A well-known used car dealer has recommended three practical estate cars that look expensive but cost little more than £5,000 to buy.
Matt Goodwin runs the YouTube channel High Peak Autos and often fronts videos in which he recommends the best used cars to buy and shares the latest models he has bought for his forecourt.
In one of his latest videos, Matt takes a look at affordable yet luxurious estate cars, recommending drivers with a £5,000 budget should consider the Audi A6 Avant.
He advised: “If you’re looking for an [Audi] A6 Avant, what I would recommend is a 3.0-litre, so let’s change the engine size to that. So, this one for example is a 2011 facelift, so nice LED lights and nicer wheels. It’s automatic, it’s a 3.0-litre diesel, so 240bhp, it’s done 111,000 miles and it’s £5,250.
“It’s a good looking thing that. I know this is a 13-year-old car now but you’ll get many more years out of that, and for just over £5,000, it’s an awful lot of car. It’s a Quattro, so it’s all-wheel drive, and I just know exactly how this will drive. It’ll be smooth, powerful and quick.”
Part of the Audi range since 1994, a £5,000 budget can easily get motorists a later C6-generation example, built between 2004 and 2011.
Whilst these cars are somewhat long in the tooth, their premium status means that many examples have plenty of standard equipment, including Bluetooth connectivity, sat-nav and a 10-speaker audio system.
With the 3.0-litre diesel engine fitted, the Audi A6 Avant Quattro has an all-wheel drive transmission, getting around 40mpg whilst also accelerating from 0-62mph in just seven seconds.
Later in the video, Matt suggested that drivers looking for a cheap estate car that is surprisingly dependable take a look at a Jaguar X-Type with a 3.0 V6 engine, stating that he wished he kept his.
He added: “I did a video with a gold one of these, a 3.0-litre V6 all-wheel drive Sovereign. I kind of wish I’d kept that car – it had a beige leather interior and a wooden steering wheel.
“Anyway, here’s something similar to that, it’s a 2006 model for £4,995. It doesn’t look that great value when you could buy a 2011 Audi A6 for the same sort of money but they’re very rare and that 3.0-litre V6 is very reliable. It’s a chain-driven engine that sounds nice, and it’s a manual.”
Finally, drivers were also advised that a £5,000 budget can also get them a high-quality Vauxhall Insignia Estate, though Matt warned viewers to carefully inspect any example they are interested in buying.
He continued: “A Vauxhall Insignia Estate wouldn’t be a bad idea. The road tax is cheap, but I worry that people buy them because they are cheap and can’t necessarily afford to repair them or don’t bother having them serviced.
“So when they come in, they are usually at the end of their life. That said, if you find one that’s been maintained well, go for it.”
