Compact executive saloons

U_Fig

So an uncle of mine is taking early retirement at the end of February, he is looking buy his very fist car at the tender age of 60. From the time he started driving he's always had a company car so never had a need to own his own

He is getting a portion of his pension in a lump sum and out of this he is putting about 15-20k towards a car,

He is looking at the compact executive saloon market, he's driven executive saloons all his life but wants something a bit smaller as "the wife will drive it from time to time and she can't park for sh1t" (his words not mine).

Now that he is not on the road for his job he will likely be doing 10-15km a year max mainly from the country into the nearest town on B roads but with the odd longer drive across the country or up to the capital from Wexford.

Priorities are

1) reliability
2) running costs / service costs
3) comfort / luxury
4) enough power to overtake tractors etc.
5) parking sensors for the wife

He also wants an auto

He was thinking either 3 series , Merc C class, Audi A4 or I was suggesting a Lexus IS hybrid.

Any options , he is open to either petrol / hybrid /diesel but doesn't want a full electric.

Any suggestions on the above cars or other cards not mentioned?

colm_mcm

Lexus IS300h. Should be trouble free and will suit even if he does small mileage. If anything you recommend him gives trouble you’ll get it in the neck!

There is savage value in them in the UK/NI.

U_Fig

colm_mcm wrote: »

Lexus IS300h. Should be trouble free and will suit even if he does small mileage. If anything you recommend him gives trouble you’ll get it in the neck!

There is savage value in them in the UK/NI.

Thanks I will definitely tell him yo to look at the UK so, All my advise comes with a disclaimer

grogi

colm_mcm wrote: »

Lexus IS300h. Should be trouble free and will suit even if he does small mileage.

+++

James Bond Junior

I was about to suggest the lexus Ct200h if he wanted something extra compact.

colm_mcm

U_Fig wrote: »

Thanks I will definitely tell him yo to look at the UK so, All my advise comes with a disclaimer

Even take a spin up to Lexus Belfast (Hurst) with him. You’ll be able too see a few different specs on them.

colm_mcm

The CT is certainly extra compact!

U_Fig

Thanks will do, he will have his company car for the next month at least and will probably get to use it until he gets sorted with his own, I mention to him about going to Belfast and having a look,

The CT200 I think would be a bit small, doesn't really want a hatchback as far as I can see.

U_Fig

So i mentioned the above to the uncle today and we are going to have a look and hopefully test drive one as locally as we can with the view of then importing if it is all good.

I know in general they have pretty good reliability but is there anything specific we should be looking out for on them?

A quick look at the UK market I see a lot of 3-4 year old ones with over 100k miles on the clock, I assume that as long as they have a full service record this wouldn't really be much of concern.

Marcusm

Probably the best thing he can do before finishing up the job is see what insurance company will take account of his names driver experience or whether the insurer on his employer’s fleet policy will offer him a good deal. Plenty of scare stories around of long time company car drivers getting huge initial quotes.

U_Fig

Marcusm wrote: »

Probably the best thing he can do before finishing up the job is see what insurance company will take account of his names driver experience or whether the insurer on his employer’s fleet policy will offer him a good deal. Plenty of scare stories around of long time company car drivers getting huge initial quotes.

I never even considered this, not sure if he has. I will mention this to him, thanks for the heads up.

colm_mcm

U_Fig wrote: »

So i mentioned the above to the uncle today and we are going to have a look and hopefully test drive one as locally as we can with the view of then importing if it is all good.

I know in general they have pretty good reliability but is there anything specific we should be looking out for on them?

A quick look at the UK market I see a lot of 3-4 year old ones with over 100k miles on the clock, I assume that as long as they have a full service record this wouldn't really be much of concern.

A lot of them have bad seat wear on the outer bolster on the drivers side. You can condition leather so it doesn’t go bad though so it’s not inevitable,

There are also different versions of navigation, there’s Lexus and Premium, Premium is the one to get. There are also (3 I think?) different I-drive controllers for want of a better word, the mouse type one is by far the easiest to use.

There are a good few different specs, I’d avoid the eco spec with 16 inch wheels as they’re just too small for the car (205/55/16 tyres)

Obviously make sure it has a full service history, what I like about Lexus Belfast is that they’re the only dealer in NI and practically everything they’re selling used was sold new and serviced by them. They’re a popular fleet car in the UK.

Oh yeah, panel gaps and surfaces lining up should be absolutely perfect. If it’s not, then it’s had something done to it.

U_Fig

Ok so we went Viewing a Lexus IS300h there over the weekend and It was my first time seeing one in person up close and i must say that as far as build quality it's A1. We both drove the car and It was not as sluggish as reviews would suggest, the uncle likes the smoothness of the CVT gearbox and I think he is settled on this as his new car. I was not too pushed nothing wrong but I find auto cars a bit boring.

Looking at the Hurst Belfast site and the only models he has are a bit above budget so the uncle is going to look in the UK, I think he is going to go for the premier spec which I believe is the highest so should be all good.

Thanks for your help on this lads

colm_mcm

Hurst only had 3 ISs on the site last week (friend looking for one) but they always have them coming in or have some in prep. They seem to sell quickly.

There are a good few very nice ones in UK Lexus dealers, and to be fair they’re a little bit cheaper too.

jimmy G M

There's a few listed on the cargiant.co.uk website

https://www.cargiant.co.uk/search/lexus/is-300h/page/1

colm_mcm

Just with the cheaper ones on cargiant vs more expensive similar ones they have, there’s always a reason so don’t go there especially based on the cheapest price

U_Fig

Yeah I am very much of the option that you get what you pay for, air on the cautious side when something is cheaper than the average price.
I was speaking to the uncle and he is over in the UK in a few weeks with work so he will use that to go and have a look and put a deposit down etc.. and take it from there , probably going to opt for an AA inspection too to be safe.

colm_mcm

Brush up on the specs in the meantime if he’s bothered about that. Figure out which seat/nav/colour he likes