If you're not buying new, the Vauxhall Omega estate has got to be about the best value buy. Don't be put off by the Vauxhall badge - the Omega is a lovely drive - refined, quiet, good rear-drive handling. And they depreciate very fast (because of that badge) in the first year or so. And the estate is both good looking and *very* capacious.
I bought my ex-company car, an 18 month old V6 2.5 CD estate(all the toys) with 40K miles on it for just 8K. That's a 22K car new!
SSD