Which SUV for approx £30k

Out of the ones I have experience of I'd say if you actually need the 4 wheel drive system the Touareg would be the better option - I live in a rural area with sketchy roads and while like 95+% of the time you don't need anything special, when you do you want something you can feel confidence in and a lot of SUVs in my experience aren't that - one thing VW got right with the Touareg and Tiguan is that in those rare in this country times of need it doesn't disgrace itself.

(Having that kind of vehicle has actually been more useful with flooding than ice or snow in the last 3 years though heh).
 
older but looks great


or lexus

 
Out of the ones I have experience of I'd say if you actually need the 4 wheel drive system the Touareg would be the better option - I live in a rural area with sketchy roads and while like 95+% of the time you don't need anything special, when you do you want something you can feel confidence in and a lot of SUVs in my experience aren't that - one thing VW got right with the Touareg and Tiguan is that in those rare in this country times of need it doesn't disgrace itself.

(Having that kind of vehicle has actually been more useful with flooding than ice or snow in the last 3 years though heh).

The latest Touareg must have taken a bit of a beating in price lately. The 3.0TDI 286ps model had been stuck around £36K bottom for a while but nice to see them finally down around £30k. Seems a lot of car for the money!
 
The latest Touareg must have taken a bit of a beating in price lately. The 3.0TDI 286ps model had been stuck around £36K bottom for a while but nice to see them finally down around £30k. Seems a lot of car for the money!

Even the new ones are a lot of car for the money but the older ones, shame they are getting on now, VW really threw a lot of stuff at them and in many ways the better vehicle if not for lacking some modern features.

My brother in law got one cheap recently as it had a few issues including failed infotainment system - previous owner had been quoted nearly 10 grand for just fixing the electrical bits never mind a couple of mechanical issues and a boot leak - my brother in law sorted it all himself for a grand.
 
These were looking like a winner until I borrowed one for a few hours. Couldn't find a comfortable driving position (might have just needed more time to play around with it), and the ride was quite harsh - certainly for an SUV. To be honest I'd want something with a slightly larger boot, though its a good shape. And I'm just not sure I'm brave enough to own an Alfa! :)

Yeah the platform in both Stelvio and Giulia has a hard ride, unless you spec the adaptive suspension so you can soften things off.

I've had my 21 plate Giulia a year now and it has been faultless, less hassle than my brand new Audi A4 gave me. They do have some quirks with battery charging on older models, which I believe people fix with a software update and\or AGM battery. Touch wood no issues with the battery in mine so far which is amazing considering I hardly drive it with 4k miles in the first year.
 
Skoda Kodiaq vRS is probably worth a look, though I think Canton sound and adaptive suspension would have been options, so you'd need to find the right one.
 
I'd recommend a Kodiaq Vrs too if it is of interest, you'd have to get the TDI for your budget. Not sure how popular it was so might not be too many out there. On the current TSI it has adaptive suspension as standard but I don't know if the TDI has this as standard.
 
Thanks for all of the suggestions, really appreciate it.

My wife had a Tiguan before which I really liked, though hers was the 150ps diesel so had little grunt, but was still a solid workhorse of a car and was great in winter with decent boots on.

Quite tempted by something like this:

Bit above budget but ticks most boxes.

For a touch more again:

Within budget:
 
older but looks great
You're right on the first part, but if you think that looks great then I really think you should head down to specsavers :D

Thanks for all of the suggestions, really appreciate it.

My wife had a Tiguan before which I really liked, though hers was the 150ps diesel so had little grunt, but was still a solid workhorse of a car and was great in winter with decent boots on.

Quite tempted by something like this:

Bit above budget but ticks most boxes.

For a touch more again:

Within budget:

All of those look like solid options in the grand scheme of things.

I actually quite like that Ateca, it's just another version of the VAG product, but something a little different. Beats audio is hilarious though, hopefully not as bad as their awful headphones :p

Try go and see each of these for a test drive and see how they all drive and feel. Also, a good trick to see how long a car has been sitting at dealers is to plug the Reg plate into the gov website and it'll say when tax was last due. If it has been sitting longer, then a dealer might be more likely to shift on the price or throw in more freebies to get the sale.

