Mercedes or BMW 10k

This seems to be coming up a lot lately. By all means you can buy a BMW or Mercedes for €10k but you should expect to spend another €2k a year maintaining and repairing it as you are buying a 10+ year old car luxury brand of car which won’t be the most reliable or cheap to repair

If not doing much mileage . Would a petrol low mileage car be better ? I don't mean one of the big engined petrol models.

A petrol 3 series or c class / clk with low miles could be a good buy but only if doing low enough miles

I saw a 2008 318 with low tax . Low miles and leather at lambe and o Connor. A good dealer for €3950 . Talk about alot of car for money if u aren't bothered about the reg plate

My motor running costs decreased by so much when I went from an 15 year old Mercedes 2l petrol to a 12 month old Avensis 2l diesel my accountant raised it as a query… about 60% iirc… and I went from doing all my own maintenance on the merc to the main dealer with the Toyota!

A small high spec volvo or a passat / superb with leather etc

A high spec passat could give a small merc or bmw a run for its money

Are SUVs more likely to topple over? Think I heard that before. Just wondering if that's what you meant by 'suicidal'. It amazes me how popular they have become but that in itself doesn't mean they're a good buy. Think it's just the trend now 😏

yes, SUVs because of their higher centres of gravity, which makes them excellent off-road vehs, also makes them unstable for "normal" on road driving, especially on bends or sudden maneuverings. They can and do flip over, and I've personal experience of it happening too, several instances in fact. And in one case, the cause was tyre pressure imbalance, and the vehicle was a Toyota Landcruiser. I wouldn't be going for a SUV in any case, unless I needed it for work, a lot of towing, farm work etc. I'd be happy out with a MB Eclass, Superb or a VW Passat. All good cars.

I mean yes, a taller car is more likely to flip in general but there's so many other factors that come into play long before a car is at that point. A heavy EV SUV with most of its weight very low will take more energy to flip than a lightweight crossover on thin tyres.

Not really a reason to consider in a car choice and more just a pub style argument...

Talking about tall vehicles flipping watch this. Mad thing while searching for this video I came across other range rovers flipping so must be quite common. Obviously if you do not pull a quick manoeuvre at speed you will not flip but still.

Neither have I, and I have been driving suvs for more years that I care to think about, mainly Toyota Landcruiser's, and in the conditions that they were designed for, off-road, mountains, ice and snow, desert, rivers and forest. The kind of stuff that a winch and a chainsaw were standard equipment on. And I've often had to use them too. Plus I've driven MB, Renault and Scania 4 x 4 trucks. And I've never capsized one. But I know of 3 LC's and 1 Landrover, that did flip.

The two Land cruisers flipped while each of them was travelling on the motorway. In the Country they were travelling in, the temp in summer can reach 45c + and this temp, combined with unequal tyre pressures in the wheel's caused them to become unsteady on the road, and the drivers over corrected, causing them to flip. A major factor in this was the high centre of gravity, they were inherently unstable due to this.

The Landrover flipped while driving through a city, low speed when a pedestrian stepped straight off the footpath, and the driver swung the steering wheel hard suddenly to avoid her. And over it went.

The 3rd Landcruiser was stopping for a checkpoint when the nearside wheels slipped off the road, down slightly on to the hard shoulder, and flipped. Just like that. Lots of other vehicles had stopped on the same spot (no choice) and none of them went over. But then, they were not off-road vehicles either.

So, yes. In my personal experience, SUVs with high centres of gravity are more likely to flip than standard road vehicles. For comparison, even if it's a little extreme, try driving a mini-Cooper round a bend at say 70 kph, and try doing the same with a Toyota Land Cruiser.

This thread has quickly gone off track.

In response to the OP's question

My opinion, neither. You are not going to get a good one for that kind of money. Stick to your mass market pleb-mobiles and at that price point you are not even guaranteed to get a good one of those.

The Bottom line is, no matter which vehicle you decide on, unless it has a full-service history (or at the least the independent mechanics white ink service history written on the engine itself,) don't touch it.

To further derail the thread, this is another comical example of people's stupidity with SUVs:

Seatbelts eh? Who needs them? 🤣

Indeed, the 2.1 diesels are workhorses and were the go to choice for many a taxi across Europe in the E class. You'll get a fright starting them up as they're rattly yokes but will keep going well.

That would be my choice too, and I've had 2 MB E class so far, and while I was thinking about going for a BMW 5 series next time, I think that I will stick with either the Superb or back to a MB again.

Judging by the dress code, asking them to wear a seat belt might be taken as an insult to their honour…..and as for the utter contempt shown to other beach users.,,,kind of reinforces it.

I would just walk away .find a newer / less mileage car from a more mainstream brand but one with lots of speci