225

Would love a newer c class etc but finances will not allow annoyingly. I would like another Alfa but the boot is tiny and a friend of mine just bought a 159 estate so I would never live it down if I bought one as well! Well may have to get one just to spite him though. The trouble is with the bigger engined cars it means an older model as well, bar the Alfa really. We shall see but looking forward to lots of different test drives.

Thanks for the answers guys. The reason I am considering the 220d is because of the torque on tap but but there are more 250 sports around, good to hear the ratios are all 6 on the 220d though. The cooling seats were nice but i'm not too worried about once we're back in the UK to be honest! I would disagree about alfas being unreliable though as I had a v6 156 a few years ago and it never put a foot wrong, same with other so called unreliable cars i've owned, it admittedly is luck of the draw but I think a lot of it is common sense when buying as well. I know I'm not buying a performance car as such and the Lexus has other attributes which I like but I would like it to be a fun drive when the on my own. I'll keep looking round and will look forward to a test drive of both. Thanks again.

Hi I must admit the BMWs are expensive and yes your right there are too many of them. How does the 220d stack up in terms of performance with say a 2.0tdi passat etc? Obviously more the in gear than pointless 0-60 times. I am looking at a similar budget as well so the IS is looking great value, and having been in one in a hot country the seat cooling option was fantastic!

Morning all I am looking at various cars for when we return to the Uk in a couple of weeks, I have been abroad and not been a car owner for about 4.5years only driving the standard hire cars 2.0tdi mondeos and passats etc when back in blighty. I have also gone from single, sports car driving man to father and husband so priorities for cars have changed. However I do not want to be depressed every time I have to drive somewhere so looking at various cars. I'm looking at: IS 220d/250 both sport trim C class 320cdi merc Audi A4 3.0tdi alfa 159 2.4jtdm 3 series 325/320d I've been reading through all the posts and although the 220d seems to get a hard time for problems its going to be the same with any mark where there are good ones and bad ones so I'm not bothered about that. Also as you can see i'm looking at the bigger engined rivals so a direct performance comparison is not fair but I am used to either petrol turbo or larger engines and like a torquey engine, however the more modern dervs are a lot better these days so I am more open minded. The reason I put the IS on the list is down to I like the looks and interior and they are good value second hand. Correct me if I am wrong but do the sport models get a closer ratio gear box which helps with performance a little? Sorry for the rambling a bit but just wondered if anyone had considered similar cars before buying an IS. Thanks