Motorway comfort SUV - budget of £5K

loskie

Dacia Sandero Stepway.
Not what I would want but meets your requirements.
Or Citroen Berlingo, Kangoo, Peugeot Partner etc etc

I imagine what she is really after is something like an X3. Style over substance.

Herzlos

You need to be looking in the Qashqai class; almost everyone does a crossover (mini-SUV) with the higher driving position you want, whilst still only having 2 driven wheels and alright fuel economy.

So it's essentially a bulky hatchback rather than an actual 4x4 SUV.

Dacia Duster? You can almost get a new one for that

Iceweasel

Dacia Dusters are actually pretty good and excellent value for money.

Unfortunately driving a Romanian Dacia doesn't have quite the same perceived panache as a Bayerische Motoren Werke product.

[Deleted User]

Has no one recommended the Mondeo yet?

gilbert_and_sullivan

Its cos the OP seems to be an OK guy, would you really wish a Mundane on a decent chap.

Pugster

Thanks all. We have just come back from looking at a few cars at a dealer. We have ruled out all the big 4x4s. The wife absolutely loves the Nissan Qashqai. We took a £7.5k one for a test drive and I must admit it was very nice. It was over budget, but low miles, good spec and pretty mint.

So will have to do a bit of bargain hunting to try and get one down towards the 5-6k mark.

I see the 1.5 Diesel is the engine to go for, these look like they are a grand+ more than the petrol.

Also the wife likes the sunroof, parking camera and sat nav. This is going to be a tough one to find.

How much should we worry about miles on the clock? My view is a well maintained 80k car is better than a poorly maintained 60k car.

Our current car - a ford puma has 150k on the clock! I’m hoping a modern Nissan should reach that sort of milage without too much trouble.

sillygoose

Pugster wrote: »

Thanks all. We have just come back from looking at a few cars at a dealer. We have ruled out all the big 4x4s. The wife absolutely loves the Nissan Qashqai. We took a £7.5k one for a test drive and I must admit it was very nice. It was over budget, but low miles, good spec and pretty mint.

So will have to do a bit of bargain hunting to try and get one down towards the 5-6k mark.

I see the 1.5 Diesel is the engine to go for, these look like they are a grand+ more than the petrol.

Also the wife likes the sunroof, parking camera and sat nav. This is going to be a tough one to find.

How much should we worry about miles on the clock? My view is a well maintained 80k car is better than a poorly maintained 60k car.

Our current car - a ford puma has 150k on the clock! I’m hoping a modern Nissan should reach that sort of milage without too much trouble.

Exactly where I wanted you to be, the old Qashqai has a comfy seat and soft suspension ideal for pounding the motorway. You just need to be a bit patient until the right one comes along.

Millions were sold so the number coming and going for sale is high, rapid turnover so you should find one soon. Cars often seem to get issues at 100k'ish but that is largely dependent on other factors like use and maintenance of course.

That 20,000 is 1 to 2 years use further away from 100k so if you can find a few more quid for the lowest mileage then its money well spent, if £500 gets a car with 15K less miles on it then its cheaper than repairing or replacing it a year sooner!

bigjl

gilbert_and_sullivan wrote: »

No, in a swerve test a sporty low car will ultimately be able to take more G's sideways than a SUV, but then it will also be able to take more G's than a Zafira or other miserable grim people carrier, the ownership and driving of which would be utterly demoralising.

However seeing as i've, and i'm not alone in this, have managed to cover well over 3 million miles without rolling vehicles with far higher CoG's than any soft roader, i believe this minor point is being hyped up to panic standards of a daily wailesque headline i this thread.

If you want a car for track days you won't buy a 4x4, if you want to drift big style you won't buy an Imprezza unless you're Ken Block and can do at 80mph driving forwards but still going backwards.

Our OP's wife wants, for whatever reason, a soft roader and its her choice (last time i looked this isn't East Germany in the days when Frau Merkel was perfecting her trade) to do so, i don't see any more CRV's or Rav4's upside down on the roadside than i do narrow hatchbacks driven by people who think they are in a Caterham.

The benefits of a soft AWD roader might outweigh the minor increase in COG.

By the way having owned (still do the latter) a Mitsi Outlander and Subaru Outback, i'd far rather be in either one of those in any conditions at any speed, save a race on a dry track, than any 2WD normal car, you try and keep up with one of those with a normal car when conditions deteriorate.

Did I say she shouldn't buy an SUV?

Or just point it the dynamic limits of an SUV and another car to consider that also has a slightly higher than normal driving position, actually 2 as I mentioned the C Max aswell.

Didn't you say that no such problem exists?

Is there something wrong with pointing out facts?

These allow the OP to make a decision, not have it made for him.

This isn't East Germany after all!

It seems that the OPs wife likes the Qashqui.

Going by my sisters experience they are reliable, but as I said she just never liked it that much.

jimjames

Gloomendoom wrote: »

It's not what I'd choose, but I think the OP's wife should buy an SUV if that's what she wants.

I'd strongly suggest that before they do so that they look at the fuel payment they'll receive for their mileage. 10p per mile may well not cover the running costs of some vehicles so effectively they'll be paying the company for every mile they drive.

I'm in a similar situation although without the high mileage criteria. In the end decided to stick with existing car rather than buy anything else. Fortunately car policy allows any suitable vehicle with no other stipulations.

Edit - seen further comments on vehicle and being low mileage. Bear in mind if you're buying a low mileage car then you're paying a premium for it which will be reversed if you then add high miles to the car. You may suffer less if you buy a slightly higher miles car to start.

Pugster wrote: »

Our current car - a ford puma has 150k on the clock! I’m hoping a modern Nissan should reach that sort of milage without too much trouble.

Hope you've enjoyed the Puma - I love mine!

Pugster

jimjames wrote: »

I'd strongly suggest that before they do so that they look at the fuel payment they'll receive for their mileage. 10p per mile may well not cover the running costs of some vehicles so effectively they'll be paying the company for every mile they drive.

I think she will be getting around 40p per mile, so should be ok. Will need to check this. A great point, thank you. This will be our only car, we need at least one and I this should be ok.

jimjames wrote: »

Hope you've enjoyed the Puma - I love mine!

I love our 1999 Puma. If it wasn't for the rust rotting her away, I think she would be a future classic.

I really do appreciate everyone that took the time to comment. I think we have settled on a Nissan Qashqai (cheers sillygoose). We are not in a big rush so we will look at a few and hopefully find a good one.