Hi, hope you are all keeping well.

I need a car basically, but it has to meet some requirements:

Automatic, I can no longer physically drive a manual

Estate, I have some big things to move now everyday

Not French, love the people, hate the cars

Not a big engine, upto 2.0 petrol and diesel is ok

Decent fuel economy

A few luxurys, AC, EW, RCL, PAS as absolute minimum

I would love something that is reliable and cheap to maintain, bear in mind that DIY maintance is out of the question now for me. I do still have my VAG-COM, so that could be used.

I'm thinking, as a maybe, Mk3/4 Golf? Or at least that kinda size, but must have that straight back that they offer.

Limit on spending is about

:(

Whats happened to you :(

i thought you had gone Moose , when the GOLD Fabia was sold

I think the limiting factor here could be who makes the best auto boxs.

I'm thinking BMW/Mercedes here tbh. A 3 series tourer would be available easily within budget, absolutely bullet proof.

Autotrader - BMW 3 SERIES 328i SE Touring 5dr Auto

Or, 5 series?

Autotrader - BMW 5 SERIES 523i SETouring

Merc?

Autotrader - MERCEDES-BENZ C180 Elegance

Autotrader - MERCEDES-BENZ E230 Elegance

Or a Passat Estate? £5k would get a lovely one on an 03 with 100k on the clock for sure.

Autotrader - VOLKSWAGEN PASSAT 1.9 SE TDI 110 5dr. Automatic. Turbo Diesel

None are particularly good examples, but they are the 3 ball parks I'd be looking in.

I'd go for the passat if anything they are a bit plain inside but mercs not that bullet proof and feel a bit cheap inside, BMW 3 series has a smaller boot than an Octy hatch and 5 series is too old for the money. What about an A4 avant? Could probably pick up a 51/02 Tdi for that kind of cash?

Have any early 1.9TDI with DSG or petrol with DSG made it to the 5k region yet?

I would go for a bmw 320D auto or maybe a 520D auto in estate guise if you need the space. Passats are great work horses and all these cars remap extremely well and still give you great fuel returns. E.g. passat TDI 130 will remap to 170BHP with the torque going up about 60 Nm!!

Whatever you go for it should be a turbo diesel!!!

Knowing you, Richard, I think the obvious choice is:

HTH

Chris

Mondeo estate? I don't know much about their gearboxes but the latest generation appear to be fairly solid and I should imagine reasonable prices as they've been out since 2000 IIRC?

Passats I would not say are that reliable having had one, Octy estate would seem a better choice perhaps.

Thankyou everyone. Its not been the estate bit thats been hard, its finding out who does a good reliable auto box really.

But, I have some options and some recommendations thanks to yourselves. I didn't even think of a Merc to be honest! And that would be a comfy please to sit while driving.

Basically, I'm having trouble with my left leg and can no longer drive a manual box for more than about a mile, as my leg goes dead and I cannot use the clutch. I need to be able to transport 5 people still but the estate is needed for the wheelchair etc that I have on loan at present as I still get trouble walking about sometimes.

But, I won't let this beat me and force me to drive a Citroen Berlingo/Fiat Multipla for the rest of my driving days

Trouble with left leg - is the seat trapping blood supply / nerves ?

Last car I had was a Cavalier - but I fitted a Recaro seat as my back ain't too good. However, maybe as the base got softer, the years went on I found that my left leg started giving me gip i.e. general pain and also if I bent down for anything I would get sudden intense shooting pain in my leg.

The Fabia we've just got doesn't have such a long base i.e. it doen't jut out into the back of my knee as much - and my left leg has been Sooo much better.