What is the general consensus on miles vs age? That Skoda for instance ticks all the boxes, has even less miles than my limit, but is 12 years old. My gut feeling is that less miles is more important than actual age but I would love to hear other thoughts.

If I had your criteria I would go for a big Lexus, the hybrids are super reliable, one of my colleagues have one and he doesn't shut up about it.

I just found a great car on Auto Trader.

www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202102139037843?a...3

I'd favour a Lexus too, but not one with nearly 140k miles!.

Was looking at this one on Autotrader myself though, 202104231725167

A Mondeo would tick the boxes with the exception of 'standing out a bit'. However, your budget would get a very nice example.

I am a Mercedes fan and an E class would be well on my list. They don't have cam belts either, the engine choice is excellent, I have a 220d as I don't belt around now but the 320s give effortless performance. Caveat is that dealers are expensive so you need a good indie but there are numerous E class' around so you can pick a good one.

.... but do many of you not see a problem with buying a 10+ year old car?

Depends on the car. Thirsty luxobarges are their manufacturer's flagships and are usually made from the best quality materials by the most competent workers. They tend to do their biggest annual mileage (and it's often not that big) in their first year or three of usually careful ownership. Thereafter they often do far fewer miles per annum. Seven years ago I bought an eight year old Audi A8 at only 49,000 miles. Now fifteen going on sixteen with only 72,000 miles it is still in excellent condition.

Electrical parts and rubbery bits are made of materials far more resistant to corrosion and deterioration than ever before. Recently I had to remove a front wheel and the plastic inner wheel arch to gain access to a blocked screen washer pump intake filter. None of the screws and clips securing it to the aluminium bodywork showed any sign of corrosion, and neither did anything else in the vicinity.

Not to belabour the point, but do many of you not see a problem with buying a 10+ year old car?

The van I rely on for my work is a 2010 VW Caddy with over 110k miles on it. So, in a word, no.

If you are travelling to the mainland, I would humbly suggest that whatever you purchase, you drive it here for a week and any faults get them rectified by the selling dealer, as no faults will be covered by anything other than a manufacturers warranty.

For the extra risk and cost, I'd be looking at cars in your area, as getting anything back to a uk mainland dealer might be very expensive , if it has to be transported,

Think TWICE.