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adam*

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Hi

I'm soon to be moving out of the countryside and doing more motorway miles again (about 30,000 a year) and as my Corsa is at 98,500 miles it's probably a good time to change.

I obviously need a car with v.good mpg as well as being comfy and reliable. Looking at diesels because of this really. Boot space is also quite important as my kit is outgrowing my tiny corsa boot.

Looking to spend £3-4k I guess, probably on a finance deal.

I'm literally open to all ideas/advice - best finance schemes etc. I don't earn alot but buying a £1-2k car to save money isn't worth it in the long run so am tempted to get a newer car on finance.

Only cars i've thought of are Mondeo's and Seat's.

Any advice appreciated.

Cheers

Adam
 
There's nothing wrong with a good £2k car! You have to be more careful about which one you choose though. Japanese is probably a good idea.

Have a look at honestjohn.co.uk. He's got a car by car review thing which mentions all good and bad points and recalls.

Lots of manufacturers have 0% deals. Think VW has one on the polo at the mo. Run out models are also good to go for. Not sure if the boot is big enough as a golf boot is fairly pathetic for the size of car. Might actually be better to go for one of those and keep the car for 5+ years than get a £3 to £4k car which might only last a couple or cost lots in repairs.

Total cost of ownership is the important thing.
 
BMW 330D used, £4000 will get you a nice model.
Just read your post properly, I agree the above. Cars that cost £1-2000 arent always money pits, depends on what you buy.

For example you could get a nice Honda Accord 2.0l with all the toys, leather, cruise control, heated seats blah blah blah for under £1000. Other than basic servicing they dont ask for much.

BMW E46 can be had for very decent money, I bought one with...wait for it...200000 miles on the clock...It was a 320 E46 2001 X plate for £950! Travelled long distance journeys with it and then sold it on, its still going strong.

Do you really need a diesel? I ask because my Saab 9-3 2.0t averages 36-38mpg on the motorway/country roads. £2000 in the world of petrol will leave you with MANY options, the same cant be said for diesels.

Also with a simple 2.0l na petrol engine there's less to go wrong...

However if you must spend 3-4k and have a diesel I stand by BMW 330D...Amazing cars.
 
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Should also say i'm 25 with a couple of years no claims, so insurance is a slight factor as well still. There is nothing wrong with a good 2k car but I have trouble finding them! My corsa's been a nightmare in repair costs.

BMW - high insurance and high repair costs?
 
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BMW insurance costs I agree tend to be higher than the average, but when it comes to reliability i've had three BMWs and none gave me any problems what so ever. They're generally trouble free.

A nice petrol E46 wont give you headaches and will pretty much tick every box. Theres so many cars out there mate, decide on petrol -v- diesel first and go from there.
 
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nissan qashqai - been out a few years now so should be within reach, really comfy, hooooog boot, I got 44 mpg from a 1.6 petrol - diesel version is 1.5 from memory and you should get way better.
good luck.
 
Cheers, heard a few good things about Honda's. My mate gets 50-65mpg from a 2.0 TDI mondeo but think he did well to get one for 3k...
 
Never understood the whole "avoid anything french" argument but anyway

Adam,

I don't see the point of giving individual car advice because in my experience most people ignore it anyway or trump what you say. I could go on all day about model X from manufacturer Y only for someone to come along and say "I had one of those in 1976 and it was bad bla bla bla wibble piffle".

Bit of wisdom for you though;

SEAT, AUDI, Volkswagen and Skoda are all under the same group now, VAG, so instead of thinking of them as different cars entirely consider them merely different designs and trim levels. So anyone who says "don't buy a Skoda, I really like Audi instead" has NFC what they're saying.

Peugeot and Citroen merged decades ago (became PSA) and their vehicles often share the same basic design and engines, etc. Same example as above.

Nissan are now part owned by Renault - make of that what you will :P

The Toyota Aygo, Peugeot 107 and Citroen C1 are all basically the same car. The three companies entered an agreement and made the car together, then selling a slightly different one under each of their own names. Again same as above.

Recent Volvo cars up to about 12 years old were made under the ownership of Ford, so there are technical similarities. The Focus ST uses the Volvo 5 cylinder motor, for instance.

