[Proghound]

Go for it, you won't regret it. I haven't heard of any roof leaks that I can recall in most of 3 years on here. Maybe your man was thinking of the VW Eos?

The T5 will do the best job of moving the scenery even when encumbered with the auto box (AW 5-speed), but the D5 is also fairly interesting, equally robust and something like 30% more economical, without having the liability of the wet DPF system of the underpowered 2.0D. However it's torque-limited in the auto to 350Nm down from 400Nm, to pander to the weaknesses of the 'box.

By their nature these are heavy cars in all engine variants, which are prone to wearing out suspension components, and are also sensitive to any misalignment. The 18" alloys are more fragile and more intrusive on the overall soft ride, 17" is a good compromise. Either way you'll want front tyres every 15k or so, and quite possibly sooner. Early examples can suffer with duff wheel bearings, ABS modules and ignition switches, but these were redesigned by about 2008. Aircon condensers continue to be a weakness though.

Try and get at least an SE spec, which should come with the wind deflector, and will have a decent sound system. You get 3.5mm AUX and MP3/WMA CD capability from 2008 I think. Bi-Xenon lights and a space-saver spare are also options worth looking out for.

Your budget might get a high-mileage facelift model from 2010 onward but IMHO a better bet would be the original (and to my mind, better looking) model with reasonable mileage from 2008/2009. You pays your money and takes your choice!

Good luck in your search and let us know what you end up with.