There's never going to be a guaranteed reliable motor when spending £4k or even £10k, things go wrong on cars no matter what they are or how they've been treated!

Best bet is to go for the best of the bunch with the least chance of failures, but more importantly the costs of repairing them if they do go wrong.....

Millions of cars from Seat, Skoda, VW, Audi all had that 1.9TDi lump in so loads of people know how to work on them, how to get them going best and most importantly parts are very very common so not too expensive to get....

I'd personally go for an Octavia 1.9TDi or a Passatt 1.9 TDi if it was a car for racing.

Get an 06 or older without a DPF and the old PD TDi engine and you'll have no problems, they're loud and sound like tractors but they give amazing economy and still go really well...

You can't go wrong with that in my book - The BMW 330D would be lovely, but to service, maintain or fix anything it's going to cost you a hell of a lot more then most other brands.....

Choose anything with the old faithful VAG 1.9TDi (Pref 130+) engine and you will be happy I reckon :thumbsup:

I've been here before on this subject I think but a 330d touring (manual) is superb, with a balanced remap it's got more torque than you will ever need and can break 50mpg if you can hold yourself back. Cracking car.

The 335d ( the most powerful model ) is only available as auto gearbox due to the fact that the BMW manual gearbox cant handle the torque reliably. This is a fact not a hunch.
I was informed by a local BMW specialist that the auto boxes are very reliable so not so sure about that part Daz.............................

I have bought a 2008 e91 320d MSport Touring a few weeks ago. So far im over the moon with it but ill keep you posted if there are any disasters.

68mpg on the way to Southport National and about 43mpg around town currently. On std mapping does 145mph and under 8 secs to 60. Its no rocket ship but its as fast as you need. If i could of found a similar specced/priced 6 cylinder model then id of probably gone for that in truth.

How do i know if it's DPF?

I found this: http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classifi...ge/1?logcode=p

Daz was talking about e46 (335d was never available in e46, new for e90series and current 5). Unfortunately I have to agree with him (for once) as we both worked for a BMW dealer.

Ah, i stand corrected cheers Col.

I'm never wrong dude, you should know that!

:p:)

Agree with the guys saying that the less 'bling' brands give the best value. Ford (any model) and then Seat and Skoda to get the VW/Audi parts bin with much less cost. If it's a good quality Ford you're looking for, then the Volvo range is worth a look. V70 is Mondeo based, and the V50 is based on the C-Max platform.

I got my V50 (leather, climate, heated seats, good sound system, CD, etc.) for £1k less than the same spec in a Focus estate as an ex-demo car. 136-brake motor is plenty quick enough, 50mpg on a run and enough space for race gear and a tent. About the size of a 320d Touring, but with none of the funerial, slab-sided, no bells / whistles dash and interior. And Volvo have very comfy seats!! Just a thought...

Yep Col is right, I left BMW when the cars where properly built (apart from the diesels) E46, E39, E38 era. Now there are just cheap shite made out of plastic and zip ties :lol:

IMHO Nick talks a lot of sense. I don't own one yet but will soon.

That link didn't work for me mate but if it's a 1.9TDi "PD" Diesel it won't have a DPF, it's only the later PD 2.0l 170bhp TDi lumps that had the DPF, and then the more recent cars had the common rail engine again with a DPF but apparently more reliable now... although the DPF's still reduce the economy - Loads of people are getting them removed and gaining loads of power & economy!

Dont you fancy another Vectra, G?

Cool, thanks for that.
It was a 1.9 2003 99k on the clock, one owner and looked like a massive house, so the owners probably had a few quid. It went straight away at £3200!! :(