We've got to replace a car :-(

In some ways it's a good time to do it (prices are low) and it's a holiday, but it's also inconvenient.

We just feel it's time to move our Peugeot on. Not that we want anything flashy, but it's now 7 1/2 years and 140,000 miles old and and reliability is becoming an issue. Since Chris drives the car, this IS an issue. I quite like driving old nails, but she hates the risk of getting stuck.

Present choices seem to be boiling down to 4 year old cars, since we want a diesel (fuel cost reduced by 1/3) estate for extra space. Looks like it may be another Peugeot 406. Although I'm not impressed by the reliability of this one, it was one of the first in the country, and later ones should have been sorted a bit better. Another choices are Ford's Mundano (sorry, Mondeo, but like any ford, they're meant to be dead boring) which is cheapish, but of questionable build quality (again, applies to all Fords). There are also a couple of 'if only' cars - the Audi A4, Volks Passat and the Volvo V70 - which are nice, but would stretch our finances more than I want.

Oh, I was tempted by a Toyota Hilux Surf - basically a crewcab with a glassed roof on the pickup section. I must have spent too much time in the US ;-)

We just need to find "the right one". It's occupying far too much of my thought life ATM, but the consequences of buying a complete duffer are financial ruin for a couple of years, and I don't want to go through all that again.