[r44flyer]

Hi all...
Sad times... thanks to the Birmingham Clean Air Zone coming into force in June next year, our ZTT's days are numbered. We've owned the car for 10 years and it has been fantastic, with regular maintenance and few big bills it has been cheap to own and a great do-it-all car for the family. I'm loathed to get rid of it because it has years of good service left in it I'm sure. It has only recently had clutch and flywheel, brakes and tyres!

We need something to replace it, and I'm struggling to pick something as I know very little about any other marque. Whatever we buy will be with us for a long time as we don't tend to change cars very often. It must be an estate, it must be petrol, the budget can't be too extravagant (possibly £5k), it must be reliable and not hugely expensive to repair if it does need work.

I know nobody has a crystal ball to see if a car will be a good buy or not but does anyone have any personal experience they can share on long term ownership of anything that's a suitable replacement?

Hope you can all give me some food for thought!

Cheers
Jim