Time to change the S80 - sanity check please?

[TW]Fox · 23 Mar 2015 at 21:14

Participant said:
Yes, they do tend to keep their value very well! OK, so my budget needs to go up or my expectations need to go down. Maybe a 2 litre M sport from 2012? The 530d was just something I fancied, I'm not bothered about speed really as I've got a motorbike for giggles and I doubt the 520d is exactly slow.

I would just go for a 10/11, it's fundamentally the same car anyway with only very minor changes. The 530d is better than the 520d, its far less like a nasty diesel.

Gooner14 · 23 Mar 2015 at 21:29

Love my 530D Touring. It's a 61 plate, M Sport, plenty to toys to shake a stick at and it's not exactly slow and has tonnes of boot space. Just got 56mpg too whilst driving like Miss Daisy at 60 on cruise on the M4/M25/M11.

Dangerous Dave · 24 Mar 2015 at 13:31

Participant said:
Yes, they do tend to keep their value very well! OK, so my budget needs to go up or my expectations need to go down. Maybe a 2 litre M sport from 2012? The 530d was just something I fancied, I'm not bothered about speed really as I've got a motorbike for giggles and I doubt the 520d is exactly slow.

I wouldn't go for a 520d, not bad sub 60mph with the sports auto (although a lot aren't spec'd with this and following the LCI not even an option) but it is carrying a lot of weight and feels underpowered when overtaking, I could imagine with a fully loaded car it would be frustrating.

A good middle ground is the 525d noticeably quicker and if going for the later twin turbo 2L doesn't have the delay in power the 530d suffers from which can be very annoying. The 530d is more refined but with either you are under no illusion a diesel is under the bonnet especially from a cold start. Ideally you would want the 528i but they are very rare.

After a quick look, not quite 2012 but you should be able to get that for 21k with 2 years AUC included as the dealer can add another year on at a discounted rate. Main downside is no sports auto followed closely by the colour.

http://usedcars.bmw.co.uk/5-Series/...73881-604915021-3497130.aspx?srcmdc=se_na_re_

mjt · 30 Mar 2015 at 21:23

I'm in a similar position with the cars you've mentioned.
I'm concerned that a Superb will be too dull and I'll lose the will to live, but I've got a good VW indy.
An S80 D5 puts me off with DMF and diesel-related failures, although I've seen an Executive for a good price.
I've done some insurance quotes for an F10 and anything other than a 520d is silly and having to get a loan for the F10 with the spec I'd want is also not really ideal.

Have you got any further with your decisions?
What about an A6 Avant or E Class? They don't seem to hold their value as well as F10s..

PMKeates · 30 Mar 2015 at 22:32

George Hincapie said:
I disagree with that. The fact they didn't release a facelift every 5 minutes just underlines how right they got the design to start with. I love the fact that the appreance hasn't changed. I realise this is personal preference, but it's a beautiful car. It really isn't a bad place to sink £20K - for the OPs needs, it is perfect. It'll do 300,000 miles easily if he looks after it.

A manufacturer doesn't choose not to facelift or replace a generation of model because they did it "so right" in the beginning. I quite like the XC90 but it's really not a beautiful car. It's almost a bit Fiat Multipla-y.

Participant · 31 Mar 2015 at 20:38

mjt said:
Have you got any further with your decisions?
What about an A6 Avant or E Class? They don't seem to hold their value as well as F10s..

Not yet, still researching. Got absolutely no time for this kind of thing at the moment. What I can say is that while I've nothing against the A6 or E-class per se, the F10 is my preference of the three from a looks and image point of view. Audi's a bit rep and Merc's a bit old (is my no-doubt-flawed perception).

The only decision I've made is that the 520d isn't going to work. I drove a colleague's yesterday and I can go along with the comments about the 520d. It wouldn't be awful, but when spooging ~£25k it needs to be better than not awful.

Appreciate all the replies anyway.

[TW]Fox · 31 Mar 2015 at 20:40

The only reason I could come up with as to why neither the A6 nor the E Class seem to cost as much as the 5 is because they are simply not as good as the 5. The E Class has a dire interior from hell - what were you doing Merc - and the A6 has the worst engine/gearbox range in the universe. Only the BiTurbo diesel at a billion pounds comes with a proper gearbox, the rest are either manuals, crap CVT's or DSG. Manual boxes are for sports cars, DSG boxes are for Golf GTI's and CVT's are for Toyota Prius's.

pepsilol · 1 Apr 2015 at 00:19

What about a V70. IMO they're very understated and have their own class, I'd personally would put it as more classy than a 5 series and just as much of a premium.

Ok it's been discussed above but I'd consider it and save a tonne of cash. Especially if you were happy with the S80.

Dandle · 1 Apr 2015 at 01:21

I looked into V70s when I was replacing my E61 and they are specced really poorly as standard compared to a 5 series. Even the switch to isolate the back windows if you have kids was an extra £80, when you added the spec onto it to make it comparable to a standard equipped 5 then the price was roughly the same and the v70 although in the same class isn't really comparable when you look at the two together.

Scania · 1 Apr 2015 at 06:14

pepsilol said:
What about a V70. IMO they're very understated and have their own class, I'd personally would put it as more classy than a 5 series and just as much of a premium.

It's arguably comparable to an e60/61 5 but hardly imo to a current one, the V70 harks back to 2007 and is very much imo outclassed by the current generation 5 series.

A Volvo more classy than a BMW? I doubt many would agree with that sentiment tbh.