Comfortable car for long distance travel

Contessa

GolfBravo wrote: »

You definitely need something larger than 307. Try Ford Mondeo/VW Passat/BMW 5-series/Merc E-class//Mazda 6/Skoda Superb/Vauxhaul Insignia. They are all German-designed for high speed autobahn cruising. Engine 2 litre+ (for smooth quiet and effortless cruising). With that sort of mileage definitely a diesel. Also Lexus, Toyota Avensis (boring but bulletproof) and Volvo S/V70 (expensive to maintain) are nice comfortable high speed cruisers.

Thanks. I've been driving down to the West Country from up North for nearly thirty years ( hoping to relocate soon though!) Although the 307 has been fine (there's only me in it) I'd prefer something different. I'm a bit concerned that a 2litre engine would be much less economical (although great to have the extra power on motorways)

Contessa

oliverr wrote: »

What do you mean age versus mileage? Cars like Volvos and the big German cars can easily do many tens of thousands of miles. For a Volvo, I would typically choose one with less than 60,000 miles.

I've seen cars for a similar price-so that eg. 2006 at about 35K similar price to 2008/9 with about 20k more miles.

oliverr

Contessa wrote: »

I've seen cars for a similar price-so that eg. 2006 at about 35K similar price to 2008/9 with about 20k more miles.

Depends on the car, but I would go for a newer car with slightly more miles (but that does depend on the car).

Contessa

Oliverr, thanks that makes sense-upgrades, the age can't be changed but future mileage may be reduced. When I bought my car last year it had low mileage for the year but this has obviously now gone up.

oliverr

Contessa wrote: »

Oliverr, thanks that makes sense-upgrades, the age can't be changed but future mileage may be reduced. When I bought my car last year it had low mileage for the year but this has obviously now gone up.

Yeah, generally speaking. Well, good luck on your car search

Contessa

Just thought I'd post an update. I recently bought a Volvo V50. Just come back from a trip to the West Country and so far I'm delighted with it. Thanks for all your advice.

steve-L

colin79666 wrote: »

You might like to try a Ford Focus. Lots on the market so you should be able to find a good one. The 1.6 Diesel is pretty economical and the boot is fairly large. Probably looking at the previous generation to get a diesel in budget or you can get a 2011/2012 petrol in Zetec trim with 30k miles for under £12k.

The 1.6TD (duratorq) gets great MPG but very poor TPM*

*Turbo's per Mile

At over 1000 per Turbo and in my experience a turbo every 30,000 miles** that reduces the economics somewhat.

**Average for the one my OH owned.