Cars! What cars? Cars!

[Matt]

My old E46 is dead. I had a lovely 4 or so years with the 2.5 automatic wafting about, doing about 3k miles a year.

I'm now looking at replacements in the 4-6k GBP region. I am in two minds and am hoping for some new brain inputs from our brain trust here .

1. I do 3k miles a year. Get a big V8 before they all dead/collectors items. Namely a BMW e63 650i, xj 4.2, xf. - top/over the top of budget
2. I do 3k miles a year. Get another 3 series in the 325i or 330i range, probably e90 pre facelift. - middle of budget
3. I do 3k miles a year. Do what <insert your username here> says.

I wish getting 'into' bikes got one 'out of' cars but I still have a hankering for subjectively nice cars. I got very close to going to see an SL350 (circa 05 vintage) before a friend with one dissuaded me with his tails of leaky bits. Whilst I can technically afford to throw money at old 'luxury' cars, I'll probably still get annoyed having to do so too often. One day I need to find out why Mercedes thought using the pneumatic stuff from a Lego technik set for their central locking was a good idea.

The increase in price of all cars is also rather annoying. What was 5k a year or so ago is now 6 or 7k.

Help me EuroK, you're my almost only hope.

[andym2]

Stretch the budget a bit and get an S2000. They're like a go cart with a 2.0 litre Fireblade engine.

[Matt]

Hahah that's a leftfield option! I should add then, I'm after waft and comfort. For instance when I see an S class with 16s I think "that's more like it!" And when I see a 3 series with 19s I think "that is less like it!"

[black-k1]

I'd love to suggest getting a big V8 but I suspect that the risk of some pretty huge bills would always be lurking. I got rid of my TVR Chimaera (5.3 V8 Developments upgrade ) because, it cost me more in general running/servicing costs over 5 years (new clutch, new shocks, new battery, new exhaust etc. etc. etc.) than it did in petrol (and that thing could drink petrol!!!). It really didn't like just sitting in the garage waiting for the occasional sunny day.

Having just been through a similar debate with myself I ended up with a late 2010 E93 330i at slightly more than your budget. New enough to still be reasonably reliable, fun enough to take the Mrs out on a sunny Sunday afternoon and comfortable enough for my aging bones.

[Matt]

Ah that sounds painful! Having researched a lot on the 650i I know I've got valve stem seals, coolant pipe thing, cam chain plastic guides, regular oil and correct coolant changes to worry about before even thinking about HUDs and active damping etc.

The E9x does indeed seem like the sensible spot. I know the newer 3.0 can have injector issues but that's not too major a thing these days. Damn budget creep!

Do you notice much, what do they call it, scuttle shake, from the convertible?

I can't get on with the E60 no matter how I try, and I think we have a good few years before the F10 comes into range.

Ok, back to Auto Trader!

[farmer]

just went through what you're going through.
however i'm a diesel head... that may stop you there.
my old a6 2.7tdi quattro has stood the test of time well, 260 thousand miles with very little work done, swirl flaps removed almost 200 thousand miles ago, rear shocks about a year ago and thats it apart from normal servicing ..i'm a bit fussy about oil, very important in diesels especially vw/audi and bmw in my opinion. we looked at a range of cars, herself and me. i wanted something big and comfortable and tidy looking..something like yourself i think (what you want, not you in particular) she wanted something smaller and easy run.
my list was jaguar xf , audi a 5/6/7/8 bmw 640d/730d, a granada or cortina would also have pleased me but i was never getting away with the last two.
the xf was discounted as reliability problems seem too frequent.
the 2 litre offerings from both bmw and audi have gone to pot reliability wise, the 2.0 vw effort has seen some improvement but not enough for me, the bmw 4 cylinder diesel is just pants.
now we are driving the same a6 as we couldn't agree on a replacement.
couple of suggestions, bmw 335d, decat and a wee tune up and you've m3 power with the reliable 6 pot diesel, i know you're a landrover guy so either a discovery or range rover... lot of car for the money and plenty of specialists for problems, i would avoid a range rover that's been garaged up for a period of time though, they dont like sitting idle. v8 is easier run than the v6.
a golf, that said we have one sitting here that everyone drove when my daughters were needing cars for ...whatever we needed, but thats not good enough now...well she's back in the audi and i'm happy enough in the defender.

