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That time again... what next!

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jv021

Original Poster

75 posts

109 months

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Thursday

I currently have a 2018 Maserati Levante V6S GranSport

Nice car, ticks many boxes, but I think I have gotten bored of it (more so frustrated at parts availability and cost of running vs amount of use it gets).

I am thinking to replace it, but this is just idle musing at the moment...

Budget is around £15k, could push to £20k-£22k for something that stands out (used car prices are a lot higher than the last time I looked seriously).

Requirements are:

Saloon, Estate or possibly SUV. I will consider other form factors, but needs to fit 2 child seats + decent boot, (bonus points for towbar for a bike rack)
Has to be reliable
Something that is happy living outdoors - garage cannot fit a modern car
Reasonable servicing / maintenance costs
Petrol as this will be the 2nd car doing max 5k miles per year (MPG not really a concern, but has to be able to cover around 300miles on a full tank)
Minimum 6 cylinders / 300bhp
No modified cars, looking for something that is OEM (or OEM+)
Decent infotainment and Nav system or something that is easily upgradable for sensible £££

Shortlist I have so far is:

BMW 5 Series (either a late F10/11 or late E60/61 in 535i / 550i flavour)
Mercedes CLS (either CLS400 or shooting brake versions of CLS55 AMG / CLS 63AMG)
Porsche Cayenne GTS (957 or an early 958)
BMW 335i/340i (F30/F31 or E91)
Not sure if a BMW F10 M5 or E90 M3 would be more headache than its worth)
Also liking the thought of a BMW X5 E53 4.8is but thought of chasing rust / oil leaks / valve stem seals is putting me off

I am a bit of a BMW fanboy and I am not really in a rush to switch - thoughts or other ideas?

Chris_i8

2,156 posts

207 months

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Thursday

Golf R estate?
XF 3.0 V6 S?
V60 T6?
S4 Avant?
Clubman JCW?

BornRageFree

96 posts

86 months

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Friday

I can't help with most of that list but I would consider ruling out a 3 series if you need to fit rear facing child seats - we had an e91 325i as our first family car, and whilst i regret moving it on it just wasn't big enough! We could barely fit a swivel seat behind the passenger, no chance of it going behind the driver. Also the boot is not quite as spacious as a lot of other estates in the segment.
I haven't spent any time in the F3x so can't confirm, but I've seen many others with similar issues re space...

ZX10R NIN

29,099 posts

139 months

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Friday