After 6 years and 165k (100k in my ownership) my trusty 1.8 Civic met its end earlier this week 
Although I have been in need of a larger for a while, I've been holding off to when I'll be in better financial shape (house renovated and sold) to avoid the headache of compromising on the replacement.
So for ~£6k I've got the task of working out what to buy that will replace the Civic and figure out where I am forced to compromise.
The biggest issue is I do ~10k a year, but all estate cars large or small in this budget are mostly diesel. I have never owned a diesel and the only diesel I've driven is a Peugeot Partner Combi so my experience is very limited and negative. Estate cars seem fairly rare and even rarer petrol versions tend to be big engined with shocking economy. I guess I'll have no option but to go for a diesel but I have no idea what I'm getting myself into.
I'm also in two schools of thought. 5 series/A6 sized car, or 3 series/A4 sized car and buy a roof bag (no storage for a hard box) for the camping trips etc. If anyone has 2 kids, dogs, camps and hikes etc have you managed with a smaller estate at all or should I just go all-in and compromise elsewhere?
But my requirements are roughly as follows:
Estate, preferably large.
As economical if not better than the Civic (35mpg average with my driving style)
Auto lights & wipers
Proper climate control
Cruise control
Bluetooth (or the option to replace with a modern headunit if necessary)
Nice place to be, premium almost (but maybe asking a lot there)
As good as if not better performance than the Civic.
Auto preferable unless good argument against.
No older than the Civic, a little newer if possible (2008).
I was hoping to get into something that feels more premium. A large estate is not a revvy Civic that will nip along back roads so I want to go completely the opposte way with a car that's a nice place to be, doesn't feel too out of date and pulls its own weight without too much effort. I've seen F11 5 Series dipping into this budget, but high milage (100-170k+) 520ds. Obviously not all that desirable and I guess potential for huge bills? The Civic didn't want for much above consumables. I'm not afraid to get my hands dirty and self-maintain things but modern cars are less accessible, especially anything premium branded and parts are more expensive. I do accept something premium will be more expensive to run, I'd rather avoid £1000+ trips to the garage becasue of a part gone wrong, but I am sort of willing the take the risk to get into something more interesting to drive.
Apologies for the waffle, I'm pretty stumped and lost tbh. It's so tempting to just throw finance at the problem and get something warrantied and open the budget to better options but I'd rather not tie myself up at the moment.
Although I have been in need of a larger for a while, I've been holding off to when I'll be in better financial shape (house renovated and sold) to avoid the headache of compromising on the replacement.
So for ~£6k I've got the task of working out what to buy that will replace the Civic and figure out where I am forced to compromise.
The biggest issue is I do ~10k a year, but all estate cars large or small in this budget are mostly diesel. I have never owned a diesel and the only diesel I've driven is a Peugeot Partner Combi so my experience is very limited and negative. Estate cars seem fairly rare and even rarer petrol versions tend to be big engined with shocking economy. I guess I'll have no option but to go for a diesel but I have no idea what I'm getting myself into.
I'm also in two schools of thought. 5 series/A6 sized car, or 3 series/A4 sized car and buy a roof bag (no storage for a hard box) for the camping trips etc. If anyone has 2 kids, dogs, camps and hikes etc have you managed with a smaller estate at all or should I just go all-in and compromise elsewhere?
But my requirements are roughly as follows:
Estate, preferably large.
As economical if not better than the Civic (35mpg average with my driving style)
Auto lights & wipers
Proper climate control
Cruise control
Bluetooth (or the option to replace with a modern headunit if necessary)
Nice place to be, premium almost (but maybe asking a lot there)
As good as if not better performance than the Civic.
Auto preferable unless good argument against.
No older than the Civic, a little newer if possible (2008).
I was hoping to get into something that feels more premium. A large estate is not a revvy Civic that will nip along back roads so I want to go completely the opposte way with a car that's a nice place to be, doesn't feel too out of date and pulls its own weight without too much effort. I've seen F11 5 Series dipping into this budget, but high milage (100-170k+) 520ds. Obviously not all that desirable and I guess potential for huge bills? The Civic didn't want for much above consumables. I'm not afraid to get my hands dirty and self-maintain things but modern cars are less accessible, especially anything premium branded and parts are more expensive. I do accept something premium will be more expensive to run, I'd rather avoid £1000+ trips to the garage becasue of a part gone wrong, but I am sort of willing the take the risk to get into something more interesting to drive.
Apologies for the waffle, I'm pretty stumped and lost tbh. It's so tempting to just throw finance at the problem and get something warrantied and open the budget to better options but I'd rather not tie myself up at the moment.
