Re the 307sw , apparently the best engine in terms of performance and mpg is the hdi diesel but do they suffer from the dreaded egr/dpf issues that a lot of diesels do and if so are they expensive to fix. My old xtrail cost me a fortune.

All true, but as you are looking for an elderly car, the question will be all about its history ; also the fact that when a car is being 'moved on' it may well be for a good reason. If that is because the owner has stopped driving, maybe a plus ; if because work needs doing, perhaps not. The diesel is certainly economical (mine has always done 60+mpg) but it will probably have a DPF unless it is pre-2009 like my car.

I had a look at some of the ones I listed and I think I might be overthinking it

Do I really need to buy an old.4x4 such as the Sportage, Tuscon, crv etc with all the extra costs of maintenance on the 4wd ...probably not.. I've seen a really cheap and according to the mot history well.looked after rav4 but then the tax, insurance and fuel costs would he much higher than an estate

Maybe for £3k that doesn't matter but I reckon if I bought something like a 307sw then I would save around £500 a year which I could use for repairs

Anyway that's my thoughts at the moment

Re the 307sw , apparently the best engine in terms of performance and mpg is the hdi diesel but do they suffer from the dreaded egr/dpf issues that a lot of diesels do and if so are they expensive to fix. My old xtrail cost me a fortune

Cheers

You certainly py don't need a big 4x4. The other thing you certainly don't need, though, is a diesel. Will a Mondeo estate do the job if you're not interested in an MPV?

I've seen a 2007 Volkswagen Touran 1.4 TSI SE 111k miles 12 months MOT ( no fails or advisories for last 4 years ) and its up for £2995. I now webuyanycar is just trade but it values it at £810... Is is that way overpriced ?

Earlier VW TSI engines used chain rather than belt and had problems due to said chain. I'm fairly sure one of this age would be chain and as such, I wouldn't be too keen regardless of price.

I've seen a 2007 Volkswagen Touran 1.4 TSI SE 111k miles 12 months MOT ( no fails or advisories for last 4 years ) and its up for £2995. I now webuyanycar is just trade but it values it at £810... Is is that way overpriced ?

It sounds like the right sort of ballpark price to me (assuming it's any good). My boss has a 08 Touran that he took to about 160k before he had issues with it.

I know webuyanycar is just trade but it values it at £810... Is is that way overpriced ?

I presume that is a dealer price, not private. It just indicates what kind of profit traders hope to make on any sale (quite a few years ago it was at least a grand), bearing in mind that they will be expected to include some sort of 'warranty' and cover themselves for the cost of fixing any immediate problems.

It also shows that the trade reckons the car has little more than scr@p value - it just goes to show that at this price point a private sale, if you can find a nice car, would be far better value, but without comeback of course. But there probably wouldn't be much from a trader either ....