Hello there,

We've been on the hunt for a nice Outlander around 4-7 years old in the UK and have a budget of around £11000 The car will be my wife's car and she commutes to work 20 miles each way mostly motorway around 4x per week. We would also use the car for hauling our mountain bikes around on a towbar bracket at weekends and also for annual camping trips around the UK in the Summer. Annual mileage 9000-10000 p.a.

We're being quite specific on colour and mileage so only really looking at vehicles with less than approx 60 000 miles on and the car must have the subwoofer and music server, cream leather and ideally be navy blue with a decent service history.

It's amazing how few of these are around and how quickly they sell!

I have a choice between a petrol and a diesel both dealer sales priced at £11000 - both the elegance spec in the right colour combo

The petrol car is a Nov 2007 2.4 litre Elegance with just 17000 miles o it from new!!! Serviced on the button every 12 months at around 3000 mile intervals and owned by one older chap from new.

The diesel car is a 2009 registered 2.0 litre Elegance with 63000 miles and full service history with I think 2 owners from new.

Manufacturer figures quote 40mpg for diesel and 30mpg for petrol but what is a realistic real world average?? My calculations imply the petrol would cost around £600 a year more to fuel over 10 000 miles but maybe a petrol car with lower mileage would cost a little less on repairs?

Which would you buy and why??

Also having just parted with our V8 Landy Discovery which we had converted to LPG we found LPG to be brilliant but does anyone have any views on running an Outlander with it?? I read some conflicting views on whether the Outlander has hardened valve seats??

I would be very grateful for any views before we choose...

Thanks,

Saxon