Used German Estate advice - ideally no more than £4,000.00.

elsmandino

Hi,

I would be really grateful for any pointers that you guys might be able to give me with buying a new car.

I am currently on the lookout for a used estate car.

Ideally, I am looking for an Audi, BMW or Mercerdes.

Fuel-wise, it will only be doing about 10,000 miles a year so have no real preference for petrol or diesel.

I also used to prefer manual over automatics (due to problems with my current 1996 automatic Merc) but given the improvements in automatic transmissions (especially economy), I am open-minded to consider either.

Ultimately, what should I be looking for?

The only cars I have owned to date have been given to me by family members so this will be the first time I have any input in what to get.

I know that a newer well-maintained car with a high mileage is going to be much better than an older one with a comparably lower mileage (as an incredibly sweeping statement) but what sort of compromise between age and mileage should I be looking for.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks

motorguy

Go for a petrol with those miles.

The "Sport" spec cars tend to look better in each, but cost more.

6 cylinder engines are much nicer than their four cylinder counterparts

Something like this would do it for me...

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201604032587600?searchcontext=default&search-target=usedcars&minimum-badge-engine-size=2.4&aggregatedTrim=M%20Sport&sort=default&body-type=estate&postcode=BT62%202HB&fuel-type=petrol&model=3_series&page=1&onesearchad=used%2Cnearlynew%2Cnew&make=bmw&radius=1500&logcode=p

BeenThroughItAll

At your budget, you'll not be buying into new enough automatics to get anything 'economical'.


If it were me, I'd be looking at a BMW 3 series estate; 320i, 323i, 325i, 330i depending on preference.


To indicate real world MPG, my 330ci has been returning 24-26MPG in daily tripping around (runs >10mi but mixed road conditions) and 34-36 on long runs of >100mi.

[Deleted User]

motorguy wrote: »

Go for a petrol with those miles.

The "Sport" spec cars tend to look better in each, but cost more.

6 cylinder engines are much nicer than their four cylinder counterparts

Something like this would do it for me...

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201604032587600?searchcontext=default&search-target=usedcars&minimum-badge-engine-size=2.4&aggregatedTrim=M%20Sport&sort=default&body-type=estate&postcode=BT62%202HB&fuel-type=petrol&model=3_series&page=1&onesearchad=used%2Cnearlynew%2Cnew&make=bmw&radius=1500&logcode=p

I'd be wondering why the dealer isn't offering to put a new MOT on it....

insert_random_name_here

Subaru Legacy - a cracking car with performance and reliability that'll give any German estate a run for its money.

elsmandino

BeenThroughItAll wrote: »

At your budget, you'll not be buying into new enough automatics to get anything 'economical'

That is a really good point - might stick with a good old manual.

Does seem that a petrol 320i is probably the best option.

Given my budget, what sort of mileage and age do you think I should be aiming for?

Is the link for the BMW a good indicator for this?

BeenThroughItAll

elsmandino wrote: »

That is a really good point - might stick with a good old manual.

Does seem that a petrol 320i is probably the best option.

Given my budget, what sort of mileage and age do you think I should be aiming for?

Is the link for the BMW a good indicator for this?

Before I bought my 330ci (I was only looking at spending 2-3 grand, and my criteria were non-specific - I wanted a 6pot petrol Beemer) I looked at a rather nice, very late MY2005 E46 320i touring with ~70K on, FSH and black leather, which was a shade under £3500. Later model 3 series will of course likely be more expensive/higher mileage.

motorguy

Deleted_User wrote: »

I'd be wondering why the dealer isn't offering to put a new MOT on it....

Because

(a) hes not a dealer, its a private sale
(b) theres 8 months MOT on it already

motorguy

elsmandino wrote: »

That is a really good point - might stick with a good old manual.

Does seem that a petrol 320i is probably the best option.

Given my budget, what sort of mileage and age do you think I should be aiming for?

Is the link for the BMW a good indicator for this?

The 320i of that age is asthmatic, quite slow and not terribly economical.

If you're going to saddle yourself with a four pot petrol estate BMW, you'd be better off in a Mondeo.

Treat yourself to a 6 cyl.

BeenThroughItAll

motorguy wrote: »

The 320i of that age is asthmatic, quite slow and not terribly economical.

Treat yourself to a 6 cyl.

I've been assuming decent e46 rather than leggy/base spec e90, personally, when I mentioned 320i.


Especially since OP didn't mention an age restriction.

bigjl

insert_random_name_here wrote: »

Subaru Legacy - a cracking car with performance and reliability that'll give any German estate a run for its money.

Can't really argue with that.

You can get a nice one for £4k.

The 53 plate onwards model is a huge improvement over the older shape.

The 4 speed auto can have a slight hesitation when pulling away. It didn't bother me that much as you get used to it.

The early ones (53/04/54 plates) could be had with a single cam economy engine with 137bhp and then you had he 2.0E version which was still an NA 2.0 but twin cam, you had to rev the single can a bit if you really wanted to press on but in day to day driving it was fine.

I could easily get 40mpg out of mine on a long run, though in day to day driving low to mid 30's was the norm.

I had a couple of warranty claims, brake issues and a set of front wishbone bushes aswell.

Other than those things it was reliable, quiet, handled exceptionally well and I would not have sold it for several years when it was stolen. My only regret was buying a saloon instead of an estate.

I have already decided that I am buying another, I prefer the 04 to I believe 09 shape prior to the Honda Accord style revamp.

You can get imported turbocharged estates from Japan, don't know how powerful they are though.

I doubt many German marques will touch Subaru for reliability in the longer term, just only buy a Subaru that has been well maintained.

On an aside I was in Homebase yesterday and found a Subaru branded lawn mower! Probably not AWD but still a Scooby Mower.