If you are thinking of trying something very different, such as a French car, do make sure that you get a long test drive. Whilst France might be next door to Germany, they build very different cars. One wag on this forum made me laugh a year or so ago when they said “French cars – style over substance, except Citroen which has neither” 😂
Oh Glos Guy, I’m going to have to step in here 😆
While Rosie is looking for opinions, she’s not looking for bias. You’ve clearly never had a good look at a DS4 or 7 or indeed a new Scenic. Not that these are of much interest to her, but to make a sweeping statement about French cars is just way out of date. The Austral and Rafael are very nice cars indeed.
With regards to the XC40 I agree that it’s become dated, but that would be to ignore it’s finest strengths, namely seat comfort, beautifully supple suspension and lack of road, wind and engine noise. I drove one back to back with a BMW X1 in 2020 before we chose our Volvo and I can tell you that I found the X1 noisy and uncomfortable with far too much road noise and patter over poor surfaces (an X Line not even an M Sport)
As said, the XC40s with T4/T3 engines were known to be thirsty. Our T4 averaged 33MPG over 4 years (mainly shorter journeys) but could easily get over 40 on a run. The B3/B4 mild hybrid models are now better, but the PHEV would be the one to go for.
When giving advice, I think it would be wisest to stick to what we have direct experience of, and not general opinions which are largely out of date 🙂
Speaking as a BMW fan who loves his i4 😆
2024 - BMW i4 Grand Coupe eDrive 35 Sport
2020 - Volvo XC40 T4 Inscription
2017 - Audi Q3 TFSi Sport S-Tronic