Last major example that I can think of it Saab... they were owned by GM (Vauxhall) since 1990 and share some components/design.

The "gist" of this is that they're all very similar nowadays anyway, since car companies are forever merging into each other. Like a camera... find one you like, that looks and runs good and is in your price bracket, and buy it.

Apart from certain distinguished examples, the conjecture that manufacturer X always lasts ten times longer than manufacturer Y is just that, conjecture. The Mark II Clio seems to have very good longevity as do certain Civics and their engines. VAG diesels are also renowned for lasting a hell of a long time. Generally though it comes to how well it's maintained.
 
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Never understood the whole "avoid anything french" argument but anyway.

You've been lucky fellah, mates/collegues have had more then a few, seen gearboxes go, design flaws, cracks straight accross 3 year old low mileage mc phearson struts assemblys, missing bits which one example straight to mind is that Pugs have a bar straight across from left to right for the brake servo, and forgot to put plating on the passenger side resulting in one friend crashing because the girl friend stretched and hit that sweet spot.
Also know of a few with back light clusters either falling apart or falling out!

Its hard to judge a car on price, just as with second hand camera gear just because some one wants 4k and says its in good nick doesn't mean it is..

Last time my dad bought a car I went over EVERYTHING on a <80k miles 53 plate Volvo, mirror to check the chassis, went over all suspension components, checked for rust and any signs of notable bumps, oil leaks, listened to the engine timing, checked for vacume leaks, even jacked it up and rocked the wheels about to make sure the bushings and bearings where all good and hadn't been driven over speed humps like a maniac.

Apart from a crap set of spark plugs and a service turned out to be a decent well looked after car.
And the salesman wasn't defensive so that was either a good liar or a good sign.

Thats really what you should judge a car on, that and when you do get it look after it, and do regular services, don't go round corners on 2 wheels like a little toss pot in my family who's going through tires, parts and fuel on a 58 VW Polo at a higher rate then a Petrol Saab (about 27/30mpg average doing a lot of local running according to the SID).

Oh and while I remember, Mitsubishi, got an old one and to date still the most reliable car I have ever owned with 200+k on the clock and can still go like the clappers while returning a decent MPG.
To fit in with Trencheels statement too, lots of new cars have the same working parts as my old Mitsubishi, particularly Volvo rather like the Charisma and the S40 where built in the same factory....

Really does boil down to the previous owners on what condition its in, treat it like ****, expect it to fall apart.
 
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With your mileage being 30,000 and mostly motorway, a diesel is definitely the way to go. I have a Mercedes C200cdi, a 2.2L diesel automatic estate. According to the onboard computicle, it's averaged 49 mpg over the last 35,000 miles. On the motorway, 60 mpg is easily achieved, and when I was low on fuel and drove the southern half of the M25 at 55 mph, the door to door consumption was 70.1 mpg. As long as you aren't a Clarksonesque idiot and drive sensibly, diesels can give tremendous economy on motorways. Around town the difference isn't nearly as much but mine still gets in the mid thirties. The petrol equivalents of my car around town will do mid twenties.
 
If you're going to be doing mainly motorways and 30k a year don't be tempted to get anything smaller than a Focus. I wouldn't go for anything smaller than a 1.8 diesel engine in that sized car or a 2.0 in a larger car otherwise you're going to find the journeys quite tiresome. My Mondeo is a 2.2 TDCi, even before I upgraded certain bits on th eengine and had it remapped, it could sit effortlessly on a motorway all day long, return over 60mpg on those journeys and I could get out fresh as a daisy. A 2.0 TDCi Mondeo or other make should easily be able to give similar returns.
 
BarryDawsib said:
You've been lucky fellah, mates/collegues have had more then a few, seen gearboxes go, design flaws, cracks straight accross 3 year old low mileage mc phearson struts assemblys, missing bits which one example straight to mind is that Pugs have a bar straight across from left to right for the brake servo, and forgot to put plating on the passenger side resulting in one friend crashing because the girl friend stretched and hit that sweet spot.
Also know of a few with back light clusters either falling apart or falling out!

Its hard to judge a car on price, just as with second hand camera gear just because some one wants 4k and says its in good nick doesn't mean it is..

