Buying advise needed

Hi,

I'm new to the site (again) and in the past I've owned a 1.8E B4, a 2.2 B3 coupe and a 2.3 B4 coupe, all 3 were great cars in their own ways.

I'm currently looking to replace my mk1 golf with something thats more acustomed to eating the motorway miles.

I'm on a limited budget, I've got £2700-3000 to spend, would prefer an estate with good MPG...maybe automatic.

We also do a lot of family camping so I'm not adverse to a big 'un

I would prefer a C5 2.5TDI and there seems to be the odd one around for the top end of my money.

There seems to be a lot of 80,100/A6 estates around too....some LPG and Diesel

Also there are lots of A4 Avants around.

What do ppl think would be the best buy out of that lot ?

Are there any buyers guides or pitfalls ?

TIA
Jay

Thanks for that. I've been put off the Passat as a friend has has lots of problems with his B5.5 Passat estate

yes I guess the platform is the same for the Passat and Audi.

I did see the the Mercs seemed to be good value but most are coming up to 200K at that price....not sure how much of an issue that would be.