Hi,

I'm looking for a new daily driver within my budget of £4K. The car must be a diesel, have 5 doors, cruise control, be able to last me for another 3-4 years, and have enough room in the boot to carry a snow board or mountain bike.

I've looked into Audi A4s but no decent ones are to be had for my price range. VW Passats look like good value for money but are a bit too dull for me.

Any suggestions?

Cheers,

Agar

 

Bora TDI Sport

 

Passat/a4 basically the same car but obviously it's ur choice as regards styling wise.Maybe a very early e46 320d estate or a nice merc cdi estate,be about 51/02 for the merc.expect biggish miles but they do go on forever.you'd deffo get a nice 525d for the money but it may look a little old fashioned although there's loads you can do to them,would be pushing it for a 530d.volvo v70 range d5 are nice quick dervsand do the miles well,avensis estate look nice in black and pretty bombproof,they've taken a nice hit with the Toyota accelerator pedal recall!!One quick word of advice don't bother with a passat/a4 saloon if you want to put mountain bikes or stuff like that in as the boot has a very narrow angle and you'll be stripping the bike apart to fit it in!!!

 

Ford focus sport tdci.

 

Mk3 Mondeo TDCi


Brian

 

MG ZT-Touring - BMW M47 2 litre diesel engine which is bulletproof, 50mpg, all the toys if you find a decent spec one and an excellent motorway cruiser

I have the saloon version (facelift on an 05 plate) and gave £3700 for it with 1 owner, FSH (dealer then independant), 92k miles and has a few toys too - superb car and very very comfortable - Parts are cheap as chips and readily available and as a bonus for me it is the only car that hasn't given me backache on a long journey

Also not many of them about so they stand out a bit from the norm against euroboxes and have the build quality of BMW as when they were in production, BMW owned Rover/MG

 

I'd be looking at an early E46 3 series touring, you can get them around your price but, the mileage tends to be a bit higher.

 

Seat leon / skoda octavia

 

Thanks for the replies guys - i've been busy over the past couple of days researching some of the cars that were suggested both on here and on another forum.

The e46 320d tourings seem like the best value for money at the moment, and there are three good ones I'm looking into at the moment. I think out of the above its probably the least likely one i'd get bored of, coupled with the excellent spec that the SE's come with (cruise, auto dimming rear view mirror, steering wheel controls, rear parking assist) it seems like the winner. I've also noticed that if I can find a Y reg one it'll save me £50 on tax a year, plus those ones do not have the butterfly inlet valves that are known to cause engine failure.

Thanks again.

 

Love these, had one myself and there bloody bargains as you said, belive martin hadland rates these to

Try and get the 135+ model as found mine a little under powered , other than that i couldnt fault it.

 

Forgot to mention, Mine is the 135+ aswell

 

That's because these are direct injection and not common rail - Old man has one and it's pretty reliable, had a few issues with it but I think that they were down to lack of upkeep by a previous owner

 

The audi is much better than the bmw imo,iv had a few and prefer the avant too although a bit dearer..
Iv got a 1.9 tdi se avant at the mo 130 hp 6 speed 84k fsh 1 previous owner in dark met red similar to magenta but its up for a bit more than 4k at 4995,well worth the stretch imo..


cheers danny

 

Honda Accord 2.2 ctdi

Have sold shite loads in the past and they are certainly up there with the german stuff IMO. Go for a sport or executive with touch screen nav and you won't be dissapointed. They come with loads of toys as standard too! No cambelt to worry about but I did have one with a slightly noisy chain which isn't a cheap job but other than that never had any problems with one. Go drive one, you will be pleasantly suprised

 

Yep - the 150bhp (I assume common rail ones) have the inlet flaps which I didn't want, nor did I want the bother of removing them. Currently looking at a 1 owner full BMWSH car, fingers crossed it all checks out.

Danny - sounds like you have a good one there, just a little bit out of my price range though . I do prefer the Audi's but just couldn't find any decent ones for the money I have.

Phil - I hadn't thought about the Accords but might look into them if the BMW's fall through.

 

I would consider a C4 Vtr+ Hatchback.

5 star safety, 1.6 Hdi 16v 110Bhp, all the toys (cruise control & speed limiter, electric windows x4, electric mirrors, auto lights, auto wipers, 17" Alloys), very good mpg and cheaper tax than the equivalent Focus / Astra / Golf.