Advice please! £10-15k estate (or lease?) - Page 1 - Car Buying

Original Poster

1,325 posts

294 months

Wednesday 17th June 2020

apologies in advance for long post!

Like a lot of people, our lifestyle has changed quite rapidly over the last few months and I now need to lease or purchase a car in an area I am not familiar with!

We both used to work in London and didn't use cars too much so we just ran old cheap cars for the few miles we did each year.

Now there will be a 40 mile round trip commute 3 days a week due to a new job (assuming we ever get back into the office) and we need to do some more regular long distances to see family, we also have a dog that is fast outgrowing the seatbelt harness so will migrate to the boot and we will prob average about 12-15k miles a year, mostly town, A roads and every so often longer motorway journeys.

It feels like we need a decent sized estate, would say a 3 series is marginal - I would consider SUV as well but feel an estate more practical for the dog to jump in and out of etc.

It would need to:

be as reliable as possible (know this is never 100% possible to predict!)
have decent lights as commute would be country lanes at night in part of the year
ULEZ compliant

and ideally have

heated leather
DAB
sunroof
Auto
decent NVH

None of these are absolute deal breakers though - I am not afraid of mileage or age for the right car. I am torn over petrol vs diesel, I think if I was to buy a car I would feel more comfortable with petrol, feels like less to go wrong but happy to be corrected - lease not fussed either way.

My first thoughts were to look at the lease - recently been good deals on stock A4 or Volvo V90 over 2 years, which would cost something like £9-10k - benefits are regular fixed costs rather than lump sum outlay, warranty, tax, etc all included plus no MOT issues - negatives are potential repairs at end of term and it is obviously money spent with nothing to show for it at the end - I am not fussed about having a brand new car or not and that feels like part of the premium of leasing.

I would like to think the right £10-15k second hand car would be worth a lot more than £0-5k after 2 years driving so might be a more financially sensible way to do it, plus the opportunity to do as many miles as we want and sell it if needed. However, there is obvious reliability and corresponding potential big bills to consider.

Current lease options

V90
A4 - black edition

Current buy options

BMW 3 series
BMW 5 series
Golf TSI Estate
Seat Leon
Skoda Octavia
Skoda Superb

With a lease if I decide to go that route will just take whatever is vaguely suitable that I can get a good deal on,

but if anyone has been in a similar situation or has time for any recommendations/thoughts on lease/vs buy in this situation or for cars that might fit the 'buy' criteria it would be much appreciated

Thanks in advance!

Andy

underdosed

112 posts

178 months

Wednesday 17th June 2020

I just bought a Jaguar XFS Sportbrake for just under 14k so another possibility under the 'buy' option.

Original Poster

1,325 posts

294 months

Wednesday 17th June 2020

underdosed said:

I just bought a Jaguar XFS Sportbrake for just under 14k so another possibility under the 'buy' option.

Thanks will take a look! - are you pleased with it so far? - Its a lovely looking car IMHO but don't know much about them

journeymanpro

921 posts

106 months

Wednesday 17th June 2020

Skoda superb. Can't fault mine. Acres of room in the rear and boot.

ZX10R NIN

30,515 posts

154 months

Wednesday 17th June 2020

Original Poster

1,325 posts

294 months

Wednesday 17th June 2020

journeymanpro said:

Skoda superb. Can't fault mine. Acres of room in the rear and boot.

I had one as a hire car in Switzerland once and it was huge inside - so much rear legroom - its deffo on the list

Original Poster

1,325 posts

294 months

Wednesday 17th June 2020

ZX10R NIN said:

really useful list

Thanks so much for taking the time to reply so comprehensively, really appreciate it. Will have a look through the list some great ideas there - just one question, would you recommend diesel over the petrol for them all? I was leaning towards petrol just because of fears around, DPFs, injectors etc, but also in case of any legislation changes in the future - do you think any of that is worth considering? Or diesel the better option overall

Thanks again

Andy

Fiisch

278 posts

157 months

Wednesday 17th June 2020

I'm confused. You're on Pistonheads, but you sound like you hate cars?!

Personally, in your shoes, I'd buy. Skoda Octavia vRS estate is great bang for your buck, and a great drive. I ran a vRS TDi for 3.5 years (ironically on lease) and it was a brilliant already and exceptional value for money.

ZX10R NIN

30,515 posts

154 months

Wednesday 17th June 2020

andy ted said:

Obviously it depends on your journey but if your doing 11k+ then a diesel is the pick the extra torque makes for a more relaxed drive petrol versions of all in 2.0T form offer the same performance but just more fuel costs.

Injectors etc won't be an issue as long as your doing the miles if not then yes get a petrol.

edc

9,613 posts

280 months

Thursday 18th June 2020

£10k loss in 2 years seems a bit drastic. What about something like a VW Touran?

loskie

7,080 posts

149 months

Thursday 18th June 2020

Subaru Outback, petrol, look after it and keep it till it or you die, whoever first!

RizzoTheRat

28,764 posts

221 months

Thursday 18th June 2020

andy ted said:

I had one as a hire car in Switzerland once and it was huge inside - so much rear legroom - its deffo on the list

The Octavia's also pretty big inside, I'm 6'2 and there's plenty of room for a 6' passenger behind me.

Mondeo's always worth a look as there's loads of them around.

Personally I find BMW's really cramped inside.

Not sure what the current ULEZ requirement is, but if I was buying diesel now I'd only consider a Euro 6, which in the case of the Octavia means post 2016 I believe. There's already quite a few European cities where my Euro 4 isn't allowed.

anonymous-user

83 months