My Father in Law has been doing this sort of thing for 30 years so he's a little 'old school'

He's recommended a VAG car due to cheap parts and decent diesels, and is aware of the dodgy 2.0 PD units from around 2005-2007.

He recommended a Passat........

I know VAG cars are fairly average for reliability, but they make decent diesels dont they?

The other car I was considering was the civic with the 1.8 i-vtec. But it holds it value well for a petrol. For the same money I can get a golf diesel with similar mileage and of similar age

I like the Accord but it's difficult to come by one with less than 100k miles on auction.

My budget has increased slightly so i've narrowed the search down to the following 4 cars:

Volvo S40 2.0D. Can get an 10 plate with around 70k on the clock

Civic 2.2 CDTI. Can get a 10 plate with 90k on the clock

Seat Exeo 2.0 CR. Can get a 10 plate with 80k on the clock

Audi A4 1.9 115 PD. The last year this engine was available is 2007, can find some on auction with around 100k for around a grand less than the cars above.

Leaning towards the Civic or the Audi as neither have a DPF. Any opinions?

The Exeo doesnt seem to great for economy for some reason. This is from the Seat forum.

Same engine in other cars does better

I would avoid a Passat, to many problems.

I would go for the Civic, it will still have good re-sale value in a few years time.

Have you checked out the Honda civic owners forum?

I wouldnt be comfortable buying a car with nearly 120k on the clock. It will be worth close to nothing in a couple of years when it has 160k on it.

Surely if you buy at 120K you won't be paying much more than close to nothing, and your depreciation will be slight? Running costs may be more tho.

A 4 year old civic with 120k miles will be around 4.5-5k. A 6 year old civic with 160k miles will be worth around £2k

So that suggests (a) the cars last well and (b) demand exceeds supply. You may have to bite the bullet. I wouldn't buy a car with 6-digit mileage.

I would suggest that was a good sign.

If you go on the Insignia forum, its endless pages of various faults.

If the honda forum is full of petrol vs diesel and re-map option threads, it would suggest not alot goes wrong.

Oldest son bought a 50 k miles 2004 BMW 318i. It's been fairly fault free in 4 years.

Bills avearge £700 a year for servicing and tyres etc...

What's wrong with a tidy 3 Series BMW? Nice to drive and I think the bodywork is galvanised from the waist down to keep the rust at bay. A lot I people I know have older ones because they cannot find a good reason to get rid.

I wouldn't mind a 3 series, especially one with red leather but there's two issues with buying one of them;

Most on auction have the stupid long life service plan. 20k mile services dont cut it for a car which is already known to have a dodgy timing chain.

They also hold their value well so I wont get a decent one within budget