HJ has expressed it similarly to this, and I agree with him :

The cost of repairs on a car is NOT related to what you paid for the car, but what it cost when new.

So the most important question is this : can you afford repairs when things go wrong with a £60-80k car, that is now 8-12 years old, and has been round the earth several times in mileage (so lots of things are reaching end of life)

If the answer is no, then you might want to re-think.

As to failures in that price bracket : BMW have timing chain and autobox problems. Mercs of that era were shoddily built. Audis chew their gearboxes. Jaguar / RangeRovers have electronics gremlins. Any of those failures could cost you thousands to diagnose and fix.

I'd go for either a Lexus or a Volvo - both very comfortable and likely to be more reliable that a Jaguar, and cheaper than one of the German premium marques.

If you don't need an estate, the Volvo S60 and S80 saloons should be good value secondhand.

Given their presence in Ford's Premium Auto Group (PAG), I'm not sure why you put Volvo and Jaguar in different categories.

Premium car running costs don't reduce with age as their purchase price does - assume that maintenance/repair costs are proprotional to original list price.

I once saw a programme on Sky where the thermostat on an Audi A8/S8 required almost the front of the car to be taken apart & the engine lifted half out to get access to the thermostat - 3 or 4 hours labour to fit a part worth a few £s

Similarly on another forum i saw pics where the VW sourced engine having to be lifted completely from a modern Bentley and most of the plumbing on one side then removed in order to access the starter motor.

Ludicrous doesn't begin to describe it, labour measured in days not hours.

Not alone mind, maybe its a modern German thing (customer there to pay?) ie BMW timing chains at the rear of a north south engine, and ISTR first gen A Class required subframe or engine out to access starter.

I wonder how long a designer coming up with howlers like that would last in the design studio at Toyota/Subaru/Mazda in Japan.

Edited by gordonbennet on 06/07/2016 at 16:43

For your criteria it has to be Lexus. None of the other marques will have such peace of mind when considering reliability, and those engines and autoboxes are as smooth as silk.

The only disadvantage is that they don't offer decent estate versions, unless you count the Lexus RX which is in a different category. But that may not matter to you.

Edited by corax on 06/07/2016 at 18:32

As a Jag XF driver, I would go for a pre-facelift 3L V6 petrol XF. :-)

They are down to £10k-ish now, and go for the newest you can afford, bearing in mind the last ones were on a '60 plate.

Main dealers won't have any (too old) so don't bother with them when trying to look for one.

But things like service parts (pads & disks) are shared with the S-type so any motor factor has them. Also the Jag specialists are able to supply parts for them.

Jag dealers also have a fixed price servicing deal under their '3+' programme.

I do 10k miles/year, which co-incides with the service intervals, so make sure any you look at have been serviced every 10k, otherwise walk away. I looked at 3 and even as 'Approved' cars, one had only been serviced twice in 38k so I walked from that one.

3L V6 engine is well proven, good for 200k but not the most CO2 efficient so you'd have to budget for £500/yr VED, but you can pay by credit card now, so use an interest free one.

23mpg around town/32-ish on a run using Shell Nitro+ UL (can get 35 on a run though if steady 75mph and climate control off and it's fairly wam)

bought mine from main dealer when it was 3yrs old, now had it for 3.5 years and the only that has stopped it was a failing Gear Shift Module which was £568.

Now someone is going to say "Well it wouldn't have failed if you had a Lexus....." but I wanted an XF...

maybe that will help you (to buy a Jag, or a Lexus, whichever way you go....!)

cheers

Stu

Edited by The Gingerous One on 07/07/2016 at 13:52