Upgrading to a saloon, opinions?

Ninjavampire

Currently driving a 1.2 Clio and will be shortly looking to upgrade to a saloon for a more spacious family car. The Clio can fit our buggie if it's empty and I use my tetris skills, so a big-ish boot would be great. Wife says she will veto any estate I show her...

I've been looking for something around 08, comfy inside, nice to drive and safe. Transmission doesn't matter, probably 2 litre tops (although was looking at an IS220). I live in the country so I can go diesel or petrol. Budget around 5 grand with a little wiggle, transmission doesn't matter.

At the minute I've been looking at:

Merc C180/200
Mazda 6
Lexus IS220
Volvo S40

Any advice? Cheers!

colm_mcm

Rule out the Lexus and the Volvo straight away anyway. The Lexus IS a ball of a yoke and the Volvo is quite small, especially in the boot.

With a €5k budget, you'd be lucky to get a regular 08 car in diesel, you're just asking for trouble including premium brands in your search IMO.

I would get a Laguna 3 if my criteria were the same as yours.

D Trent

Look no further.....

I've had one of these for the last 2yrs doing high enough mileage, such a comfy car, it's fun and it looks well.

Keep it serviced and you won't have much bother at all

Ninjavampire

D Trent wrote: »

Look no further.....

I've had one of these for the last 2yrs doing high enough mileage, such a comfy car, it's fun and it looks well.

Keep it serviced and you won't have much bother at all

Looks great, my uncle had a 9-5 and he loved it! Which engine would you recommend?

colm_mcm wrote: »

Rule out the Lexus and the Volvo straight away anyway. The Lexus IS a ball of a yoke and the Volvo is quite small, especially in the boot.

With a €5k budget, you'd be lucky to get a regular 08 car in diesel, you're just asking for trouble including premium brands in your search IMO.

I would get a Laguna 3 if my criteria were the same as yours.

Hadn't thought of the Laguna actually and I suppose keeping with what I know might be the way to go, thanks!

What about the Mazda 6? Seems around the same price as the Laguna.

Pkiernan

The S40, while nice really is very small in the back. It looks a lot bigger than it is.

colm_mcm

Ninjavampire wrote: »

Looks great, my uncle had a 9-5 and he loved it! Which engine would you recommend?



Hadn't thought of the Laguna actually and I suppose keeping with what I know might be the way to go, thanks!

What about the Mazda 6? Seems around the same price as the Laguna.

The Laguna is genuinely a better car than the 6, especially the diesel 6

bazz26

Renault Fluence is worth looking at too, smaller than a Mazda 6 but would still be more spacious than a S40:

A few examples:


https://www.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/renault-fluence-1-5-dci-110-dynamique/15677898



https://www.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/10-fluence-1-5dci-tom-tom-high-speck/15677641

Ninjavampire

The two renaults look like interesting choices but I'm not sure on the shape of them. Renault seem to have an obsession with giving their cars unusual rears!

Ideally I'd like to stay away from the classics like the Passat or Avensis just to have something a little more standout.