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What's the best used estate for £4000?
My commute is a 100-mile round trip per day (four days a week) and I am looking for a utopian estate car or similar that is reliable, economical, costs under £4000 to buy and can tow a trailer for runs to the dump (large trailer) at the weekend as well as seating three children and two adults for longer runs. If on top of all that it could be a reliable automatic diesel then great but will accept a manual! The last part of my commute is in stop-start traffic in London so the auto would be great but I can't find any that don't seem to break at 100k miles which is probably where my £4k brings me in. I am genuinely not that bothered by type of car/luxuries on board, etc; it just needs to keep going and do the job reasonably well!
Asked on 7 February 2019 by Fraser Whitehead
Answered by
Andrew Brady
As you're probably finding, that's quite a big wish list for £4000. Any car that you look at for this price is likely to have high miles and could produce some big bills - especially with a diesel engine and automatic gearbox. A Skoda Octavia might be a good choice - they're popular with taxi drivers for a reason, but they're not without their issues. I think I'd be hunting out a Volvo V70. They have lots of space and, again, they're not without problems - but we've not had too many reports of faults. Alternatively, a Honda Accord or Toyota Avensis would be a good option, but finding a good one might be difficult.
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