I've just spent 2 years running a 2010 Skoda Octavia 1.4TSi DSG Elegance estate which I loved. It goes incredibly quickly, for such a small engine even with 5 adults and a dog on board. The Elegance model has all the luxury and gadgets you could want. My opn experience with the DSG gearbox has been nothing but positive. The 7 speeds change very smoothly and the car went like a dream. It was 5 years old with only 27000 miles on the clock when I changed it as I needed a people carrier, otherwise I would have kept it.

My son has just bought himself a 57 plate 325i estate, 3 litre petrol manual, he's not collected it yet but it's around your budget and from a different make main dealer.

We had quite a discussion about the runflat situation, luckily its on 17" wheels and new high quality runflats are only around the £70/80 mark when the time comes so he'll probably just buy a spare full size wheel to keep at home or sling in boot as appropraite depending on use just so he doesn't get his pants pulled down in the event of a flat and stay on teh runflats.

i should add he was looking for something like a newer version of my landcruiser in order to slow him up a bit whilst providing some room for family extended outings...where the roll eyes smiley

Edited by gordonbennet on 16/08/2015 at 21:48