New car time!

**King** · 10-03-2009 12:52 PM

For the past 4 years i've had an incredibly unreliable and generally disappointing Peugeot 306 that has finally got to the point where repairing it is just not worth it so i'm forced to look for a new car.

I've got about £4-5000 to spend and am looking for something reliable and diesel. I've been looking at BMW 320 diesels and have found I can get one in my price bracket but they all have a milage of around 80-100,000. Has anyone owned/worked with these BMW's and could vouch for their reliability at this milage, is it anything to worry about or are the built for such milage?

Can anyone recommend something similar that I may not have considered?

Anyone want to buy a great 306?

**Monkfish** · 10-03-2009 01:00 PM

Mercedes W202 C class has a 250 Turbo diesel. They're well within your price range and will run up a quarter of a million miles with very few issues. If you're not dead set on diesel the C230 Kompressor models are very good too.

Other good ones to look at would be the Audi A3, as these are very reliable, as is the A4 if you want something bigger.

The general rule is do buy German or Japanese, and for gods sake dont buy French!

Good luck!

**daffy** · 10-03-2009 01:17 PM

You can probably get a bit more for your money if you do buy Japanese as opposed to German. My mother has had a honda accord since 1999, and it's never broken down. The only money that has been spent on it is for new tyres, new brake pads - just stuff that was down to normal wear and tear.

I've heard mazdas are also ultra reliable, same goes for toyotas.

**Ripped Barbarian** · 10-03-2009 01:55 PM

Go japanese, bmw are not particularly reliable! (but better than anything from france......you know what they say, buy from france, take a chance!)

A toyota diesel would be good, auris turbodiesel would be a good choice, avensis if you want something bigger.

Depending how old you want to go you needn't spend your full budget on a VERY decent car, particularly in todays market (cars have bottomed out)

You could pick up a mitsubishi galant 2.0, about 10 years old with 30-40k for somewhere between 1-2k!....ticks all the boxes, reliable (get the manual) looks beasty etc.

**Luffers** · 10-03-2009 01:58 PM

You can't go wrong with a VW or Audi, I've just bought a 2005 Passat 1.9TDI Trendline which has done 124k. That type of mileage doesn't bother me in the slightest as these cars are good for 300k + as long as they are well maintaned and have a service history.

The 320's are equally as reliable and will do over 200k no problem, tbh most modern diesel's will. I was advised to stay away from the 2.0TDCI mondeo as they have a known flywheel problem that cost's £1000-£1200 to fix. Mercedes although will carry on for ever , the parts are expensive if you do need to replace something.

Honda accords will be worth a look and Toyota Avensis.

**Ripped Barbarian** · 10-03-2009 02:01 PM

Passats are damn good cars, vw generally actually (i'd go VW over BMW)

Also consider skoda, go for an octavia, they are basically VW cars.

**hugedyno** · 10-03-2009 02:03 PM

F*** the badge-snobbery and get a Skoda Octavia Tdi. I've got a Fabia vRS, modded to 170 bhp and I can still get 60 mpg on a run. VW bits inside, anyway. Thats why the cops use them.

HD.