Last time my dad bought a car I went over EVERYTHING on a <80k miles 53 plate Volvo, mirror to check the chassis, went over all suspension components, checked for rust and any signs of notable bumps, oil leaks, listened to the engine timing, checked for vacume leaks, even jacked it up and rocked the wheels about to make sure the bushings and bearings where all good and hadn't been driven over speed humps like a maniac.

Apart from a crap set of spark plugs and a service turned out to be a decent well looked after car.
And the salesman wasn't defensive so that was either a good liar or a good sign.

Thats really what you should judge a car on, that and when you do get it look after it, and do regular services, don't go round corners on 2 wheels like a little toss pot in my family who's going through tires, parts and fuel on a 58 VW Polo at a higher rate then a Petrol Saab (about 27/30mpg average doing a lot of local running according to the SID).

Oh and while I remember, Mitsubishi, got an old one and to date still the most reliable car I have ever owned with 200+k on the clock and can still go like the clappers while returning a decent MPG.
To fit in with Trencheels statement too, lots of new cars have the same working parts as my old Mitsubishi, particularly Volvo rather like the Charisma and the S40 where built in the same factory....

Really does boil down to the previous owners on what condition its in, treat it like ****, expect it to fall apart.

I must be lucky too, never had an issue with French cars!

I've had more problems with the German and Swedish varieties!
 
Aww that's not fair, in the last 18 years I have had two Citroens. Citroen AX lasted me for ten years and only cost me £5500 way back in 1997. My Citroen C1 that I now have had from new, is still going strong, I hope it will last me another ten years :thumbs:

...you must be lucky...

;)
 
i have a 1.6 TDCI focus, and dont have any issues with performance on the motorway.
 
If you're going to be doing mainly motorways and 30k a year don't be tempted to get anything smaller than a Focus. I wouldn't go for anything smaller than a 1.8 diesel engine in that sized car or a 2.0 in a larger car otherwise you're going to find the journeys quite tiresome. My Mondeo is a 2.2 TDCi, even before I upgraded certain bits on th eengine and had it remapped, it could sit effortlessly on a motorway all day long, return over 60mpg on those journeys and I could get out fresh as a daisy. A 2.0 TDCi Mondeo or other make should easily be able to give similar returns.

Don't agree with the engine size bit, I have a 1.5dci Nissan qashqui and I am doing 35k+ a year and have found it a breeze and not at all tiresome.

One of my past company cars was an 05 plate grand scenic, what a great car, was so reliable it was great. 3.5 years 130k and only thing I had was a dashboard go which Renault sorted in less than 24hrs.

Now the Honda Civic I had, that was absolutely he worst car I have ever had the Displeasure in driving, to the point that I will never have any Honda again. The Scenic was so good the wife has one now as her car, again n issues in the nearly 2 years that she has had it.
 
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Not quite sure how a small engine can make motorway driving tiresome, it doesn't take that much effort to push the accelerator :suspect:

Any modern engine above 1.2 ish is fine for motorways anyway, practically all modern engines have 4 valves per cylinder, making them much more powerful and efficient than ~15 years ago. A 1.4 can easily generate nearly 90 horsepower nowadays which 15 years ago you'd have been lucky to get out of a bog standard 1.6 with two valves per cylinder.

Diesel four cylinder motors are also ridiculously quick these days as nearly all of them come with turbos, and with direct injection are generating torque that is in V8 territory!
 
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Not quite sure how a small engine can make motorway driving tiresome, it doesn't take that much effort to push the accelerator :suspect:

Any modern engine above 1.2 ish is fine for motorways anyway, practically all modern engines have 4 valves per cylinder, making them much more powerful and efficient than ~15 years ago. A 1.4 can easily generate nearly 90 horsepower nowadays which 15 years ago you'd have been lucky to get out of a bog standard 1.6 with two valves per cylinder.

Diesel four cylinder motors are also ridiculously quick these days as nearly all of them come with turbos, and with direct injection are generating torque that is in V8 territory!

