Currently reading: The cars the Autocar team bought in 2019

It's all very well swanning around in Lamborghinis, but what cars do we actually buy? Here's what our writers added to their garages this year

As 2019 draws to a close, it's time to reflect on another year spent living, breathing - and in some cases - buying cars. Five of Autocar's editorial team have purchased new cars this year, with mixed results. Ranging from a troublesome VW Bora to the burly comforts of a Lexus RX, here's the cars that we acquired in 2019.

Hilton Holloway: Lexus RX

Have you any idea how difficult it is to find a replacement for the 10-year-old Ford Mondeo estate? Neither did I. From first thoughts to an actual purchase, it took me 12 months, 11 months of which was increasingly intense internet research, followed by a couple of weeks of frenzied train travel.

The Mondeo came from a far-distant Ford dealer in Castle Cary, Somerset, sight unseen. What I wanted was a big estate, petrol and automatic. For a post-2008 car, this was a tricky brief. After 2009 diesel incentive taxes kicked in, few petrol-powered estates were registered. My budget was also limited to roughly how little I could get away with.

For two years before Ford launched its 2.0-litre petrol turbo engine, the Mondeo was sold with a 2.3-litre Mazda four-pot. It was mated to a six-speed torque-converter auto. The well-kept example I’d found was a modest Zetec, but it had the dual-zone climate control that is essential when my partner is in the passenger seat. I bought it at seven years old and 60,000 miles.

It turned out to be a gem. Autocar loved all generations of the Mondeo. The car handled well and rode really well when fitted with a set of superb Michelin Cross Climate tyres. Snake-hipped, wonderfully pointy, surprisingly refined, a huge load bay and a nice rigid body. Terrible in-London economy, basic radio and seats, very moderate poke and no parking sensors were its downsides.

After three years its replacement had to be a brisk petrol automatic that was spacious and with good audio, nice heated seats and parking sensors.

A Volvo? Older petrol Volvos are rarer than Paganis. There are a few TFSI-engined Volkswagen Group cars around, but I once owned a youngish Skoda Octavia Scout with the requisite FSH, and it not only consumed oil but also managed to slip its timing chain. Final-gen Honda Accord 2.4 estates are fine cars but also hard to find.

Cranking up the budget to five figures-plus hardly helped. Anything 3 Series-sized and above was diesel, and with an expanded Ultra Low Emission Zone looming across Greater London, I needed a Euro 6 diesel, which sent us north of £16k.

As to luxury extras, why are German makers so mean with their speccing of heated seats? Trying to find a petrol 3 Series Touring xDrive with extendable, heated seats was nearly impossible. A 3 Series GT? Nice idea but the same issue, and that 320i petrol turbo engine is hardly a ball of fire. Most everything else I spotted during my search was diesel.

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I stumbled over a nice Volvo V90 T6 AWD, but the 15mpg in town was too much to contemplate. Then I really fancied a Subaru Forester XT, but I couldn’t get on with the seating position. Short seat squabs; very frustrating.

I had been eyeing Lexus for a while. The Lexus NX300h hybrids – a good halfway house in size – were still expensive. The RX450h was in useful supply but it’s a giant with a V6 engine and Group 40 insurance. I tried one at Lexus Poole. Beautiful car, specced to heaven and back, but a 2.2-tonne whale. My partner loved it.

Lexus

Then I saw a 2009 RX at Lexus Leeds in full-on SE-L Premier spec. Full Lexus history and Lexus warranty. Okay, £14.5k is strong for a 10-year-old car, but it’s a Lexus. It’s big and doesn’t care to be rushed (unless it’s going in a straight line), but it often runs on electric in town, it’s immensely hushed and the level of detachment from the world is quite addictive. The boot is huge, the seats heated and cooled and it even has a head-up display. Most importantly, I don’t have to worry about AdBlue, DPFs and dual-clutch gearboxes. In the end, all-round peace swung the deal towards a car I’d never imagined buying. 

Felix Page: Volkswagen Bora

This 2004 Volkswagen Bora arrived home to respectful coos from my neighbours, who had never seen anything with electric windows on my driveway before. For a while I enjoyed the novelty of having heated leather seats and cruise control in my £1300 station shuttle, but soon its affordability started to make sense: the Bora was hiding a dark secret behind its pristine rear alloys.