[fjtwelve]

535d msport with a remap. A 335d might be fractionly quicker during to less weight but that engine is immense waft or welly

[Grumpy jase]

For me, if you really want to waft, it has to be a Jag XJ.  An X350 onwards will certainly be in budget, and if it's got sensible mileage and history then it should be no worse than any other car, plus a nice V8 and excellent Autobox.  Me and family have run XJ8, XK8, S types and even a late XJS back in the day, and none have ever given significant trouble (even the XJS).

[black-k1]

My old A6 diesel ran reliably for over 250k miles but fun/Interesting it wasn't.  Hence the TVR.

The E93 is fun. Surprisingly,  the performance is more "muted" than I expected but once the speed has started to build, it keeps building. I don't notice any scuttle shake roof up or down. It is definitely more GT than sports car but I'd say it's like a 4 wheeled K1300S.

[richtea]

Cars are boring compared to (nearly) all bikes.

Get a BMW i3 and be smug that whatever pollution you avoid in the car can be blown on the most exotic bike instead, and you'll still be greener than all the urban-dwelling SUV tossers out there.

Ooo, that came out a bit vicious and bitter didn't it? Good.

[Swindon Andy]

The XJ is a good suggestion for wafting, but it is a big car. Don't discount an XFR though, they are superb and have the same awesome blown V8 as the XJ. They'll mooch around quietly and easily then turn mental if you floor it. The reliability issues are mainly minor,  mainly electrical. I've had two and would get another in a flash if there were recent models available. Avoid if no FSH though.

[Matt]

Thanks everyone! Lots to think about when I'm fresh in the morning! Initial brain dump:

335d: I have been ignoring diesels other than the 3.0 in the ~09 e350 which gets good words and having been a passenger it didn't upset me. I'll take a look at the x35d stuff though now thanks . Initial results: it seems that absolutely any 3 series (or BMW in general boo) is prone to barrying .

I would love an XJ. The 4.2 is proven, other than alloy corrosion stuff there's nothing in my head catalogue at least to worry me. It is massive but then I suppose refinement traditionally comes attached to a longer wheelbase. The biggest blocker here might be my own memories of 5 grand 4.2s a plenty a couple of years ago. That price bracket is now the ford 3.0 unit. Obviously both are beating the 650i in reliability stakes.

My man maths is already saying "well if it isn't going to break you can up the budget" :/

XF wise, I also am partial to, though it's also had that 4.2 price hike. Some do look lovely though.

Rich: i3! The challenge now is who is the Apple of electric car batteries, and who is the Xiaomi where after 3 years they've lost all their capacity? But more relevant to this topic: is it better to keep an old v8 running or let them be 'scrapped' and replace with a child labour electric car? Obviously we all hippo critiques and the i3 you suggest is also used so I'm talking shit :p. Anywayvthey still over ten grand so not yet! About the closest at this range is the gs450h which is somewhat a 'pretend' one with its tiny battery.

[Bruno]

My old E46 is dead. I had a lovely 4 or so years with the 2.5 automatic wafting about, doing about 3k miles a year.

I'm now looking at replacements in the 4-6k GBP region. I am in two minds and am hoping for some new brain inputs from our brain trust here .

1. I do 3k miles a year. Get a big V8 before they all dead/collectors items. Namely a BMW e63 650i, xj 4.2, xf. - top/over the top of budget
2. I do 3k miles a year. Get another 3 series in the 325i or 330i range, probably e90 pre facelift. - middle of budget
3. I do 3k miles a year. Do what <insert your username here> says.

