For your sort of budget you will be looking at a 7/8 year old Mercedes things to remember they are quite heavy on petrol (c180) the back seats unless a special order are fixed some of the so called leather is in fact synthetic and are very expensive to maintain if taken to Mercedes.Having said that once you have driven a three pointed star then other cars become second best spares are on a par with other makes, it depends what value you put on the driving enjoyment,I personally would go as stated above for a Mondeo or Insignia.

By the sound of it the OP wants a little bit of class a VW passat is the pits compared to the other cars that have been mentioned.

Have you thought of a Volvo V50? They're smart lookers and you could get one with all the trimmings now for a good price - there's a 1.6 diesel and petrol.

"Which?" - among others no doubt, provides noise reports on cars under its 'refinement' heading if that's what you're after. Much noise though comes from wide or fat tyres, so stick to small and narrow if noise is a priority for 'quality.'

I can't help but notice whenever anybody considers buying a nice car, people on here tell them the car is rubbish and encourage them to buy a Skoda, Saab or some other such nonsense.

My mum has a 54 plate C240 with just over 80k on it and it's a very nice car. Just driving it shows you the difference between these cars and cars which cost half as much. Cars like Mercedes and Jaguar's in particular (can't vouch too much for BMW as my experience of them is limited) drive better, smoother, more comfortable and more cleverley.

The automatic gearbox is simply better than you'd find in some other car, the ride is superior and the build quality - even on 10 year old Mercs - is actually very good. It's a cut above. There's a reason people will pay twice as much for it than they would for a Skoda. They are not just overpriced rubbish relying on badge, like Saab owners will continue to insist.

Well if you want a nice car with a prestige badge which is unlikely to go wrong, invariably you have to pay for it. That much I admit. It is more money than lesser makes of course and I understand the relatively little extra you get for quite a bit more money just doesn't make sense to a lot of people.

If someone is looking for a big four door car which is relatively new, good value for money and perfectly decent then a late 2000s Vauxhall Vectra will work for them absolutely fine. If that's what someone wants it'd be hard to sell them a BMW 525 of the same age because it'd be a good few grand more - and even for that you're looking at more miles.

I liken the scale of car prices to someone putting wallpaper paste in one end of the swimming pool. At one end you can get miles with little effort, but at the other end it takes much more energy to progress just a few inches.

Subaru Legacy is better than anything mentioned previously in terms of quality build and reliability and also rarity.