I see countless smaller engined cars on the motorways that have an inability to maintain speed every time they encounter a hill or even a slight long incline, yet speed up again when the road levels out again. I live near a section of the M25 being widened and has a 50mph limit, they can't even manage to maintain that. A bigger engined car will do it with alot more ease. My 2.2 TDCi can sit at 70mph all day long and still average over 60mpg.
Only small engine I'd be tempted to have in a small car is Ford's 1.0 Ecoboost but that has 125bhp. Failing that it would be a 1.6 or 2.0 Ecoboost.
 
That's a fair point Neil, but do also consider that some people forget to push the pedal a bit when there is an incline. I live in Scotland so I know what hilly roads are like... And if a smart car and citroen ZX (to name two small engined examples) can keep going at motorway speed up an incline then most modern cars should be able to. It may need you to knock it down a gear and then push the gas pedal to the floor, but that's what its there for!!

Never knew about ford's 1 litre motor with 125 hp :lol: I guess they've got the similar idea as that new 2 cylinder turbocharged fiat panda.
 
nilagin said:
I see countless smaller engined cars on the motorways that have an inability to maintain speed every time they encounter a hill or even a slight long incline, yet speed up again when the road levels out again. I live near a section of the M25 being widened and has a 50mph limit, they can't even manage to maintain that. A bigger engined car will do it with alot more ease. My 2.2 TDCi can sit at 70mph all day long and still average over 60mpg.
Only small engine I'd be tempted to have in a small car is Ford's 1.0 Ecoboost but that has 125bhp. Failing that it would be a 1.6 or 2.0 Ecoboost.
But that's down to the driver not the car, I see plenty of far larger cars have the inability of keeping a constant speed, one of the roads I drive daily to me through the new forest I see speed variations of 20+mph on a regular basis, it is a national speed.
 
i dont have any problems maintaining a speed in my car, none at all. its definitely down to the driver
 
That's a fair point Neil, but do also consider that some people forget to push the pedal a bit when there is an incline. I live in Scotland so I know what hilly roads are like... And if a smart car and citroen ZX (to name two small engined examples) can keep going at motorway speed up an incline then most modern cars should be able to. It may need you to knock it down a gear and then push the gas pedal to the floor, but that's what its there for!!

Never knew about ford's 1 litre motor with 125 hp :lol: I guess they've got the similar idea as that new 2 cylinder turbocharged fiat panda.

My car will sit in 6th at 50mph and can accelerate upto 70 without the need to change down or indeed put much pressure on the accelerator. (It would do this with ease even before it was moddified and remapped) Not having to keep changing gear makes for a much more relaxed drive, especially if you are going to be sitting on the motorway all day long. There is a big difference between a car/driver being able to handle the odd motorway journey and doing it everyday.

Ford's 3 cylinder 1.0 Ecoboost is latest in their lineup of Ecoboost engines. All of which have been in development for a number of years. The 1.0 is available in the new B-Max, Focus and probably soon to appear in the Fiesta. The engine is an alternative to 1.6 engines but being more economical and lower emissions. Mountune have just rolled out an upgrade for the 1.6 Ecoboost engined Focus taking the 150PS and 180PS engines upto 200PS. It will be interesting to see if they will do an upgrade for the 1.0 engine. I reckon the 1.0 would do well in the KA, (based on same Panda chassis as Fiat 500) but I doubt we'd see it in the current model. Perhaps when the model is up for renewal and Ford build their own again (as rumoured, because Ford engineers can't get it to handle as well as they'd like with the constraints of the chassis provided) we'll see a return to Ford engines in the model.
 
It depends on the car and the gearing. I borrowed a punto 1.4 with a short ratio box and I had to do 80 to get up m6 hills in 5th. If I wasn't doing 80 I had to be caning the pants off it in 4th gear at 70. Having always had 2 litre cars which just went up and down hills in 5th gear at 70 without much effort it was quite a shock.

Small engined small cars also struggle far more with more passengers and more luggage. Their acceleration and stopping distances are compromised more than with larger cars. I think Top Gear showed how much longer it took to get to 60 and back to 0 with 4 people and a boot full of stuff. If you mainly travel on your own or with one other person then they're fine. If it's with several larger people you need a bigger car with a decent engine.

There's also the issue of joining slip roads. Joining at 40mph isn't very safe when the traffic is doing 70. Some of the lower powered cars on short and inclined slip roads do struggle even if you give them a good boot. I wouldn't have a car that couldn't get up to lorry speed by the end of slip roads. It's just not safe.
 
