Hi Sinead,

With that budget, you’re obviously looking at quite old, high-mileage cars. We’d steer clear of the Mercs of that era, because the brand had some quality control issues in the late 1990s and early part of the 2000s, and it’s those sort of cars you’re going to get. We’d also avoid the Volvos, because their automatic gearboxes and diesel engines weren’t so good back then.

You could get an Audi A4 or A6 2.0 TDI, relatively low mileage (sub-160,000km), that’d be a sound proposition, but our eye was caught by a BMW 525d with 158,000km for €4,995 – a straight-six turbodiesel engine and slick autobox, all packaged up in the still-stylish 'E60' bodywork. However, its road tax is steep, so perhaps a 2008 520d with 160,000km on the clock would be a better bet; €390 per annum to tax and better on fuel. You can find examples for sub-€6,000 fairly easily.