Over the (fairly) recent years, my wife and I have owned Mercedes, BMW, Audi, VW, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Vauxhall & Ford. The one clear verdict - cars are expensive!! By far the most expensive was the BMW. By far the most unreliable was the VW closely followed by the Audi. The cheapest and most reliable was the Nissan - closely followed by the Mazda. (The Mitsubishi was an Evo X - it was totally reliable but had to be serviced every 7000miles and therefore quite expensive). The only car I have purchased more than once was Mercedes (my current C300 is my fourth C-Class) and this is because on balance I think the whole life costs were better than the others. Although I was lucky with my C350e I think the hybrid technology was new to Merc and the car is very complicated. Therefore, I think the potential for expensive problems was greater - this seems to be true for the hybrids from Audi and BMW as well (my friend who has an Audi e-Tron reckons it spends as much time in the garage as it does on the road!). I think if I had to be really cautious with my budget I would buy a Ford - yes they had a few well publicised problems with cooling system failures but they are pretty much bullet proof, they are cheap to buy and service and yet they hold their value.
