BMW 525d v A6 tdi v E320cdi v XC90 D5

[Happy Eater]

Bloke at work has 10k budget for any of the following:

BMW 525d, Audi A6 tdi, Mercedes Benz E320cdi, Volvo XC90 D5

He wants a family car - needs to be reliable/comfortable.
Prefers diesel.
I would tend towards either the MB E class or Volvo Xc90.
Any opinions?

[edo]

525/530d for me please

[Fox-]

If it NEEDS to be reliable he needs to look elsewhere rather than 5-8 year old high mileage BMW's, Audi's and Mercs as you'll find for £10k.

[vinnie83]

Rubbish, plenty of reliable cars can be had for that price, as long as you look at BMW and Audi!

Quick comment on the 525d though.

They return almost identical mpg to the 530, and almost identical performance as a 520d. No point. Get a 520d and get it remapped, or get a 530d.

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/2124697.htm

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/2169903.htm

etc, etc. There's plenty.

I would stay away from the E-classes of that era though, beleive me they have a habit of things going wrong. I think that by the time they fixed the build quality problems, they are out of your friends budget.

Didn't do a huge amound of research into the A6 at the time as I quite quickly decided on the 5 series.

[Fox-]

vinnie83 said:

Rubbish,

Not really. I bought a 4.5 year old 5 Series and have run it for 4 years. It is absolutely brilliant, I love it, I totally made the right decision but it's hardly a Toyota where reliability is concerned. A couple of times a year it drops a semi-big bill on me. And that's a reasonably uncomplex petrol version, not a commonrail turbodiesel with iDrive etc etc.

If you are prepared to the bigger bills that come with running these then they are obviously well worth a buy. But for somebody who specifically wnats reliability I am not so sure.

I notice you've only had your 535d a few months.

We'll revisit this question in 18 months time and see if you then agree with me

[ewenm]

Seems bizarre that his Volvo option is the XC90 rather than a V70/S80 along the lines of the other options.

[POORCARDEALER]

Fox- said:

If it NEEDS to be reliable he needs to look elsewhere rather than 5-8 year old high mileage BMW's, Audi's and Mercs as you'll find for £10k.

Would agree certainly in the Merc front

[confused_buyer]

If reliability truly is the top priority then consider some of the other "lesser" badges. You'll get a newer, low mileage car for your money, possibly even still under warranty.

E-Class is probably the worst on the reliability front but they did seem to improve from the 2004 model year (Sep 03 build on) when they fixed some of the more obvious faults such as the exploding gearbox/radiator issues.

On the Volvo front the V70 has less to go wrong than the XC and is nicer to drive. The last of the older shape V70's with sensible miles in D5 form should be in your budget.

None of those cars will be that cheap to run, over 2-3 years and a few miles you should expect some bills for non-regular maintenance.

[vinnie83]

Fox- said:

vinnie83 said:

Rubbish,

I notice you've only had your 535d a few months.

We'll revisit this question in 18 months time and see if you then agree with me

Yeah, I've been told I have an injector on the way out :S

But lets not confuse cheap to run with reliable - I still say these cars can be reliable, although maintaining them to a standard that allows them to stay reliable may cost more than on other cars.

I do hope I'm singing the same song in 18 months

[Happy Eater]

Thanks for the replies,
not sure where the xc90 came from as an option, the v70 has to be worth a look.

I think he might lean towards the BMW 530d - will let you know.

Thanks again

J