car ideas please 3-5K ?

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Sat 21 Jan 2006 12:31
car ideas please 3-5K ? - tiredeyes
Hi all, hope you lot are well. ;-)
Well its that time again, im due to come out of a company car again!
What car shall I get?
I am now a sort of sales person and consultant.
Have no money, but need a decent car to get around and meet clients, create new business.
The wife and I have a Bmw 02 plate cabriolet, which is fantastic car. Love it.
We need a car, which is going to look the part, and would love an auto 320 Bmw coupe bout an 02 plate.
So my dilemma is
Go for the heart = coupe bout £15K
Or the head 51 plate mondeo £3K
We have no money spare really, so I guess it?s the mondeo
But what else is there for around £3000 to £5000
I get 14ppm will be doing around 20K miles a year, so diesel/petrol equation isn?t an option, would go for a petrol. Short journeys, most would be a 40 mile stretch in one journey.

Really want a fast auto that does around 30mpg
Looks the part. Comfy, don?t want an estate. Just a saloon or coupe pref. can get towbar fitted for trailer for rubbish to tip.
we can share the Bmw cab, so as to get the mileage up a bit, and the wife can use this other car as well in the week, I suppose a 4/3 day split. She does around 4K miles a year.

Suggestions please anyone?
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Sat 21 Jan 2006 12:43
car ideas please 3-5K ? - smokescreen
Is the car's badge an issue? Lots of Peugeot 406 coupes available, lovely car from the outside and not bad to drive either. Reliability questionable although not actually assembled by Peugeot themselves so that might be a good thing. Can easily find one for £3k - 5k , even with a v6 although you might find it a little thirsty.
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Sat 21 Jan 2006 12:50
car ideas please 3-5K ? - NowWheels
On an allowance of 14p/mile, any car is going to be costing you more money than your allowance. I'd have thought that you'd be looking for something which looks neat and newish but is cheap to run, which suggests Mondeo rather than a BMW
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Sat 21 Jan 2006 15:44
car ideas please 3-5K ? - local yokel
Are you sure you are getting £0.14p/mile - that's not covering your costs (petrol/service/insurance/depreciation) - in fact, unless you are doing better than 30 mpg all the time you are losing money.
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Sat 21 Jan 2006 17:46
car ideas please 3-5K ? - adverse camber
"I am now a sort of sales person and consultant."

If you are only getting 14p/mile you have failed the negotiation skills part of the interview. thats fuel cost.

Why does it need to 'look the part'? If you need to take clients in the car then a coupe is a bad idea, if not then when will they see the car, and will they care ?

If status matters so much, buy the mundano/peugot whatever and slap a private plate on it - I never saw the point myself, Nobody bought anything off me because I turned up in a porsche, nobody didnt buy because I turned up in an ancient passat.
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If you cover no more than 100 miles per day and have easy access to a charging point at home or work, then an EV is ideal for you.

Is an electric car right for me?