Time to change the S80 - sanity check please?

[Participant]

Hi all

I need to change my main family car. The S80 is doing well and I'm pretty happy with it, but I need more boot space as I have two young kids and we tend to take a lot of luggage with us.

I'm thinking about a ~2012 5 series, probably a 530d Touring. My budget is ~£22,000.

My basic plan is to sell the S80 for ~£5k, put down ~£10k cash, and get a two year personal loan for the remaining £7k.

As you can see there are a lot of '~'s in this post, so really I'm asking how this feels to you as an impartial observer?

What I want is a large family car with a bit of a premium feel, comfortable for long drives to the continent with the family etc. I also love the look of the 5 series Touring whereas I'd struggle to love the Superb (sorry Superb fans).

Assuming I can afford my financing option (as well as a warranty I presume I'd need), does this sound rational to you, or should I just get a Skoda Superb for half the money?

Many thanks for any opinions.

 

[Participant]

Thanks for the replies, very useful.

The only thing I'd check is that the boot is actually as big as you think it is on the 5.

Its been a long time since I was in an s80 but I remember the boot being absolutely huge and a good shape - even on the touring the 5 series is best described as "big". If its the height that you're after then it'll probably work out, but best check one out just in case

Fair observation. The S80 boot is pretty big, but as ever with a saloon, the shape of the boot is such that it's hard to get some items in and you can't pile things up, as you tend to need to with a family holiday. Also the 5 series has a not insignificant 120 litres of extra space.

Seems fair enough to me, the only real snag is that a 2012 530d Touring is going to be quite difficult to find for this budget - by 2012 the majority of 530d's registered were M Sport's which are rather more than £22k if you dont want a high miles low spec example.

You might be better off falling back to 2010/11 and picking up a sensible mileage high spec example for your budget.

Isn't it utterly bonkers how much money you need to pay for comparatively old 5 Series

You won't get a good spec 2012 530D Touring for 22k, they appear around 25-27k but sell quickly most are 30k.

The cheapest 2012 530D from BMW AUC is currently a 23k SE model without Pro Nav. You will need to go older and higher miles to get a good one for 22k.

Yes, they do tend to keep their value very well! OK, so my budget needs to go up or my expectations need to go down. Maybe a 2 litre M sport from 2012? The 530d was just something I fancied, I'm not bothered about speed really as I've got a motorbike for giggles and I doubt the 520d is exactly slow.

 

[Participant]

Have you got any further with your decisions?
What about an A6 Avant or E Class? They don't seem to hold their value as well as F10s..

Not yet, still researching. Got absolutely no time for this kind of thing at the moment. What I can say is that while I've nothing against the A6 or E-class per se, the F10 is my preference of the three from a looks and image point of view. Audi's a bit rep and Merc's a bit old (is my no-doubt-flawed perception).

The only decision I've made is that the 520d isn't going to work. I drove a colleague's yesterday and I can go along with the comments about the 520d. It wouldn't be awful, but when spooging ~£25k it needs to be better than not awful.

Appreciate all the replies anyway.