreciation, reliability becomes key so surely Jap, something like a Lexus?

[MrF193]

08/09 Volvo S80 with the 2.4 D5 engine is very comfy with good shove. Something like the below:

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2017...

07 Lexus GS450h SE-L is also very comfortable and is a powerful yet reliable barge. Comes with adaptive cruise which should make light work of the long journeys:

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2017...

[ZX10R NIN]

The Toyota diesel in the Lexus was one of it's worst & is the reason they now use BMW diesels, but the seats are comfortable, I'd say get a Mercedes E Class they eat up the miles & with your budget you could bag one of the straight 5/6 cylinder ones that are pretty much bulletproof.

They were built for big miles.


E270

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

E320

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

Also try the Volvo seat as some people have found that they give back ache.

If you don''t mind two doors I can recommend the CLK as a great motorway car my remapped 270 used to give betweeen 44-48mpg & my 320 give a little less.

CLK270/320

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

[kurt535]

Lexus will be streets less problematic than a Merc

[Mackle]

ZX10R NIN said:

If you don''t mind two doors I can recommend the CLK as a great motorway car my remapped 270 used to give betweeen 44-48mpg & my 320 give a little less.

Averaging 44-48MPG in a straight six petrol? I'm stunned!

I had sort of ruled petrol out because experience with the little 2.3 in the Saab taught me that petrol on autobahn's is f**king expensive.

I did the London to Frankfurt trip in an Audi A5 four-pot ultima diesel recently and it did it on a single full tank (admittedly the overtaking performance was lacking compared to the 9000, but fuel economy was staggering. Bloody thing gave me a backache though, I think it was the big offset in the pedals isn't ergonomically good for long distances).

[ZX10R NIN]

They're diesels admittedly old school diesels hence no dpf etc to go wrong I did see 52mpg but I'd only averaged 64mph on that journey but in the main they'll do 650-700 motorway miles to a tank.

They also have power so you can overtake without pushing your foot through the bulkhead.

[fido]

It's not lux-barge material but it will satisfy your turbo mid-range requirements ..

my 07 WRX Wagon is going quite soon - it's had loads spent of it (clutch, rear shocks, paintwork & dent removal) so hardly shed material but I'd take 5K as an M3 will be appearing soon! {sorry for the plug}

[GreatGranny]

Mackle said:

72MPG?!?!

That's bloody impressive. I'd imagine the seats are good for long journeys too.

How does Volvo fare with reliability?

It won't realistically do 72mpg.

I had one for my commute and it was hitting 60mpg in mixed use.

However both the DMF went and the DPF was on its way out within a few months of each other.

I've heard they sorted the DPF out on 2010 cars and newer but please check.

Seats are good but ride isn't that great IMO.

Mine was only 5 speed not sure what the 2010 model is.

[Mackle]

ZX10R NIN said:

They're diesels admittedly old school diesels hence no dpf etc to go wrong I did see 52mpg but I'd only averaged 64mph on that journey but in the main they'll do 650-700 motorway miles to a tank.

They also have power so you can overtake without pushing your foot through the bulkhead.

I have had a little look at the CLK320 diesels. Look nice comfortable cars, but something that I noticed is that the CLK350 petrols seem to mostly have heated electric memory seats for both front seats whereas the CLK320 CDi is quite often not as well equipped. I did wonder if a CLK350 was doable, but I gather that the M272 engine isn't Mercedes strongest though?

Also Frankfurt has a low-emission zone in place, not sure if a pre-DPF diesel car is allowed in the centre where I will be moving to

Have now ruled out my original idea of an IS220d SE-L as read that the engine is nowhere near the IS250's levels of reliability - to the point that lots of people on Lexus forums advise prospective owners to steer clear of the IS220d all together!

Edited by Mackle on Wednesday 18th October 13:38

[Loyly]

The IS220d did not live up to the gold-standard of Lexus reliability. A mate of mine had one and sold it after several dreadful months. Collapsed vacuum hoses, blocked EGR etc etc. Certainly put me off them.