Used Car Hunter: ULEZ-friendly premium estates for £25,000
Our Car Hunter has £25,000 for an estate car that complies with London’s ULEZ regulations
Dear Auto Express, I’m self-employed and need a smart, ULEZ-compliant petrol estate for work. What are my best options around £25,000? - Victor Hill, via E-mail
Say what you like about the motivations, but there’s little doubt that Mayor of London Sadiq Khan’s decision to extend the capital’s Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) to all London boroughs in August 2023 has had a major impact on daily running costs for anyone ‘lumbered’ with a non-compliant car.
If you live or work within the ULEZ zone, chances are you’ll also want to avoid the £12.50 daily charge for a non-compliant model. You can find out if a car will face the levy by typing its reg number into the TFL website. Meanwhile, here’s a trio of compliant estate cars we think will meet your needs.
Here's our expert pick of three ULEZ compliant estate cars available for a budget of £25,000, together with links to buy them through our Buy a Car service…
Audi A4 Avant - the pragmatic choice
- For: The everyman of premium estates. Difficult to fault
- Against: Neither as agile as BMW nor as swanky as Merc
A budget of £25,000 is pretty healthy, and there’s a wide range of Audi A4 Avants to choose from. That includes diesel models, but we’re guessing most people will prefer petrol these days, if only to hedge their bets against possible future clampdowns.
We’re focusing on the 148bhp 2.0-litre 35 TSI variant, which can deliver 40.9mpg in automatic guise and will cost only £165 a year to tax. A budget of £25k buys a Sport or Black Edition on a 21 plate with between 20,000 and 30,000 miles, but all are loaded with creature comforts.
Arguably, the Audi A4 is at its most compelling in Avant estate form. It may not match the BMW 3 Series for ultimate dynamic feel, but for anyone driving in London, that will hardly be relevant. The A4 rides best on the standard wheels and tyres fitted to the entry-level 35 TFSI model, and its 0-62mph time of 8.9 seconds is respectable.
The interior is a lovely place to sit in London traffic, too, especially if you avoid the cloth-trimmed seats in base Technik models. Buy a facelifted car from 2019 onwards and it will feature a 10.1-inch touchscreen and Audi’s superb Virtual Cockpit digital instruments.
See our used Audi A4 Avant deals
BMW 3 Series - the sporting choice
- For: Best handling of trio, and the biggest boot
- Against: You’ll need to stretch the budget
If the sharp handling of this rear-drive BMW doesn’t win you over, this Touring version of the 3 Series has another trump card: it has the biggest boot here. Its capacity of 500 litres beats the A4’s 495 litres and the Merc’s 460. With the seats down, the BMW offers 1,510 litres, the Audi 1,495 litres and the Mercedes 1,480 litres. We spotted a 2021 2.0 320i M Sport Touring with 36,000 miles on the clock for £23,990.
The latest facelift only came out last year, but the model prior of the 3 Series arrived in 2019 and it’s possible to get a reasonable mileage example well within budget and comes with desirable hi-tech infotainment features such as the digital dials and 12.3-inch central screen fitted when you choose the popular M Sport trim.
Just as with the Audi (above), we’d recommend going for the smallest petrol engine, which in this case is the 181bhp 320i, while all of SE, Sport and M Sport trims come with plenty of equipment.
See our used BMW 3 Series Touring deals
Mercedes C-Class - the luxurious choice
- For: Superlative cabin, engaging to drive, good value
- Against: Less competitive on boot space
You won’t get an estate version of the latest Mercedes C-Class with a budget of £25k, but you can buy the previous generation. This was revised in 2018, and the updates included a large, centrally mounted 10.25-inch tablet-style screen in a cabin that makes you feel like you’re in a mini-S-Class limo. The C-Class runs the 3 Series close for driver appeal too, but it loses out a little on practicality.
We’d skip the C180 and go for the 1.5-litre C200 model. A budget of £24,000 gives you a choice of 2021-model-year cars with around 40,000 miles, and in AMG Line trim.
The W205 C-Class hails back to 2014, but a mid-life update in 2018 made sure it stayed competitive until its replacement arrived in 2021. Like both rivals here, it offers an array of punchy petrol and diesel engines, and there are extreme AMG-tuned versions to boot.
All are great to drive and own, while the fact that a new version has been around for a while will naturally push down prices of this car– a further bonus for anyone considering this generation, which comes in familiar SE, Sport or AMG Line trims.
Judging by the options available on the used market, the latter is by far the most popular. If you want a version with a manual gearbox, you’ll have to pick either the base C200d or the C180 variant.
See our used Mercedes C-Class Estate deals
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