Thanks for your advice. I agree with your overall observation: diesel is king within the market at this point. From what i've read elsewhere, I probably shouldn't worry too much about the DPF issue as it is something that tends to become a problem much later in life when I would probably have changed the car anyway. That isn't guaranteed of course, but the savings in fuel cost between diesel and petrol would help to offset any repair cost from DPF issues. Interesting point on the Audi, I don't particularly appreciate a firm ride and the other point that makes me a little nervous of Audi is that their reputation for reliability isn't exactly brilliant. The BMW does look lovely, but I agree with you on the M sport suspension which might put me off! I'll certainly look at the Jaguar so thanks for that suggestion. The Merc CLS I am tempted with (although only the 350d V6 not the smaller 220d) as I currently have an E class, and it has been a very good car, and i've had very good experience with Mercedes for customer service. Absolutely correct that for these cars, only main dealers should service them.

That's interesting, thanks. In terms of the mpg, for the size of engine and performance on offer, that's pretty good. My current E class petrol only gives around 25 urban and about 33 on the motorway, and that is for an engine half the size!

Absolutely no help to you whatsoever, but having myself bought a small car recently I have to confess to loving really big cars. However, I long ago realised, after a brief flirtation with a dodgy example of the Rover 820, that I'll never own one ever again. Even if I could afford to buy a great big bus, I couldn't afford to run it, if that makes sense.

I agree that 30k seems a huge sum of money to spend on anything short of a deposit on a house, but if you've got it, why not flaunt it, and this is the place to find out how best to make that money work.

Meanwhile I'll consider myself to be doing well if next time round I can scrape enough together using a bit of cash, a credit card and a part ex to buy one of the cars which were recommended to me recently for around the eight grand mark, but which I ignored in favour of something else.

Edited by argybargy on 08/09/2017 at 10:42

Yep...certainly not knocking the OP...if that's what you wanna do then fine...it's his money and he should buy what the Hell he likes with it...and b***** good luck to him.

I'm a lover of big cars too...certainly big engines anyway. Always been a massive fan of the Lexus LS400...in the past had a 4.3 litre Chevy for ten years....a Rover P5b and now got a 3.0 litre V6 Toyota.

Generally, I don't buy cars under 2 litres..I think I might be addicted to cc's.

I... a Lexus hybrid might be worth a look. This one is dependent on your driving style: if you enjoy a good burst of acceleration form time to time, as I do, a hybrid isn't for you, but it does suit a more leisurely driver.

I thought that was one of the reasons for using a hybrid - the total power being higher than the engine on it's own.

Step away from the crowd - Volvo V60 3.0 T6 Polestar Estate AWD.

Real shame they don't do Jaguar XF shootbrakes with large petrol engines. If you could wait a year, the fpace with the supercharged v6 should come into your price range, may look like an SUV but it handle like a sports saloon.