Good car for bad roads?

conquistador1

Hi guys, long time lurker here on boards.

The current car is becoming far too unreliable to justify continuing driving it. So I'm looking for a few car recommendations. I live out in the countryside and the roads I use for the first 20 km of my commute aren't the best. L and R roads with plenty of pot holes, bumps and tight bends. The other half of the commute is on a 120 km/h motorway. Thankfully there isn't any start/stop motoring during my commute! Long spins on the weekends as well. So plenty of mileage to warrant a diesel.

My current and previous cars are all small displacement / low power petrols. Handy enough on smaller roads but not the most comfortable and they'd scream at you on the motorway, really need a sixth gear or longer gear ratios.

I'm looking for a diesel, 2008 or newer, €7-8k budget but could stretch to €9-10k for the right car. Doesn't need to be anything fancy. Between 90 and 110 hp should be plenty, would like to keep the insurance premium increase to a minimum. Needs to be comfortable on back roads and needs to cruise on the motorway without too much effort. Low tax and high mpg is obviously preferable! I'm completely open to suggestions so fire away. Any help would be very appreciated as I'm a bit lost on this one.

Thanks

conquistador1

Was meant to post this in the Buying section, would it be possible to get it moved? Apologies.

MuppetCheck

A comfortline Golf rides quite well as its got small wheels and high profile tyres.

Has cruise control which would make for easy mile munching. Plenty of engine choice too.

hoodie6029

VW Jetta 1.9tdi. I had one for years, great car on the motorway and handles the bad/twisty roads very well.
Saw an 08 auto/dsg on donedeal for around 9k private a week or two ago.

ianobrien

MuppetCheck wrote: »

A comfortline Golf rides quite well as its got small wheels and high profile tyres.

Has cruise control which would make for easy mile munching. Plenty of engine choice too.

Or it's first cousin, the Skoda Octavia. Bigger boot and more rear leg room. Also, the suspension is more comfort based so would soak up the rough roads well.

ba_barabus

Hundreds of farmers can't be wrong, Corolla/Avensis, Octavia (front suspension bottoms out easily according to some but never been an issue for me) or Golf comfortline as above.

My reasoning for this is as follows: suspension parts are reasonably cheap and poor roads will wear them out, they all have good petrol and diesel options for you, they can be hard wearing cars if minded, it sounds like performance isn't your top priority, servicing is generally not expensive and most mechanics can service them easily and parts supply is plentiful.

Come resale time I think you'll find them easier to sell on. All can be hard with cruise control also.

Bigus

Left field choice , a later model Megane, 1.5 dci, bit of value in these and most Electrical bugs ironed out over previous renaults, which always had fundamentally good mechanicals.

Red Kev

I live in rural Roscommon, terrible, bouncy roads around here. I had a B5.5 Passat which ticks all your boxes, except it ceased production in 2005. It's way under your budget though. I've no idea of the comfort level of a Passat B6, but there's loads of them around here. Plenty of people swear by them.

Friends in Mayo have a Citroen C5, again it's the older model from 2006. It's seriously comfortable, drives well, and has enough power IMO. I've no idea of the newer C5.

If you're brave then the car you're looking for is the Citoren C6, I drove these a few times and it's hands down the best suspension I've ever seen in a car.