What diesel to replace my Ford Mondeo?

I fancy a change from my Ford Mondeo, which I love. What do you reckon in a 2.0-lltre diesel: Merc, BMW, VW Touareg or Jaguar X-Type?

Fergal Reidy (Celbridge)

May 2010 Filed under: choosing used car

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Expert answer

Hi Fergal,

This is quite an eclectic mix of cars. We can't really give you an exact valuation on your Mondeo, but if we guess that it will be worth around €11,000 (you might get more) then you should have a budget of €31,000.

You could get into a brand new Jaguar X-Type for this price without too much difficulty. Bear in mind that this car is no longer made and while there are a few around, residuals won't hold up too well in the future. But you are getting quite a lot of car for your €30,000 with that. 

You could have a 2008 BMW 520d from a BMW dealer for under €30,000, obviously less than that if you decided to go non main dealer. Have a look at this one from a main dealer here.

A 2007 Mercedes-Benz E 220 CDi from a main dealer will cost you about €28,000. Here is an example. This would be more comfort-orientated, but obviously a year older than the BMW.

Finally if you wanted a passenger Touareg (as opposed to the commercial version), you would get a 2007 model, maybe a 2008 with this budget. This would obviously be a very different drive to what you are used to and running costs could be a little higher. Here is a good used example. 

Out of this lot, I would have the BMW, just from a personal point of view. That 5 Series was better than the E-Class of the same age. The X-Type is an old, discontinued car and I wouldn't spend that sort of money on a new one. The Touareg is nice, but it's very different to the others, so you would need to try it.

Hope this helps. 

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