BMW/Mercedes/Lexus - I'm looking for a quality car under £4000 | Motoring discussion | Back Room Forum

Wed 22 May 2013 19:13

BMW/Mercedes/Lexus - I'm looking for a quality car under £4000 - marcellus001

Hi everyone, I'm looking for something under £4,000 and I'd like something with a bit of style. The reason I'm looking at BMW/Merc/Lexus is for reasons of build quality and reliability. I can't afford to buy something that will constantly cost me money so a big thirsty engine is probably not what I want. If anyone can suggest other ultra-reliable makes (VW) go ahead!

All advice gratefully received.

(I'll be selling a pristine 11-plate Citroen C4 Exclusive if anyone's interested)

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Wed 22 May 2013 20:18

BMW/Mercedes/Lexus - I'm looking for a quality car under £4000 - Collos25

My advice would be to keep your Citroen,I run two BMWs and they are money pits I ran mercedes at work e class 220cdis beautiful cars but very expensive to run properly. I have no knowledge for Lexus but I would think they are very much the same as the other two for 4g you are not going to get a car that is gauranteed reliable spare parts can be reasonable priced if you look around but a simple computer fault can cost as much as the car is worth .

Edited by Collos25 on 22/05/2013 at 20:21

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Wed 22 May 2013 20:18

BMW/Mercedes/Lexus - I'm looking for a quality car under £4000 - daveyjp

Find a good W124 and you can have change to keep it running for years.

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Wed 22 May 2013 21:37

BMW/Mercedes/Lexus - I'm looking for a quality car under £4000 - tony g

Hi ,
I prefer to run cars such as the ones you describe .I tend to buy the cars from auction, keep them for up to 6 months and then sell them via autotrader .

That way I avoid depreciation costs .I currently run a 90,000 mile .2003 c180 kompressor Mercedes saloon that came with a new mot and 5 months tax .It cost me £1800 and so far I've just changed the oil and filter ,£40 .I will sell it for £2495 .average mpg 27 .

My favourite car in this range is the 5 series BMW ,its a better drive than the Mercedes and less prone to corrosion .Generally speaking I avoid diesels ,they tend to be very high mileage and are more complicated to repair .

If your a high mileage user I wouldn't buy a car like these ,other than that I've never had any real problems and even at ten years old they're still a pleasure to drive and own .

Regards

Tony g

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Wed 22 May 2013 22:23

BMW/Mercedes/Lexus - I'm looking for a quality car under £4000 - gordonbennet

Ultra reliable? Toyota/Lexus or Honda then, but even they have some engines and gearboxes worth avoiding.

All makes and models have their good and bad points, there is no hard and fast rule and there are no absolute guarantees especially if a vehicle is badly maintained it will become a liability, neglect will kill a car without exception in time.

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Thu 23 May 2013 11:32

BMW/Mercedes/Lexus - I'm looking for a quality car under £4000 - madf

If you want not thirsty then you want diesel. You will not get a good diesel in those marques without potential costly issues unless lucky/know what you are doing.

For value for money a petrol Mercedes C class or Lexus IS are possibles - no-one wants them due to fuel cosnumption. But if you average 30mpg you will be very lucky.

And you need to think insurance and maintenance costs.

Basically your question has no answer as luxury cars specs don't = cheap running costs.

As for a Mercedes 124, they rust and when they go wrong £££££s and the youngest is 20 year old. My BIL has one and repair bills on suspension and exhaust are NOT cheap..And brake lines etc are now rusting.

A Honda Accord with low miles is cheap to buy and reliable. tinyurl.com/qxh5tro

Or a Toyota Avensis..

Edited by madf on 23/05/2013 at 11:33

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Thu 23 May 2013 11:59

BMW/Mercedes/Lexus - I'm looking for a quality car under £4000 - pd

I'd tend to agree - something like a petrol Accord. Lexus are generally well built and reliable but the best value versions used are the larger (GS/LS) which are fabulous cars but like a drink.

You want style and bulletproof reliability - unfortunately so does every other car buyer which is why it costs money.

W124 is a fine car, but A £2k one can easily end up costing £6k by the time you get it into A1 condition and is really a car for the enthusiast these days.

I'd also question whether VW is a reliable make or was that tongue in cheek?

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Thu 23 May 2013 12:31

BMW/Mercedes/Lexus - I'm looking for a quality car under £4000 - madf