Used Car Hunter: flash, four-wheel drive saloons for £20,000
Our Car Hunter has a budget of £20,000 to find a premium 4WD saloon
“Dear Auto Express, I’d like to buy a premium saloon that feels planted and has four-wheel drive. What does £20,000 get me?” - Nigel Hennings, E-mail
If you want to take on the daily commute in comfort but also have a bit of driving fun on the weekends, executive saloons are some of the best cars for both jobs. In many cases, opting for a four-wheel drive model will help you to get the most out of the power on offer, whether you’re overtaking a slowpoke on the motorway or blasting down a B-road.
A budget of around £20,000 will provide you with a number of stylish and punchy options. There’s the sporty yet classy Jaguar XF, the slightly overlooked Volvo S90 or, perhaps unsurprisingly on a list like this, the BMW 5 Series. All three have their own unique charms, so we’ll help you make the right choice right here.
Here are our Car Hunter’s three favourite used 4WD premium saloons for around £20,000. We’ve also included links to buy one via our Find a Car service…
Jaguar XF - the sporty choice
- For: Sporty and comfortable, classy image
- Against: Interior lacks quality compared with rivals
Style may be subjective, but the Jaguar XF is one of the sleekest premium saloons around, and backs this up with the way it drives. The quick steering offers decent feedback, while the suspension set-up strikes a fine balance between comfort and dynamism. Refinement is also strong, and the XF is superb cruiser.
Your budget can easily bag you a second-generation XF. We found a 69-plate XF 2.0d AWD with just under 30,000 miles on the clock being sold for less than £18,000.
It's fair to say the Jaguar XF loses out on interior quality compared with its rivals in this test. While there’s a mix of soft leather and decent aluminium-style trim pieces present, the quality of the 5 Series’ and S90’s cabins feels noticeably better, plus the Jaguar’s infotainment system is also some way off the BMW’s in terms of features and intuitiveness.
However, despite its rear legroom not quite matching the space on offer in the 5 Series, the XF’s luggage
area is marginally larger, at 540 litres.
BMW 5 Series - the balanced choice
- For: Near-flawless all-rounder, fantastic interior
- Against: May not tug at the heartstrings like an XF
The BMW 5 Series does everything a premium saloon should. This great all-rounder seamlessly blends an engaging drive and an impressive level of comfort, even if the Jaguar’s quicker steering may appeal to those after a sharper B-road experience. The xDrive system adds grip without sacrificing driver involvement. For just shy of £20,000 we found a 48,000-mile, 67-plate 520d xDrive in M Sport trim.
The 5 Series’ interior demonstrates just how well BMW can put a cabin together. Even on pre-facelift examples, no holes can really be poked in the build quality inside the German saloon, and the calibre of the materials used is absolutely top notch. The 5 Series also offers more legroom than either of its competitors in this test, while its infotainment is the best by a fair margin. At 530 litres, the boot space is perfectly adequate for a model in this class, and only trails the XF’s 540-litre capacity slightly.
Volvo S90 - the comfortable choice
- For: Most comfortable car on test, strong interior quality
- Against: So-so handling and slight lack of boot space
Even when fitted with a powerful engine, the Volvo S90 feels much more set up for comfort than an exciting drive. That’s by no means a bad thing, and may suit you better than the sporting credentials offered by its rivals here.
It rides superbly and is very refined, while grip is plentiful and the four-wheel-drive system inspires confidence. But pressing on in the S90 reveals light steering without much communication, while body roll is relatively prominent. We saw a 63,000-mile, 16-plate D5 PowerPulse in Inscription trim for around £18,500.
Like the 5 Series, the S90 benefits from a fantastic- quality interior, with a well laid-out dashboard, too.
A particular strong point with the Swedish saloon are the front seats, which are incredibly comfortable. This trait, together with the softer suspension set-up, makes the Volvo a very relaxing car to drive over long distances. Rear legroom is decent, if a shade down on the 5 Series’, while the Volvo’s infotainment set-up is better than the Jaguar’s system, but not as good as that in the BMW. The boot capacity stands at 500 litres, which isn’t a bad volume, but still places the S90 third in this area here.
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