Used car advice - big, fast, slick, £3k

I have a 2.3T Aero. Last of OG9-5's before the facelift. I paid 1900 for mine with just over 100k on the clock. Not really a problem for me as my mileage is <10k so I will get an easy 5 years before it becomes scrap.

I have done 10k in mine so far since February (Including a trip to eastern Europe). With around £200 in parts to fix niggles like missing pixels on the air con pannel, new gearknob and hand brake gaitors, new boot and bonnet badges plus a full service. The only "big" issue it had was a cracked ABS ring, £2.50 in parts for a new reluctor ring and two hours of my time fitting it.

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You can get low mileage ones for under 3k but they do not come up often and go very quickly.
 
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A £10k budget would mean financing / bank loan. I started with that when I started thinking about changing my car, but I think you're dead right, a £10k budget really doesn't lower my risk at all when compared to a £3k budget with an emergency maintenance fund. I don't think the 2007 - 2012 era of cars has anything special really, at my budget anyway.

Diesel issue. Something I've been around the houses on several times. I've drove a diesel for 9 years (it had 90k on when i bought it so was fairly cheap at the time). It needed the DMF doing after only a couple of years, which cost £800. I've never (touch wood) needed injectors or turbo doing. Modern diesels however have a glut more expensive sensors, particulate filters to go wrong as well as expensive injectors and DMFs. So I considered that changing my current diesel for another diesel is higher risk than changing for a petrol. Plus I've never owned a fast car, hence the reason for choosing a nice petrol. I've done my diesel time, and at 12k miles a year a petrol is just doable.

Saab downside is its FWD. That power in a FWD car. BMW will handle better won't it.
 
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I have a 530i Sport for roughly 11 months now,it indeed is a great car but its needed a continual list of little things doing to it, and its got a power loss issue that no amount of diagnosing and part swapping has cured - yet, despite this, its not once broken down on me, refused to start etc but continually drips bills.
I paid £1550 for mine so certainly got a cheap one but its little issues over the time has cost me no more than say £600, fuel consumption would I guess make you wince after a diesel Mondeo though!

If you like & want a 530i then go for it, its a world away from what you currently have but in your own words,
danlightbulb said:
Its getting old and a bit wobbly. I'd like a change.
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your changing from one old & getting wobbly motor to another, if you can accept the inevitible chasing faults that comes with old cars generally then the 530i - IF you find a good one - is a great £3k buy

I still love mine,despite it having far more niggles than my previous mega mileage 528iSE,its by far a nicer car to drive- when its behaving anyway! :(
 
If I could have it a second car that would seem the ideal situation, then repairs wouldn't be as problematic. But taxing and insuring two cars is even more costs, so can't be done.

What other choices do I have? This is what I'm not currently getting. The Saab has been listed, maybe an Audi. Legacy but running costs are worse.

What car could I get that is more reliable than the 530i, maybe not quite as powerful (but still pushing 180/190bhp), , with that elusive 30 mpg, maybe up to £4k/£5k, RWD, and looks as damn nice?
 
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You really are limited with your requirements.

Sub 200 BHP shouldn't require RWD. FWD will be fine at this power range. 30 mpg means you're wanting to look more towards smaller capacity, turbocharged engines. And looks are a matter of perspective.

How about Jaguar X-Type? http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classif...radius=1501&body-type=estate&page=2&logcode=p

Octavia VRS? http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classif...estate&postcode=ph118de&radius=1501&logcode=p

Volvo V70 : http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classif...ew&zero-to-60=fast&body-type=estate&logcode=p

A4 S-Line Quattro 2.0T : http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classif...ew&zero-to-60=fast&body-type=estate&logcode=p

VRS is probably my favourite there.
 
The Audi is nice too. And the leather could be retrofitted for not a huge outlay. And with Quattro, makes it very appealing.

But I've had a few A4's in the past. Never had a VRS yet.
 
Just scanned through several of the Audi's on AT. Not found one with leather yet. The extra bit of BIK for all those company car drivers must have been too much to bear.

Slightly up on the budget though, would need 5k for a good one. Quattro S-line. How would you retrofit leather interior?
 
danlightbulb said:
What car could I get that is more reliable than the 530i, maybe not quite as powerful (but still pushing 180/190bhp), , with that elusive 30 mpg, maybe up to £4k/£5k, RWD, and looks as damn nice?
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If its an auto, forget the 30's mpg for a start, but don't view the 530 as unreliable, its not, tbh I've had one call out required breakdown with my 6 BMW's and don't view them as unreliable at all, the breakdown was a split fuel pipe on an e36 318...

Niggly stupid faults that shouldn't be on such a marque, of course!

My two e39's have both been bought at the cheap end, yet I still regard them as the two best cars I've owned, don't be put off an e39, they are rightly epic cars, just have your eyes open and a "just in case" fund.

And thats from a died in the wool e38 fan! :D
 
danlightbulb said:
Are you referring to the 2.3 T Aero model or the 2.3 T HOT model?

They look nicer in the old trim than the new imo. In fact I'd say its very similar looking to the E39 5 tourer. Hard to get a low mileage one though, very hard. This one is £1500 and 138k miles.
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HOT just means high output turbo, all of the Aero cars are HOT (250bhp, 260 on later cars)

I wouldn't want a low mileage one of these anyway, who wants a car like this that's been used for short journeys? 138k on a 10 year old car is less than 14k a year anyway.

The most important thing is to make sure they've always had fully synthetic oil and that they've got the revised PCV (03 onwards it was fitted as standard IIRC). If they've ever been run on semi synthetic then the sump should be dropped and cleaned
 
xs2man said:
You really are limited with your requirements.

Sub 200 BHP shouldn't require RWD. FWD will be fine at this power range. 30 mpg means you're wanting to look more towards smaller capacity, turbocharged engines. And looks are a matter of perspective.

How about Jaguar X-Type? http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classif...radius=1501&body-type=estate&page=2&logcode=p

Octavia VRS? http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classif...estate&postcode=ph118de&radius=1501&logcode=p

Volvo V70 : http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classif...ew&zero-to-60=fast&body-type=estate&logcode=p

A4 S-Line Quattro 2.0T : http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classif...ew&zero-to-60=fast&body-type=estate&logcode=p

VRS is probably my favourite there.
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Out of all of those I'd probably go for the Jag.
 
Howard said:
How come?
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Speculatively at the moment :)

I got it for a great price because it needed some bodywork and the guy needed shot of it quickly. If I can get what I think it's worth then I'll actually have run it for 6 months for free.

It's a great fun car and a brilliant example of them, but I'm realising that I'm not really a hot hatchy person. It's superb fun to go for a blast in, but I rarely get the chance to do that. Something with a better ride, thats quieter and better equipped is actually more up my street. Don't get me wrong, it's hardly a Type-R or something really loud and crashy, but compared to what I'm used to and what I like it is.

And owning it for 6 months to basically figure out that I'm not keen on hot hatches is a no harm situation if its not cost anything. All I'm out so far is £20 on the ad on ebay and £5 for the Briskoda classifieds access. If I can't at least break even on it then I'll just keep it.

You can probably guess from my contribitions to this thread what I'm thinking about buying instead :)
 
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