Yeah thats the best thing about my dads car, we paid £1600 for it 3 years ago and we spend about £400 on it a year in maintance including MOTs and servicing. Its done 86,000 miles, the machanic said the engines sound and the car should have plenty of years left in it. I reckon my dad will keep it for another 3 years or so and scrap it when it starts to become unreliable.

Greg you have a good point about the Monedo new, but as they loose so much in value a 12 month one will be a lot cheaper than a BMW. I reckon an ST24 will be worth about £10k-12k if it was second hand, a 12 month old basic 320 would be around £16-£18k.