Best car for about £12k..?

no_1_dave

no_1_dave

no_1_dave

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I have some insurance money from a nasty accident on its way. Should be here in the next 3 months or so...
I'm thinking of putting £12k (ish) towards a car!
I do a lot of miles so don't plan to go back to a petrol (I know) & I dont want to pay a fortune if I ever need to take it for repair. Speed & acceleration are important to me & it needs 4/5 doors as I have a little 2 year old.

So unless I go back to petrol which I really dont want to do i'm struggling a little bit!
 
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As ever, then. Speed, running costs and reliability: pick any two. You won't get 3.

E46 330D, then spend a couple of hundred on making sure blanking plates are covering the swirl flap thingies if it applies. A compromise of sorts. Don't expect it to be as cheap as a 1.6 Focus to run, though.
 
Spuderoony said:
As ever, then. Speed, running costs and reliability: pick any two. You won't get 3.

E46 330D, then spend a couple of hundred on making sure blanking plates are covering the swirl flap thingies if it applies. A compromise of sorts. Don't expect it to be as cheap as a 1.6 Focus to run, though.
Click to expand...

I've seen E90 330Ds for similar money on forecourts recently. Not badly specced inside as well. although i've only got a 320D E90 SE i've not found the running costs to be much different to my 1.6 Focus from a few yrs back tbh.
 
Are most people selectively ignoring the "not petrol" part?

An e90 330d for 12k would be bottom of the barrel so maybe an e46 and a bit of change? Could buy one for 10k, sort the swirl flaps out as suggested above and remap it.

There arent many other fast diesels, they tend to fall into 2 categories - the larger executive brands - BMW x30d, Audi Ax 3.0/2.7 TDI, Mercedes somethingorother and (to a lesser extent) Volvo D5. The other quicker diesels are the smaller hatchbacks, mostly with the VAG 2.0 170 engine - so the Golf, Leon etc.

Depending on your driving style and the miles you do, a turbo petrol could work too - they're only a lot thirstier than n/a counterparts when you're on boost but still give you plenty of poke when you want it. My 210bhp 2.0T will do mid to high 30s mpg wise on a long run.
 
So far I like the Insignia SRI 2.0 CDTI 160
But then thats also the only one i've test driven. Can pic one up for £12k 59 plate with 5k miles on the clock...
 
You're spending 12k on a car, it's not going to rust! They have a 10 year corrosion warranty anyway...

It's not like Vauxhall are a premium brand, they're both cheap cars and neither stand out as being especially good/poor in the build quality stakes
 
No but i'd still stay away from Ford.
I've mostly always had Vauxhall's, one of the points in this thread though is to see what other people suggest so I can bag myself a better deal. Maybe on a BMW/Saab/Skoda etc...
I dont have a lot of knowledge so am welcome to all opinions (except Ford) lol :D
 
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