 
Or just look at the date in the autotrader link :p
Try go and see each of these for a test drive and see how they all drive and feel. Also, a good trick to see how long a car has been sitting at dealers is to plug the Reg plate into the gov website and it'll say when tax was last due. If it has been sitting longer, then a dealer might be more likely to shift on the price or throw in more freebies to get the sale.

 
Unfortunately the requirement for Adaptive Cruise will make this very difficult. Adaptive Cruise on most BMW models is expensive and usually only available as part of a package that few people ever order. Consequently, even though virtually every Golf since about 2013 has had Adaptive Cruise, to this day it's still really quite rare you'll find a BMW with it fitted.
My X3 M40i had driver assistance plus which came with adaptive cruise. So they are out there!
 
I think it's probably in my head/mental, but I was hoping for something with lower mileage, no more than around 25k miles.

My old boss had the T8 hybrid and had nothing but problems with it, though he may have been unlucky. Quite like the Volvos but I don't love their infotainment system.


Very similar to a few I've been looking at.



X5 45e, cheapest I can find is £58k!! Otherwise it'd be top of my list. Really don't like the Lexus SUVs, and I think those with Carplay would be out of budget anyway.


RRS would be fine, but to get Carplay you're looking at a 68 plate or newer, and thats LOL money.

We've a Lexus NX 2018 and you can retrofit Carplay to anything made after ~Apr 2018 as it has the upgraded infotainment, probably be about £25k ish. I'm not sure it fits a lot of your other criteria though. The RX would suit better with the V6 engine, but you're not getting the Carplay within budget. Lexus introduced the 10 yr warranty providing you service the car with them, although i think a lot of other manufacturers have also setup similar plans now.

I must say i was disappointed with the interior of a Cupra Ateca recently. For the price of the car i'd rather just have a Seat Ateca and sacrifice the speed, just felt like a wall of hard plastic everywhere.
 
From doing more hunting, I'm wondering whether I just accept that I'm going to have to pay for more physio/painkillers and get a 3 series Touring instead :D £37k bags one that has literally every option I want with a much nicer looking cabin than what I can find with the X3.
 
If you're going to change to an estate then £37K opens up quite a lot of options! I'd probably tempted more by a 5 Series from a comfort perspective and that kind of money could easily get you in a 540i X Drive Touring:



Ticks all the boxes and the head unit just needs patching to add CarPlay.
 
If you're going to change to an estate then £37K opens up quite a lot of options! I'd probably tempted more by a 5 Series from a comfort perspective and that kind of money could easily get you in a 540i X Drive Touring:



Ticks all the boxes and the head unit just needs patching to add CarPlay.

Not a bad option, though I think I'd rather the newer chassis 3 series touring with adaptive suspension for similar money - mainly because I really like iDrive 7 a lot, has OTA updates and the HUD functionality is much better. Granted that the 40i engine would be very nice to have.
 
Not a bad option, though I think I'd rather the newer chassis 3 series touring with adaptive suspension for similar money - mainly because I really like iDrive 7 a lot, has OTA updates and the HUD functionality is much better. Granted that the 40i engine would be very nice to have.

The chassis isn't really that much newer, they are both of the same generation. 5 Series built after about mid 2019 have iDrive 7 - those two look like they've just missed out.

That said the 3 Series is excellent now and would be my choice over any of these SUV alternatives.
 
If you're going to change to an estate then £37K opens up quite a lot of options! I'd probably tempted more by a 5 Series from a comfort perspective and that kind of money could easily get you in a 540i X Drive Touring:



Ticks all the boxes and the head unit just needs patching to add CarPlay.
Carbon black = Looks dirty 5mins after a wash.
Alpine White = White goods Beko white. Get Mineral White!

I couldn't take one of those without the drive assist plus package, the left of the wheel looks empty without the extra buttons.
 
I just linked both from BMW Approved for the warranty as that was an original requirement. Cheapest iDrive 7 car with HUD and in either 540i or 530d guise is £41k from BMW approved!

Sure they'd be several though outside of the dealer network for less money.
 
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