{"id":1151881,"date":"2026-08-16T13:28:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T13:28:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1151881\/"},"modified":"2026-08-16T13:28:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T13:28:16","slug":"the-used-cars-mechanics-would-actually-drive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1151881\/","title":{"rendered":"The used cars mechanics would actually drive"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s a view shared by Charlie Sterrett, owner of Sterrett\u2019s Auto Centre in Northern Ireland, who says he would choose a 2023 Toyota Aygo with an automatic gearbox, which is dependable if serviced yearly. A recurring theme quickly emerges: mechanics tend to favour cars that are sensibly engineered and have established a reputation for reliability.<\/p>\n<p>At the enthusiast end of the market, performance and reliability are not always mutually exclusive. James Dudley, founder of Automotive Cardiff, is in no doubt: \u201cI\u2019d purchase a petrol <a class=\"ck-custom-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/bmw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">BMW<\/a> without question. F-chassis or G-chassis, mated with the legendary B58 3.0-litre turbocharged engine, which is commonly found in the M140i, 240i, 340i and 540i.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He argues that although these are not as uncompromising as the German firm\u2019s explosive M2, M3, M4 and M5 models, they nevertheless provide sufficient comfort for daily use combined with still-mighty performance; both manual versions and the ZF 8HP automatic gearbox are \u201cpretty robust\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Alex Alfano, owner of north London garage Diagnostic Service &amp; Repairs (DSR), is similarly smitten by a BMW, the <a class=\"ck-custom-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/motoring\/car-manufacturers\/bmw\/11593180\/40-Years-of-the-BMW-3-series.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">renowned E46 M3<\/a>, a 3.2-litre, six-cylinder manual produced from 2000 to 2006. \u201cIt\u2019s fast and exciting to drive,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>Diesel cars are more complicated<\/p>\n<p>Many of the garages interviewed expressed concerns about the increasing complexity of modern emission-control systems, particularly on newer diesel cars.<\/p>\n<p>Dudley says choosing a diesel for the same \u00a320,000 budget is \u201cmuch harder\u201d because of recurring problems involving exhaust treatment systems such as AdBlue, low-pressure\/high-pressure exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) systems and diesel particulate filters (DPFs).<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps surprisingly, his choice is a Maserati Ghibli with the 3.0 V6 (DV6) engine and the eight-speed ZF automatic gearbox. \u201cIt\u2019s comfortable and even though it\u2019s Italian the quality is pretty damn good. Parts can be quite expensive but who cares, you own a Maserati.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a view shared by Charlie Sterrett, owner of Sterrett\u2019s Auto Centre in Northern Ireland, who says he&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1151882,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7],"tags":[2183,346,388,1715,53,298,34328,2186,16,15,227594,1968,2189],"class_list":["post-1151881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-bmw","tag-cars","tag-lifestyle","tag-standard","tag-technology","tag-tesla","tag-top-story","tag-toyota","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-us-content","tag-used-cars","tag-volvo"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117105427871918556","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1151881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1151881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1151881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1151882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1151881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1151881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1151881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}