Video: Which bargain-basement saloon offers the most bang for your buck?

“New cars are so expensive!” is something you might have thought to yourself recently if you’re considering changing your car. Although there are still some great deals out there, on everything from Abarth to Volvo, the truth is that a visit to a dealer these days is liable to lighten your wallet to the tune of around £35,000 – the average cost of a new car in 2024.

But what can you do on less than 3% of that budget? Well, we’ve been out scouring the classifieds to find out just that – and for a total cost of less than £3,000, we’ve procured three premium-badged saloon cars from the early 2000s. Watch the video below to see us put them through their paces.

All three of these models would have been fairly pricey in period, but how have they held up to two decades of abuse? Let’s run through what we’ve bought:

Audi A4

This A4 hails from 2002. Tony Blair is Prime Minister, the Queen celebrates her Golden Jubilee and England is defeated by Brazil in the quarter finals of the World Cup.

Our A4 is fitted with a 2.0-litre petrol engine producing 130hp and 195Nm of torque – today’s equivalent produces 150hp but does so with a turbocharger and a mild-hybrid system. It’s paired to front-wheel drive and a manual gearbox, and would have managed 0-62mph in 9.9 seconds when new.

It’s not in bad nick, either. The paintwork’s pretty good, though there’s a bit of bubbling on one wheelarch, as well as a cracked windscreen and wipers that take four-to-six working days to complete a sweep. It wears all 129,000 of its miles well.

Mercedes C-Class

The year is 2003 – London’s just introduced the Congestion Charge, troops begin the invasion of Iraq, and JK Rowling releases Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. In among all this, one lucky soul takes delivery of this Mercedes C180 Kompressor.

The ‘Kompressor’ name means that this car’s 1.8-litre petrol engine has a supercharger – something that’s all too rare today. It helps it produce 141hp and 220Nm of torque, sent to the front wheels, and back in 2003 it would have managed 0-62mph in 9.4 seconds.

Our car is a bit of a mixed bag, condition-wise – the paint’s in good order and there’s almost no rust, but it’s wearing a particularly ill-fitting set of AMG wheels, has some parking scuffs and worst of all, some kind soul has keyed it right down one side.

BMW 3 Series

We’re still in 2003, with Roman Abramovitch buying Chelsea FC, the opening of the M6 Toll and the final flights of Concorde all making headlines.

Our 3 Series is a 318i – one of the lowlier models, equipped with a 2.0-litre petrol engine making 140hp and 200Nm of torque. Unlike the Audi, the 3 Series is rear-wheel drive – as was every BMW at this point. It was also the fastest of these three cars when new, with a 0-62mph sprint of 9.2 seconds.

Our car has good looking wheels and no major dings or dents, but it’s spoiled by a rusty rear arch and some clouding in the lights. It also has a towbar fitted, which can be very useful but could also be indicative of a hard former life.

But which of these three is the best used buy? Watch our video to see Mat and the team put them through brake and handling tests, check out the interiors and the running costs, and of course the odd drag race or two.

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