New car suggestions

DiscoDave

DiscoDave

DiscoDave

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Joined
6 Jun 2005
Posts
1,856
Location
Cambridge
Evening All,

I've accepted a new job which will involve me commuting a fair bit (~45min each way). I'm currently deciding between abandoning my plan to save up for a house deposit, move closer to my new job or stay at home, commute 45min each way and continue to save up.

With that in mind I'm having a look at a more suitable car if I choose to remain at home. I currently own a Honda Civic Sport (05 plate) which, to be honest, I adore, but alas priorities change (was hoping to move to a S2000 next).

Anyway, if all goes well with my new job I may be involved in doing a lot of business travel, but it's a small company and doesn't have a company car scheme (travel compensation instead).

List of requirements are:

Between £4000-£5000
Probably Diesel
Reasonably sized hatchback/compact saloon
Ideally leather interior

At the moment I've been looking at:
Mazda 6 Sport - 2.0L Diesel
BMW 3 Series Diesel

Insurance may be an issue, I'm 24 but have only been driving about 2.5 years. So <= 2.0L is probably the way to go.

I should also mention that my father is a workshop manager for masses of cars, so any problems with any of our cars can be easily assessed/fixed by him.

Most BMW/Mazda's I've seen in that price range and similar age will have done 80,000 miles plus, but I would presume a lot of this is motorway mileage, so it doesn't concern me as much.

Anyway, I would appreciate any suggestions the OcUK guru's might have

Thanks,

David
 
Buy the Mazda. Sub £5k 320d's are ropey old things which will almost certainly suffer catastrophic engine failure due to swirl flap ingestion unless you spend £300 fixing a known design flaw.
 
[TW]Fox;17568096 said:
Buy the Mazda. Sub £5k 320d's are ropey old things which will almost certainly suffer catastrophic engine failure due to swirl flap ingestion unless you spend £300 fixing a known design flaw.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the heads up Fox, I'll keep that in mind.

Should also mention (not just to yourself) I'm not fixed on either BMW or Mazda, if anyone else has any suggestions from other makes I'm all ears.
 
Ford Mondeo TDCi but be aware of the potential expensive DMF replacement issues, but this applies equally to the Mazda IMHO. This issue aside the Mondeo TDCi is probably the best car for the money - I actually think the market has priced the repair cost into values, ie it has deflated used values by enough that its worth buying one anyway.
 
[TW]Fox;17568096 said:
Buy the Mazda. Sub £5k 320d's are ropey old things which will almost certainly suffer catastrophic engine failure due to swirl flap ingestion unless you spend £300 fixing a known design flaw.
Click to expand...

I thought the swirl flap issue was only really common with pre-2004 models?
 
If you love your Civic, could you not keep it? 45 minutes isn't that long to spend in a Civic, surely? ;)
 
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