...not to replace the 180, but a replacement for the Rover

My criteria is as follows:

Gotta be a nice drive, and cope well with motorway miles.

Have enough poke to be fun, but not so much poke it guzzles the fuel.

Must be reasonably decent size, with ideally a hatch back.

I have approx £2k for the right car, and so far Ive been looking at BMW 325TDS and 525TDS tourers, Audi A4 Avants and a Civic VTi Aerodeck to give you an idea of what Im after...

..any suggestions - sensible ones

And, no, I dont want a Vectra as I despise Vauxhalls and they are a pain in the backside to work on, I dont want a Mondeo as they are boring - Im sure you get the jist ....

what about the 406 with the 2.0 turbo engine?

i know you said not a mondeo but the mk2 ST200 are going at a good price

like this?

web page


Can't seen i was impressed with the build quality compared to my car, but they are built for us europeans more in mind.

Unfortunatly the Mondeo ST and Pug 2.0 Turbo will both be far to thirsty for my near 100 mile commute each day

I did look at the 4th Civic down on the autotrader link (The 1.8 VTi Aerodeck), but think its a little expensive (for the money I have) at £2650

I did also have a look at this VTi-S , but despite the history, was put off by the milage...

Shame, my mate has one with 160k on the clock and he has had no problems with it at all.

what about a passat? or volvo t5

T5's are very thirsty, I have looked at Passats, but I need a hatch so it would need to be the Estate, and IMO the Passat in the estate is quite ugly compaired to the Audi which is basically the same car.

325TDS tourer mate. Im after one of them soon

D'oh, really want an Aerodeck VTi! As for that VTi-s mate, the price reflects the mileage. It'd do another 100K easy anyway.