The second thing is that I want something with a certain level of finish. Leather seats, and other finishings of reasonable quality.
Then I want something that is going to be reasonably enjoyable to drive.
You ought to at least take a look at the Honda CRV. Seats 5 easily, masses of space, all the gizmos, leather if you want it (I went for half leather/Alcantara), bullet-proof reliability.
My brother, who is a bit of an Audi snob, was amazed when I took him up to North Wales in it, I think he expected it to be a wobbly old fart's car but its ability to cover ground fast and comfortably is excellent/
In nearly 4 years of ownership of mine, I have found just 2 things to complain about: the air conditioning has whole degree rather than ½ degree increments, and when you turn the ignition off the hifi forgets that your iPod is set to shuffle, so it goes back to ticking through the tracks alphabetically.
Apart from the routine servicing (total cost £300 for 4 years) it has needed a set of tyres at 30,000 miles and a new set of windscreen wipers. Average consumption over the 4 years is 42 mpg.
Admittedly I'm biased as I'm a devoted supporter of buying local, and they are built just down the road from me, but they really are cracking cars, there are several CRV owners on TM.
And for the £50k price tag of a car with brand cachet, you could buy both a CRV and a Fiat 500 Abarth if you want some tin top driving fun.
