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[tunnie]

I'm giving serious thought to replacing the 3.2 at the end of the year with something newer, but I'm struggling to source options.

Requirements

- Ideally no more than 3 years old
- Petrol
- Auto
- Large (Zafira Tourer/Mondeo Estate)

Budget probably around £10k or so.

If I include diesel the options explode in size from handful to thousands! But for petrol, I'm very, very limited   

Best I can find is 1.4T Zafira Tourers around 2013-16 plates, with sub 20k miles, bang on budget and fit all requirements. But they appear to be my only choice 

Everything else is 6/7 years old at least and triple the miles on the clock.

Any other suggestions? 

[Field Marshal Dr. Opti]

I'm giving serious thought to replacing the 3.2 at the end of the year with something newer, but I'm struggling to source options.

Requirements

- Ideally no more than 3 years old
- Petrol
- Auto
- Large (Zafira Tourer/Mondeo Estate)

Budget probably around £10k or so.

If I include diesel the options explode in size from handful to thousands! But for petrol, I'm very, very limited   

Best I can find is 1.4T Zafira Tourers around 2013-16 plates, with sub 20k miles, bang on budget and fit all requirements. But they appear to be my only choice 

Everything else is 6/7 years old at least and triple the miles on the clock.

Any other suggestions? 

I'm pleased you have 'seen the light' Mr Tunnie.

[Doctor Gollum]

Drop the age requirement and buy a proper car... budget will buy a petrol R Class with change...

[tunnie]

I'm giving serious thought to replacing the 3.2 at the end of the year with something newer, but I'm struggling to source options.

Requirements

- Ideally no more than 3 years old
- Petrol
- Auto
- Large (Zafira Tourer/Mondeo Estate)

Budget probably around £10k or so.

If I include diesel the options explode in size from handful to thousands! But for petrol, I'm very, very limited   

Best I can find is 1.4T Zafira Tourers around 2013-16 plates, with sub 20k miles, bang on budget and fit all requirements. But they appear to be my only choice 

Everything else is 6/7 years old at least and triple the miles on the clock.

Any other suggestions? 

I'm pleased you have 'seen the light' Mr Tunnie.

I'd go diesel, but given that 90% of it's work will be town there is no point in diesel. It would not have a chance to do it's re-gen cycles.

Drop the age requirement and buy a proper car... budget will buy a petrol R Class with change...

The number of Petrol and Automatic (don't think they did manual) Merc R-Class on Autotrader? = 7

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-search?sort=sponsored&radius=1500&postcode=tw89de&onesearchad=Used&onesearchad=New&make=MERCEDES-BENZ&model=R%20CLASS&fuel-type=Petrol

That's a choice of 7 cars.....

... dropping age requirements means £500+ road tax. No thanks!

This family bus will be around for a while, so £500 a year just to tax the thing is not realistic. I'm not a rich Labour Lord like Opti   

[Doctor Gollum]

Above budget, but very well specced and ticks all the other boxes...

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201701030967267?radius=1500&onesearchad=Used&onesearchad=Nearly%20New&onesearchad=New&advertising-location=at_cars&make=MERCEDES-BENZ&fuel-type=Petrol&sort=year-desc&body-type=Estate&price-from=500&postcode=rh60np&model=E%20CLASS&transmission=Automatic&page=1

On budget, but a bit older... look after it and you should get ten years out of it...

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201705095272925?price-from=500&advertising-location=at_cars&onesearchad=Used&onesearchad=Nearly%20New&onesearchad=New&transmission=Automatic&model=E%20CLASS&sort=year-desc&make=MERCEDES-BENZ&postcode=rh60np&body-type=Estate&radius=1500&fuel-type=Petrol&page=2

Newest R Class just over budget... http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201705045082633?make=MERCEDES-BENZ&sort=year-desc&radius=1500&transmission=Automatic&model=R%20CLASS&fuel-type=Petrol&price-from=500&postcode=rh60np&advertising-location=at_cars&onesearchad=Used&onesearchad=Nearly%20New&onesearchad=New&page=1

Go a bit older, and an R350L can be had for around £6,500...

[Doctor Gollum]

You can't have a large petrol auto with a pissy little engine and expect it to last. Either accept the tax hit or go pre '06

Besides, the miniscule numbers of larger petrol cars is no surprise... that horse bolted before Mc Ruin took over

[tunnie]

You can't have a large petrol auto with a pissy little engine and expect it to last. Either accept the tax hit or go pre '06

When I say large, I mean physical car size, not engine.

