Family car, max €15k

The_Honeybadger

Hi all. I have completely lost trust in my Passat, I had hoped to run it for another while but it is in the garage too often, and I depend on my car too much to stick with it. I have never in my life experienced such frustration with a car. I won't go in to the list of issues over the past 18 months but it's just crazy. Outside of the cost, the time off the road has been a big issue with work etc.

It's a 2010 2.0 TDI with 160k miles so I figure it's worth €3 - € 4k as a trade in? The € 15k budget needs to include this. I could probably come a bit more for the right car.

I do roughly 35,000 km per year on all types of roads with plenty of long spins. We have three kids and the oldest is out of a booster seat at this stage so a good sized car is what I am after. I am leaning towards an estate but I am not sure which one. My priorities (in order of importance) would be:

Reliability
Comfort
Style / Spec
MPG

My mechanic has told me that an Avensis Estate is probably the best way to go mechanically speaking but it's a fairly boring looking car. I'd suffer that if I was reasonably sure that it won't let me down. Could anybody suggest any alternatives?

Probably won't pull the trigger until the New Year but am looking up the options at the minute. Am I right in assuming that the dealers will have a lot of 3-4 year old stock from Jan-Feb? Thanks

The_Honeybadger

Bump: I’m looking at a 2014 Toyota Avensis 2.0 D4D Strata with 80000 miles on the clock. Dealer wants roughly €10k with my own car. Haven’t gone to see it yet.

Does anybody have experience of the above model and things to look out for / common faults?

Veloce

Have you looked at the likes of Skoda Octavia / Passat? Good value for money in my opinion.

The_Honeybadger

Veloce wrote: »

Have you looked at the likes of Skoda Octavia / Passat? Good value for money in my opinion.

Thanks, my current Passat has put me off VW cars, Octavia might be a bit small as well.