C5III..138, 173 or V6?

[old'uns]

following on from a post in January, time to start looking again...i did buy the Acadiane, still not on road though
narrowed down to Tourer, Auto Exclusive ( so the OH can escape when in France), certain age & i now appreciate my comfort!
on paper the 173 looks most economical compared to the 138 but 2.7's now available at just about the right money for me, very tempted by a '58, 55k @ 11k
so.....
cam belt on V6 - at what age , mileage, cost etc?
can i justify a potential 10-15 mpg difference for the kudos of the V6, bearing in mind i do 20k per year?
any real world opinions available from here?

thanks in advance

[SaabC5]

Fuel's not gonna go down in price so unless you are doing low mileage i suspect the V6 is a no-no. If the 173 returns the same mpg as the 138 then thats the route i'd go so long as insurance isn't an issue.

[Citroenmad]

The 2.0 138 HDi has similar performance figures to the 2.0 8v HDi C5I and 1.6HDi C5II due to the C5III piling on the pounds. If I had the option I would go for the 173 2.2HDi. Best of both worlds, econory and performance.

[old'uns]

thanks, thought as much, 173 it is then...or a 138 with a re-map if the right one comes along.
insurance isn't an issue, even the V6 is only around £100 more than my '02 C5 which is worth six-pence

[DickieG]

Why bother with a 2.2 producing 173 bhp when the the odd 3.0 V6 is now becoming available for the similar money has 3 mpg lower fuel consumption with power in abundance due to an additional 67 bhp, who needs to play about with tuning chips when it comes with 240 bhp? The 2.7 is pretty much a dead duck unless its dirt cheap i.e. under £7k, on Autotrader there's been a red 2.7 with 7k miles up for £15k for over a year now at Cookswell Garage, the only way that will sell is either by them finding a complete mug or by taking a bitter pill. Once once you stick an automatic gearbox on a 4 cylinder HDi consumption drops by 8 mpg.

Just recently I've seen fully loaded 3.0 Exclusives offered for just over £10k including one at a Jaguar dealer for £13k with low mileage full leather, satnav the lot, play the waiting game just a little longer and they'll be under £10k, that's what I'm doing.