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Vw bora

One day, while parked on a side street, it liberated itself of its oppressive handbrake mechanism and made a bid for freedom… straight into the back of the car parked in front. After blocking a busy B-road and being towed to a recovery yard far away, the Bora then added insult to injury by being perfectly driveable and costing me £200 to reclaim.

Bargain motors? Keep an eye on them. 

Jim Holder: Honda Civic

What do you do when you have a 15-year-old Mini and a growing family which is no longer, well, mini? Well, first you sell the Mini, which turned out to be a remarkably easy thing to do: the allure of a desirably branded car at £2000 came as quite a shock.

Photo 2019 12 13 13 01 30

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Budget then doubled to steer our choices away from the edgier end of the market. In the name of safety and reliability, wilder considerations included Subaru Foresters and Audi A2s. But the left side of the brain won, meaning a 10(ish)-year-old Toyota Auris or Honda Civic. As you can see, the latter triumphed. It may not have the brand allure of the Mini (if I could have found one in Si spec I’d have partially ticked that box, though), but this £3200, 50,000-miler – in rare 1.4-petrol tune, no less – is proving to be something of a revelation. 

Andrew Frankel: Mercedes-Benz A-Class

Twenty years ago, when my first child was born, I bought a Mercedes-Benz A140 from Benz, the actual car Autocar had road tested in 1998, no less. Ten years ago we needed something bigger and, as ours was the oldest A-Class in the country, Mercedes-Benz bought it back and restored it to show condition.

Frankel buy

Ten weeks ago I heard it was needed no more. Well, I couldn’t let it go, could I? So now I own both the oldest and, I am confident, best original A-Class in the land. Not saying much? Maybe not, but these cars are works of engineering genius, a packaging miracle which still has lessons to teach the car makers of today. 

John Evans: Mazda MX-5

I bought my MX-5 last February. It was an ex-dealer demo with just 500 miles under its belt, saving me £4000 on the new price. I was hoping to get close to the same thrills I experience on my motorcycle, and I haven’t been disappointed. Some memorable drives stand out.

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Mx5 6

First was an early spring blast to Duxford (what is it about lowering the roof that makes a convertible seem even faster and more agile?). Second was a late-spring drive into Worcestershire for this magazine, hunting down small car businesses, and third was a run to Goodwood for the Revival in the late summer sun. Bliss. 

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oldjeepman 24 December 2019

A Class debacle.

I well remember going to a Merc dealer in a very presentable Punto to look at an A Class only for a very snooty salesmant to say "We don't want any junk like that Fiat on our forecourt". Sale lost on one A class and any future replacements thereafter. MB's loss and my gain on reflection.

 

Leslie Brook 24 December 2019

oldjeepman wrote:

oldjeepman wrote:

I well remember going to a Merc dealer in a very presentable Punto to look at an A Class only for a very snooty salesmant to say "We don't want any junk like that Fiat on our forecourt". Sale lost on one A class and any future replacements thereafter. MB's loss and my gain on reflection.

 

My wife and I hired an A Class in 2002, at the time we drove a 1.2 Punto. Once you got past the excitement of driving something with a Mercedes badge, the reality was that the A Class did not really put the Punto in the shade. More spacious yes, but not really any more refined and certainly it's ride and handling were worse.

scotty5 24 December 2019

Apologies for stereotyping

Probably going to start reading other car magazines because the opinions of Autocar's staff aren't worth the paper they're written on if this is what they buy for themselves.

The only person left with any credibility is John Evans although perhaps writing columns for 'Hairdressers Journal' might be more appropriate.

Bimfan 23 December 2019

Ist gen A-class admirer.

I thought the novel dual-floor concept of the A-Class was brilliant and would have been ideal for electrification at a later stage. The only reason i didn't buy one was a Mercedes salesman indifference and unwillingness to discount.

I think these cars should be acknowledged for the engineering and packaging innovaters they were, although a Honda Jazz achieves similar magic packaging and drives better.