TBH I'm getting to the age where I can't be bothered testing the limits. I mean I'd love a track day where I can go all out but for the daily commute I want to be cossetted.
Going to change the Focus finally in April next year, after bonus time at work so I've been researching what to get next. Researching cars on the net is great but you only ever read about the failures. If you went purely on that you'd never buy ANY car.
Anyway these days I have criteria of auto, dual climate, bluetooth, toys, reliability, less than 7 years old and reasonable pace, in that order. And £290 or under a year tax. And I'd like to move away from diesel as at my 7k mileage a year and short commute I'd get dpf issues I reckon unless I booted it down the motorway every couple of weeks. And I'm avoiding VAG diesels completely until we know what's going to happen to them.
On my list so far are Honda Accord, 2.4 petrol and 2.2 diesel, Lexus IS250, Octavia 1.8Tsi, Alfa Guiletta 1.4tb, Astra 2.0CDTI, Leon 2.0TSI FR, Volvo S40/V50 D3 or D4. They all do, or could be remapped to do, under 8 seconds to 60.
But this intrigues me the most, Lexus GS450H: 0-60 5.9, £225 a year tax and 38mpg on my type of commute. And every extra you can think of:
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201509156920781
Looks superb in black.
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201511158724107
There's one on autotrader with 230k on the clock so they can do the mileage. I like the idea that I can waft 99% of the time but know it can shift if I ever need it to.
Anyone got any experience or opinions on any of the cars in the list?