I wish getting 'into' bikes got one 'out of' cars but I still have a hankering for subjectively nice cars. I got very close to going to see an SL350 (circa 05 vintage) before a friend with one dissuaded me with his tails of leaky bits. Whilst I can technically afford to throw money at old 'luxury' cars, I'll probably still get annoyed having to do so too often. One day I need to find out why Mercedes thought using the pneumatic stuff from a Lego technik set for their central locking was a good idea.

The increase in price of all cars is also rather annoying. What was 5k a year or so ago is now 6 or 7k.

Help me EuroK, you're my almost only hope.

Hi Matt, I'm assuming that your friend had an issue with water ingress into the boot?

[Phmode]

Cars are boring compared to (nearly) all bikes.

Get a BMW i3 and be smug that whatever pollution you avoid in the car can be blown on the most exotic bike instead, and you'll still be greener than all the urban-dwelling SUV tossers out there.

Ooo, that came out a bit vicious and bitter didn't it? Good.

If I could fit you in the A3 and take you for a pootle along a few local lanes you might say lots of things about it but none of them would include the word boring. There are boring drivers and spirited drivers. A boring driver will always be boring in any car. A spirited driver will never be boring in any car and I could have as much fun in a old Morris 1000 as I do on any of the bikes. You've either got the bike gene or you haven't and the same is true of the car gene. I'm fortunate that I am blessed by both and I'm sick of seeing boring riders on boring (or exciting) bikes queueing up behind miles of traffic and getting in the way when I want to overtake the lot of them. But that's just me being boring...

If Matt wants to waft, a cheap'ish A6 3.0 TDi quattro Avant will waft all day long, for as long as he lives. Mine did, up to about 3mph and then, because I don't waft, it went like all the bat's out of hell were after it. Even driven hard I could only just get it below 30 mpg, so not as guzzly as a big block V8.

Knowing where Matt lives, at 3,000 miles a year he is going to spend most of those just trying to get to some exciting roads, so I understand the waft thing. I think.

[Matt]

My old E46 is dead. I had a lovely 4 or so years with the 2.5 automatic wafting about, doing about 3k miles a year.

I'm now looking at replacements in the 4-6k GBP region. I am in two minds and am hoping for some new brain inputs from our brain trust here .

1. I do 3k miles a year. Get a big V8 before they all dead/collectors items. Namely a BMW e63 650i, xj 4.2, xf. - top/over the top of budget
2. I do 3k miles a year. Get another 3 series in the 325i or 330i range, probably e90 pre facelift. - middle of budget
3. I do 3k miles a year. Do what <insert your username here> says.

I wish getting 'into' bikes got one 'out of' cars but I still have a hankering for subjectively nice cars. I got very close to going to see an SL350 (circa 05 vintage) before a friend with one dissuaded me with his tails of leaky bits. Whilst I can technically afford to throw money at old 'luxury' cars, I'll probably still get annoyed having to do so too often. One day I need to find out why Mercedes thought using the pneumatic stuff from a Lego technik set for their central locking was a good idea.

The increase in price of all cars is also rather annoying. What was 5k a year or so ago is now 6 or 7k.

Help me EuroK, you're my almost only hope.

Hi Matt, I'm assuming that your friend had an issue with water ingress into the boot?

Yep! And I think he has a vacuum pump issue thing with his central locking at the mo.

Bri: yeah, use cases are generally more than 75 percent of miles going into Sutton region, 25 percent trips up to brum. So either boring motorway or congested a roads.

My best mate had an a6 for a while. 07 ish vintage. It is irrational entirely but it's put me off them as it was in a bit of a state, and also the 2.0tdi which was... A 2.0tdi.

So, my short list is currently:
 - a 8.5 grand gs450h
 - a 8.5 grand sl350
The above two are at a nice dealer in a nice place, which is half my battle. Friend bought from them before.
 - a 6.5 grand E350 cdi
 - a 5.5 grand 630i but for sale in somewhere I don't even want to leave my bike for 5 minutes.

I'm struggling to find non messed with 330i cars within arsedness range of me.