[Closed] Car choosing again - bit more complex though

Nothing guarantees reliability.

Go for lower age rather than lower mileage, and suck it up. If you haven't the cash to burn then buy a £3k car and keep the other £3k for repairs. That would last you many years.

Also, winter tyres are cheap and reliable, unlike 4x4, but will still see you right in the snow.

Meanwhile....Somewhere, on the internet.... Kryton57 is feeling smug due to his superior automotive decisiveness skills

Winters tyres are all you need for "ALL weathers". 4x4 is a waste of money if you aren't going off-road. As an example we drove straight into the ski resort last Thursday in a FWD Dacia on Winter tyres driving past a 4x4 BMW having snow socks fitted having ground to a halt. A set of chains in the boot for the odd skating rink day and you're sorted.

There are 4x4 Berlingos out there.
Not sure if they come with rear seats but I'm sure that could be arranged.

Wasn't there a Berlingo that had a fancy diff and slightly raised suspension that gave it good mud/snow abilities whilst remaining FWD?

Winters tyres are all you need for “ALL weathers”. 4×4 is a waste of money if you aren’t going off-road.

Well you say that, but for some people getting down driveways and lanes ground clearance can be an issue. In a normal car any more than 8" or so of soft snow is going to plough up and then you get stuck. On your way to ski resorts you probably aren't driving through fresh drifts.

However unless it's your own driveway or you are in the emergency or vital services you should easily be able to plan ahead and avoid that kind of problem given modern weather forecasting.

You could get a subaru outback for 6k, it has 4x4, is otherwise a normal estate car, but has more ground clearance than a land rover freelander.

I reckon if you're dealing with snow drifts even a full on 4x4 will find its limits quite quickly.
4x4 will help on some steeper inclines though, even with winter tyres (and 4x4 won't of course help you at all when you need to brake or go around corners.)

I'll always quote my AA breakdown mate, petrol and Japanese, once you've realised that set autotrader to Toyota or Honda only and choose their model that fits your requirements.

On board his van are spares mainly for newish diesels and mainly German. Why the AA won't publish their breakdown data I don't know

As above really, having had a string of both Citreon Berlingo and Peugeot Partner, i am now driving a Ford C-Max, it was a hurried buy after last car died a horrible death by the side of the road.

The Ford in Ghia spec, is so much more refined without too much loss of space in the back over it's French counterparts and the 1.6 TDCi engine is reguarly giving me 50mpg according to the gauge.

Again unless you are actually off roading, running costs will be a lot less with a second set of steel wheels with winter tyres than running 4x4 all the time if you are doing long journeys.

Personal preference would be Mondeo estate or Skoda/VW estates in that price range, some good examples about without too higher mileage, although i'd rather have higher mileage cars that had done mostly longer journeys than the cars that only go to the shops.

There are 4×4 Berlingos out there.
Not sure if they come with rear seats but I’m sure that could be arranged.

Dangel do them, not available in the UK though, I think. EDF and such use them to go and repair power lines in the middle of Auvergne in the snow storms. Good things, but you'll never find one 2nd hand in the UK.

You could get a subaru outback for 6k, it has 4×4, is otherwise a normal estate car, but has more ground clearance than a land rover freelander.

gen4 outback here. boxxer diesel (dont get euro4, only the euro5 and above)

high 40's mpg day to day, 50+ on a motorway run, massive inside, comfy, fast enough, paid 6k for it last year.

ps. 4WD isnt just about not getting stuck in the snow...although that is an added bonus.

Mitsubishi Outlander II / Citroen C-Crosser / Peugeot 4007

All Mitsus underneath.

as per above 4x4 isn't needed. spend 5k on a Passat, A4 avant or A6 avant. got my a6 with 75k on the clock and 5 years later its ticked over 188k last week and has tonnes of life left in it and nothing has failed

Skoda Superb 140Tdi & a spare set of steel wheels for the winter tyres should be readily available at that price range.
Might be a bit 'too' comfortable for some though; drives like a limo and it is very long. There are enough goodies on board but not too many, cavernous boot space for adventures. Rear seat is vast.
55mpg just now, 60 in the summer.
The reason taxi firms like them so much is they just keep on going but just be certain that one you pick has never had that sort of abusive life.

