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Wed 5 Nov 2014 23:57

Big car luxury in a small car and on a budget. - StueyD

Hi All,

I'm looking for big car luxury in a small car and on a budget. Does such a thing exist?

I need to economise and i've had to sell my S-Class. I only do about 6,000 miles a year most of which is motorway driving. Ideally it should have 4 seats but as the rears will only ever be used by my kids it doesn't matter if it's a bit cramped in the back :-)

I only have a budget of about £3,000 and was wondering what is out there that is comfortable with a ride that easily soaks up the bumps from our potholed roads, is pretty quiet at motorway speeds, will do 0-60 in less than 10 seconds and will be reliable and cheap to run.

Any suggestions?

Cheers!

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Thu 6 Nov 2014 08:51

Big car luxury in a small car and on a budget. - mss1tw

Peugeot 406 with a big engine

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Fri 7 Nov 2014 13:31

Big car luxury in a small car and on a budget. - Gibbo_Wirral

+1 to that, especially a GLX or LX or SE model.

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Thu 6 Nov 2014 10:24

Big car luxury in a small car and on a budget. - HandCart

HOW small ?

Audi A4 / VW Passat -size,
Audi A3 or VW Jetta -size,
or Audi A1 / VW Polo -size ?

Kia Magentis?

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Thu 6 Nov 2014 10:43

Big car luxury in a small car and on a budget. - RT

Kia Magentis?

The '00-05 Kia Magentis was a Hyundai Sonata rebadged - the '05-10 Magentis was unique to Kia - the '10- onwards Kia Optima, as it's now known, uses the Hyundai i40 platform and powertrains.

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Thu 6 Nov 2014 10:48

Big car luxury in a small car and on a budget. - madf

Cheap to run?

So low RFL. (which excludes all big cars post March 2006 if in the over 250gms emission level)

Reliable - means only Korean or Japanese. And with a fsh..

I'd buy an unwanted unloved big barge for £2k.. a Lexus LS400 and get a good independent to service it.

tinyurl.com/mejblpa

Edited by madf on 06/11/2014 at 10:54

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Thu 6 Nov 2014 12:52

Big car luxury in a small car and on a budget. - Alanovich

Kia Magentis?

the '05-10 Magentis was unique to Kia

The Magentis and Hyundai Sonata of that generation were virtually identical save badges and grille. Magentis always =ed Sonata.

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Thu 6 Nov 2014 11:33

Big car luxury in a small car and on a budget. - Stumblebum

At £3K you need to compromise on something. A good compromise you could consider is a Honda Civic 2000-2004 generation in Exec Spec (I can't help think of this as being a retired bank manager's car).

- Leather Seats, sun roof, air con

- I found it comfortable (I am 5 foot 11)

- Loads of Space for size of car. I had no problem with 4 large adults

- 1.6 Petrol nippy enough with one on board

- Ride is ok

- Japanese petrol reliability. I ran one to 110K with no problems until insurance write off. Tolerates supermarket petrol.

I used to get 37 mpg mixture of town and A roads, 40+ on the motorway.

Very dull car in appearance - especially in silver.

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Thu 6 Nov 2014 11:33

Big car luxury in a small car and on a budget. - Stumblebum

(Duplicate post)

Edited by Avant on 06/11/2014 at 19:02

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Thu 6 Nov 2014 12:18

Big car luxury in a small car and on a budget. - oldtoffee

Kia Ceed or Hyundai i30 (less of them around) , preferably a 1.6 but the 1.4 is just about ok. Lots of spec leather, aircon, steering wheel audio controls, on anything but the base models and most (not all) of that age/price will have beeen privately owned and cared for with servicing in the dealer network for the 5 or 7 year warranty period. You might still get a Ceed within its last year of warranty for around your price.

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Thu 6 Nov 2014 20:12

Big car luxury in a small car and on a budget. - StueyD

Thanks for all the suggestions so far. Please keep them coming!

Gotta be honest, I do like the sound of an old Lexus :-) Though it's not exactly small.

A few years back I test drove an Audi A2 and I thought that had a lot going for it though I hear contradictory reports on its reliabilty. The TT is also on my radar but again I hear build quality is quite variable on them too.

Mazda RX8? Ticks a lot of boxes. Not frugal but then I don't do a lot of miles...

Renault Clio 2.0 Renaultsport?

Renault Vel Satis?

The above all sound "interesting" but my head is telling me Honda, Toyota, Kia, etc....

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Thu 6 Nov 2014 20:37

Big car luxury in a small car and on a budget. - Wukl

Late Lexus GS300 (98-05 model).

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Thu 6 Nov 2014 23:35

Big car luxury in a small car and on a budget. - daveyK_UK

Whoever said the kia magentis/hyundai sonata where different vehicles is wrong, they are 98% the same car.

Likewise, the kia optima and i40 share alot of similarities.

I would recommend a kia magentis 2.0 petrol highly, get the top of the range model with the leather and make sure the cam belt including water pump has been changed.

They are bulletproof provided the belt and pump are changed at the recomended service intervals.

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Fri 7 Nov 2014 17:35

Big car luxury in a small car and on a budget. - Avant

If you're looking for comfort, think about a Volvo: they have some of the best seats in the business. The S40 / V50 /S60 are all a lot smaller than your old S-Class.

An Audi A3 or BMW 1-series will give you a feeling of luxury, but the ride tends to be firm.

For £3,000, and in view of you low annual mileage, I strongly suggest you avoid anything with a diesel engine.

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