Evening folks

So last week I was driving to Birmingham to take my kid sisters sofa bed back that I'd borrowed for my new abode till my new sofa arrived.

Made it 20min away from my destination in very very bad traffic and my clutch started to completely go. Would of made it the entire way of it wasn't for complete bafoons in front of me stopping me from maintaining a constant speed. Clutch went, could not regain speed and I dropped from 70 to 60 to 50 and it was getting dangerous so I bit the bullet and pulled into the hard shoulder.

Phoned AA, came within 40min and towed me to my mechanic in Redditch, 330 quid later and a 5 day stint in a Nissan note and I was back on the road.

Feels so great to have the war horse back but the old girl is on 121k now and she's only a 1.6 petrol bless her. And since the clutch went the engine light keeps pinging up.

So the time has come to get a new car. I definitely need a diesel due to the amount of miles I cover and a bigger engine with more grunt would be good. Preferably no dpf. Between 1.8 and 2L

So far my thoughts are between a new shape Mondeo titanium x, a Mitsubishi lancer gs4 or gs3 saloon, Mitsubishi l200, Nissan navara or a facelift focus.

Whatever I get must be a higher spec with privacy glass and cruise control as standards and preferably 18/17 inch alloys.

Recommendations for other cars along the same lines are welcome, I'm thinking either saloon or possibly estate but then I really like the idea of a 4wheel drive.

Would greatly appreciate any advice on the cars I've mentioned, on engines to go for, reliability and fuel economy as I'm gonna be eating the miles in whatever I get.

go with the 1.8 Duatorq Mondeo MK4.

I love mine, plenty of grit and go, and I have 117k on the clock and its still feels like its a spring chick!

Can b anyone offer up any info on the likes of the Mitsubishi l200 or the Nissan navara?

Every autotrader add for them is very elusive on anything to do with mpg and fuel economy.

Does this mean they are very thirsty even with diesel engines?

the Navara drinks diesel like theres no tomorrow.... Family have it and it can easily go through diesel like a 2.5l petrol mustang...

Cant say I have heard anything on the mitsu though

How expensive to maintain are the BMW 3 and 5 series

Ordinarily I would have said very but recently it seems they are not that much more expensive than ford's, btmaldon got one I believe...?