4WD isnt just about not getting stuck in the snow

So what is it about then apart from driving soemthing heavier, with higher friction and worse fuel consumption than a regular car. Some people use them to intimidate, to make up for a lack of something or for a false sense of invulnerabilty. Some like the Tonka toy look, imagine themselves as Actionman on their commute, but objectively if you aren't going off road with one you have to be a marketing man's dream dupe to buy one.

Even if you are going off road then you're going to have to seek out places something like a Kangoo won't go too.

Junior did the Mongol rally over the Summer, in a 25-year-old 1.1l petrol 205 (I did buy him a new set of tyres before he left). Deserts, dunes, mud... it just kept going, and when he got there he lent it to some other people who drove it back.

The Skoda has extra advantages I forgot to mention; it is basically an A6 with more car for the same money, as the badge seems to influence buyers. Plus STW folk love to hate an Audi or BMW driver....
The Skodas also still have a real handbrake too, instead of the odd fashion of a push button system.

I bought a 4x4 just to annoy people on the internet.

I can’t even drive.

I just sold my 55 plate Hyundai Tucson for £500 - 5 years of absolute reliability. It got me home from work through the snow on many occasions (4WD + All season tyres) when the main road (A21) were shut with ice/snow/crashes via the untreated hilly Sussex lanes.

I sold it as I’m now doing 20+k/year & it was a very thirsty petrol.

I’ll always quote my AA breakdown mate, petrol and Japanese

If your only criterion is reliability 🙂

So what is it about then apart from

irritating you is enough for me 😉

If your only criterion is reliability

I know. There are people who buy cars that have a poor reputation for reliability, often in the full knowledge of that reputation. But given that most cars are pretty similar within a particular genre then why wouldn't not going wrong be the reason to pick a particular model? I suppose looks or image are actually fairly high up in the list of priorities for a lot of people, and of course people have specific requirements like fitting child seats.

£3k car and keep the other £3k for repairs. This

Christ, we've had one load of snow, and folk are advocating basing their choice of car on it! 😂

AWD is great for being able to pull away fast when needed to get out of wet, slippery junctions, or not getting stuck in muddy fields.

FWD over a certain power just ends up with the wheels scrabbling for grip in the wet whereas my Legacy with its 245bhp and AWD (and an LSD in the rear) it's just a case of planting the throttle and its launches with zero fuss even in the pissing rain.

But given that most cars are pretty similar within a particular genre then why wouldn’t not going wrong be the reason to pick a particular model?

Not model necessarily but fuel type - I hate driving sensible sized NA petrols, and those that are fun to drive have terrible economy.

Circa 2009 Renault Koleos.

2.0 dci timing chain engine, 6 speed, ability to switch between 2wd and 4wd, huge loading space with handy bench style rear load space, basically an X trail but cheaper.

I am in a similar boat. After having super high end company cars, my new job suits taking the train better so I got the allowance as part of salary. Looking to buy based on large size and mainly used at weekends /2 miles to station when its sopping wet.

I am between an accord petrol estate or avensis estate. Loads in the 3 to 4 k mark (more accords) and some top spec available. The 2.0 petrol accord shifts as well if its vtec.

Watching this thread with interest. My 10yr old BMW 530i touring is hardly getting used but still costing me a fortune when it does. Time to move onto something else that has to be reasonably nippy and able to lug a lot of bike gear around.

Well let me put it this way, ive had a subaru before.
It was a great car.
Im looking for another car, it will almost certainly be a subaru.

Last winter my neighbour (who has a 2wd car fitted with winter tyres) couldn’t get out of the street.
My wife’s subaru, complete with budget normal tyres drove straight out.
The way out of my estate has a steep hill with a 90 degree bend at the bottom. The couple of really bad winters we have had, the only cars that got out were 4wd.

But let me put it another way - my cars get 55-60mpg cos they are 2wd. And they get up our hill in the snow.

We have a land rover and an L200, work vehicles that never stop, snow, mud etc.. but we have also had an Aygo, a Clio and a now a couple of Micras, all under 800 notes, none have been stopped by snow, even on hills. Thier skinny tyres help, if desperate maybe lower the pressures, keep up momentum, bit of planning and they just keep going. Wouldn’t like to try a steep muddy field but never had one stuck in snow.

Understand the AA point of view, does seem to me that Toyota, Honda and Nissan keep going whilst German stuff isn’t as reliable as we expect. Though a Vito and a couple of VWs in the house, nothing has broken down in years..

A 4 x 4 in snow, earlier 😁

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CuTXUcoGdhw

(Ok, the driver is a dick)