Your choice makes you an individual, that's to be enjoyed in this land of cloned people driving cloned cars, it doesn't say anything about you other than you are not a sheep unable to think or do outside the herd.

I drive a 15 year old MB which we've had for 9 years, even had it LPG converted which means it's staying put for as long as it lasts. It has had it's share of problems, though not too many and no engine or drivetrain failures. Like you i enjoy owning and driving my old car, what anyone else thinks of me is of no interest.

I understand you going for the base Mazda, and there's precious few from the makes you list that i'd have chosen either, Volvo's fashionable cars do nothing for me any more.

The only car from those makers that stands out is the Chevvy Cruze, in auto (proper too) Diesel form a pleasant, competent and quiet car, not the latest hatchback though, that's joined the clone wars.

Daedalus, I hope that you'll make all the difference to your new company if their general management reflects their short-termist transport policy - more like your mythical son Icarus!

No doubt they selected those makes because of hearty discounts available on new cars, but they ignore the very poor resale values of Ford, Chevrolet and Vauxhall in particular. These come from oversupply (Ford, despite the cars being good), lack of driving excitement (Chevy) and both in the case of Vauxhall. More German and Japanese makes would have made sense.

Clearly you'll keep your Audi because you like it - the best reason, which is surely more important to you than what other people think of it (about 98 % of them don't notice anyway).

In terms of new v. secondhand, it's horses for courses. Whehn I got my first Skoda, a colleague bought a 3-year-old Mercedes estate which cost him about the same. I do 15,000 miles a year; he does about 6,000. Both of us were right: I wanted reliability in a car that I would expect the change in 2-3 years: he wanted the perceived qualities of a Mercedes in a car that he will keep for longer than that.

Edited by Avant on 21/08/2011 at 15:00

Just make sure it's had the camshaft recall before the engine blows up - the chilled-on (to a spindly hollow shaft) cam lobes often go walkabouts - goodbye S8 engine. The replacement billet camshafts are what it should have had in the firlst place - German engineering eh? If it was a Jag or a Rover the press would have a field-day...