There's also the issue of joining slip roads. Joining at 40mph isn't very safe when the traffic is doing 70. Some of the lower powered cars on short and inclined slip roads do struggle even if you give them a good boot. I wouldn't have a car that couldn't get up to lorry speed by the end of slip roads. It's just not safe.

That is one of my pet hates, being stuck behind a car incapable of getting up to speed quick enough in these instances, probably second only to being behind people who drive cars that are capable of getting up to speed quickly and safely but for whatever reason refuse to do so.:bang:
 
Returning to the op's question, if you only have £3-4k to spend and, going by the finance requirement, you need to buy from
a dealer then you'll probably find you'll either be looking at something unpopular (think French), old or very high mileage, none of which are great if you will be doing a big mileage yourself and paying it up over 3 or 4 years.

Tbh I'm struggling to think of anything that's really going to be ideal, except something like perhaps a Skoda Fabia diesel, even then you'll realistically be looking at something around 8 years old....
 
My car will sit in 6th at 50mph and can accelerate upto 70 without the need to change down or indeed put much pressure on the accelerator. (It would do this with ease even before it was moddified and remapped) Not having to keep changing gear makes for a much more relaxed drive, especially if you are going to be sitting on the motorway all day long. There is a big difference between a car/driver being able to handle the odd motorway journey and doing it everyday.

That's not really a fair comparison though, you're driving a TDCI which has bagloads of torque from idle. Modern 4-banger diesels with all their recent advancements are packing so much torque these days and re my comment above they are rivalling bigger petrol v8s for torque. Some of our sensible friends over in the US are actually choosing to ditch their v8s in favour of diesels because of this. the Crown Victoria is a common candidate for the Cummins 4BT swap for instance; half as many cylinders and less displacement than the standard 4.6 motor but is said to develop around the same amount of torque, making it more efficient and nearly as quick.

I still maintain that the main issue here is people's fear of the gas pedal, rather than the size of the engine. My mum for instance will never put her foot to the floor under any circumstance whereas my OH does it all the time and gets places quickly. There seems to be a general fear of going over 3,000 rpm and flooring it, a prime example being my pal stating - and I quote "no I can't, I'll flood it, it'll explode".

It's a fruitless argument though, and I feel a bit bad for taking over the OP's thread. :lol:
 
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If you're going to be doing mainly motorways and 30k a year don't be tempted to get anything smaller than a Focus. I wouldn't go for anything smaller than a 1.8 diesel engine in that sized car or a 2.0 in a larger car otherwise you're going to find the journeys quite tiresome. My Mondeo is a 2.2 TDCi, even before I upgraded certain bits on th eengine and had it remapped, it could sit effortlessly on a motorway all day long, return over 60mpg on those journeys and I could get out fresh as a daisy. A 2.0 TDCi Mondeo or other make should easily be able to give similar returns.

How an earth do you get 60mpg form the 2.2 tdci without tweaks?:eek:

After ditching fast cars/bikes, I run one thinking economy and the best I can get- driving like a saint is 43mpg- usually 39mpg. I think they are awful- I'm tempted to go and get a GT-R or RS4 just to get some speed for my lack of economy. Having neither sucks and wasn't really the plan:lol:

So, what's wrong with mine?- had the EGR valve off and it was fine. Should I just get it remapped- would it make that much difference?
 
german diesel would be my first look out

but then again you can get a high spec high mileage mondeo titanium
 
How an earth do you get 60mpg form the 2.2 tdci without tweaks?:eek:

After ditching fast cars/bikes, I run one thinking economy and the best I can get- driving like a saint is 43mpg- usually 39mpg. I think they are awful- I'm tempted to go and get a GT-R or RS4 just to get some speed for my lack of economy. Having neither sucks and wasn't really the plan:lol:

So, what's wrong with mine?- had the EGR valve off and it was fine. Should I just get it remapped- would it make that much difference?