Those 1.8 E-Classes would be great, but again, just 5 of them in the whole country! Not exactly a lot of choice

R-Class with massive 5.5L is just massive over-kill for MrsT to go nipping about town, pre-06 not really going to happen either I want something with low miles so I'm not always having to fix it.

Gone are the days when you could pick one of 100's of Mondeo Estates with petrol engine, around 18 months old. That may change in next 2-3 years or so but not now. 

[Doctor Gollum]

A 1.0 Mondeo won't work for long.

Either of those E Classes should give a decade of reliable service if looked after.

Or... http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201705314000006?model=R%20CLASS&price-from=500&transmission=Automatic&postcode=rh60np&sort=year-desc&onesearchad=Used&onesearchad=Nearly%20New&onesearchad=New&fuel-type=Petrol&make=MERCEDES-BENZ&radius=1500&advertising-location=at_cars&page=1

The budget saving is equal to seven years tax. Done.

A compromise... http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201608106666812?fuel-type=Petrol&make=MERCEDES-BENZ&price-from=500&price-to=10000&advertising-location=at_cars&radius=1500&sort=year-desc&onesearchad=Used&onesearchad=Nearly%20New&onesearchad=New&postcode=rh60np&transmission=Automatic&model=S%20CLASS&page=1

[Doctor Gollum]

Only one of theses...

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201705255814970?fuel-type=Petrol&body-type=Estate&make=VOLKSWAGEN&price-from=500&price-to=10000&advertising-location=at_cars&radius=1500&sort=year-desc&onesearchad=Used&onesearchad=Nearly%20New&onesearchad=New&postcode=rh60np&transmission=Automatic&model=PASSAT&page=1

You can even plug into it

[tunnie]

Only one of theses...

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201705255814970?fuel-type=Petrol&body-type=Estate&make=VOLKSWAGEN&price-from=500&price-to=10000&advertising-location=at_cars&radius=1500&sort=year-desc&onesearchad=Used&onesearchad=Nearly%20New&onesearchad=New&postcode=rh60np&transmission=Automatic&model=PASSAT&page=1

You can even plug into it

Having VAGCOM is huge bonus, won't get that with Vx/Merc/Ford. But again, only 5 examples in whole of the UK. Snookered choice!

If went Passat Estate, I'd get the diesel, more choice and just keep an eye on the DPF with a plug in every couple of weeks.

[TheBoy]

The age limit is going to crucify you.  Even "no badge snobbery" cars are not going to depreciate enough for bargain basement prices.

As you aren't after anything specific, with no specific requirements, just a standard shitbox, it might be worth trawling the dealers in August for pre-registered cars. Given the recession we are now in (granted, not technically yet), you might find great deals, as dealers will be missing targets.  The deals might not necessarily be low screen price, but might include long I/F credit, or multiple years free servicing....

I saw brand spankers zaffy tourers a few months ago at the dealers, for sub £13k...   ....which ain't massively over your budget.


Or stick with the Omega a bit longer.  £10k buys an awful lot of go-go juice, and fuel aside, costs sod all to run.

[TD]

You may want look at a Mondeo 1.6TD estate, like mine....

This car does about 90% of its work in town.....it manages to do a dpf regen, usually when I'm in town (idle revs slightly go up, so I know its doing one) 170k ish on its clock now.....still going...never needed a new dpf, as my last car didn't need one either....that was an Octavia VRS 

[tunnie]

But yours would be on all day? I've noticed mine will regen at idle in town, revs up by 200rpm or so, in the slow stop-start crawl to the office it can complete after faster bits. (My commute time is around 60 mins each way)

But engine running time will very short for MrsT, sub 10 mins easily a lot of the time.

[tunnie]

The age limit is going to crucify you.  Even "no badge snobbery" cars are not going to depreciate enough for bargain basement prices.

As you aren't after anything specific, with no specific requirements, just a standard shitbox, it might be worth trawling the dealers in August for pre-registered cars. Given the recession we are now in (granted, not technically yet), you might find great deals, as dealers will be missing targets.  The deals might not necessarily be low screen price, but might include long I/F credit, or multiple years free servicing....

I saw brand spankers zaffy tourers a few months ago at the dealers, for sub £13k...   ....which ain't massively over your budget.


Or stick with the Omega a bit longer.  £10k buys an awful lot of go-go juice, and fuel aside, costs sod all to run.

I doubt they would do good deals on 1.4T they are all diesels out there, have a feeling 1.4T would be special orders.

But worth looking at dealers, I would snap up brand spankers at £13k....

[STEMO]

Surprised you haven't considered the astra estate. Plenty of 1.4T's about and deceptively large. Probably not that many autos (in fact, I think most of the autos are 1.6), but it's worth a look, I think.