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Until last year I had bought cars of the Vauxhall Omega, Senator, Opel Monza size. Retirement suggested downsizing with a bit of economy in mind. While the Meriva I chose last year is economical the seating for a six-footer is diabolical and I wrongly overlooked this aspect when selecting the car. I was shown a late 80s Mercedes 200 estate the other day which with it's proper range of seat adjustment felt very comfortable, in particular the support for the thigh area. The well-engineered solidity of the car impressed me and as I am only doing a relatively low mileage the 2-litre engine with 100,000 plus on the clock seems set to last for some years. The depreciation has all but disappeared and the asking price is well under £1,000. Does this make sense or would you recommend an alternative? I could spend about £7,000.

Asked on 16 May 2009 by

Answered by Honest John
If you don't do long journeys then the old MB makes sense. As long as you don't spend money on it, all you can do is lose £1,000, and you have already lost at least 4x that in depreciation on the Meriva you bought last year.
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