Even before any tweaks, I got 726 miles from 12 gallons (I just couldn't squeeze a drop more in when refuelling) when I first bought the car back in 2010.
Car is now decatted, larger intercooler, performance exhaust (not a necessity but I love the noise) forge silicone boost hoses, and remapped. Now runs 190bhp and 326lb/ft torque. Lowest I've had out of it is 50mpg now in winter, warmer weather sees the mpg increase to 56+. But I do make use of the extra power alot more now, if I didn't it would be better still. My egr valve has just recently stuck in the closed position so I've unplugged it (euro4) and just reset the eml when it shows up on the dash.
If you want improvements go for a decat (not a failure on a diesel under new MOT regs.) a larger intercooler (mine was £280 including full instructions and fitting kit, cheaper ones can be bought off ebay but has a universal fitting kit and no instructions for around £120. Then get a remap to get it all working properly. You'll be suprised at how much the difference is in how the engine feels and performs, alot smoother and more relaxed and you should see a good mpg return just so long as you can resist flooring it, but even then, as mentioned previously, it still gives good mpg returns. You'll swear you were driving a different car.:thumbs:
 
Even before any tweaks, I got 726 miles from 12 gallons (I just couldn't squeeze a drop more in when refuelling) when I first bought the car back in 2010.
Car is now decatted, larger intercooler, performance exhaust (not a necessity but I love the noise) forge silicone boost hoses, and remapped. Now runs 190bhp and 326lb/ft torque. Lowest I've had out of it is 50mpg now in winter, warmer weather sees the mpg increase to 56+. But I do make use of the extra power alot more now, if I didn't it would be better still. My egr valve has just recently stuck in the closed position so I've unplugged it (euro4) and just reset the eml when it shows up on the dash.
If you want improvements go for a decat (not a failure on a diesel under new MOT regs.) a larger intercooler (mine was £280 including full instructions and fitting kit, cheaper ones can be bought off ebay but has a universal fitting kit and no instructions for around £120. Then get a remap to get it all working properly. You'll be suprised at how much the difference is in how the engine feels and performs, alot smoother and more relaxed and you should see a good mpg return just so long as you can resist flooring it, but even then, as mentioned previously, it still gives good mpg returns. You'll swear you were driving a different car.:thumbs:

Cheers, I'll have a look. MOT is due July so making a decision as to whether to sell or not now. Love petrol engines but some of the mpg figures are eye watering these days:lol:
 
Forgot to say that's quite an increase you have there- standard they are 155bhp although newer ones are now 175 odd. 190bhp is impressive:thumbs:
 
Why not get an A4 quattro, maybe an avant(much bigger boot), get one with a 1.9tdi or a 2.5tdi engine? Being out in the countryside I would highly consider 4wd. Will be good on fuel too.
 
Forgot to say that's quite an increase you have there- standard they are 155bhp although newer ones are now 175 odd. 190bhp is impressive:thumbs:

Some people have made more than 190, there is a tuner in Belgium that got 208bhp from a similar set up to mine, I believe they have now gone down th eroad of hybrid turbo and looking into alternative injectors for 240bhp+. The mk4 175bhp is a different engine, remapped over 200bhp . Latest mk4's are now 200bhp standard, don't think anyone has remapped it yet. ECU's are now supposed to be tamper proof so may not be possible. However Mountune have been remapping some of the new engines (petrol and diesel) as they have ties with Ford, perhaps Ford have given them the know how.
 
Cheers, I'll have a look. MOT is due July so making a decision as to whether to sell or not now. Love petrol engines but some of the mpg figures are eye watering these days:lol:

When I said it felt like a different car, after the decat and intercooler, the engine felt alot more like a petrol in characteristics. Obviously still not revving as high, it's hard to describe. I've known people who had a decatted and remapped car like mine but without the intercooler. They were sceptical to say the least of what the intercooler would do for them, they took the plunge and were very shocked and suprised at the new lease of life thrown into their engines. Imagine how pleased they would have been and had the remap done last as it should be.
 
doublem1 said:
Why not get an A4 quattro, maybe an avant(much bigger boot), get one with a 1.9tdi or a 2.5tdi engine? Being out in the countryside I would highly consider 4wd. Will be good on fuel too.

A quick look on the Autotrader site suggests the op's top budget will buy something 10 years old with around 150-170k on it. that's likely to be more of a moneypit than his Corsa.....
 
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