THE four-door coupe is a new and rather welcome phenomenon.

The basic recipe is that you take a four-door saloon, add a little style, take away a bit of practicality and end up with a good looking yet still hugely usable car for those who need four doors and decent accommodation but don't want to sacrifice too much in the way of cool.

The first car of this type to market was the remarkable Mercedes CLS and it sold very strongly prompting instant answers from VW (the Passat CC) and Audi (The A5 4 door and A7).

BMW will respond later this year with the 6-series GranCoupe and this, combined with new models or facelifts of the VW, Audi and Mercedes cars means that this entirely new section of the market is stuffed full of brilliant and utterly desirable cars.

They are seriously expensive though, with even a 2.0 diesel, the CC (as it's now called - VW Dropping the Passat bit in a bid to push the car upmarket) coming in at a whopping £30,000, and as the Passat and CLS are into their second generation. 

The A5 is already facelifted and that got us thinking, which is the most appealing to the canny secondhand buyer?

After all, these cars still look very fresh and deliver a huge dose of the feel good factor for ever more sensible money. So here are some fantastic deals¦

The Passat CC is basically the regular Passat with a different body. That means VW reliability and the usual great range of engine and transmission options. If that doesn't sound like much then consider that we reckon the CC to be one of those rare cars that's somehow more than the sum of its parts. It's stylish and subtle and we like it - especially with much cheaper petrol power and a simple manual gearbox.

A 2009 Passat CC with warranty left, a refined 1.8 petrol motor, in silver with 22,000 miles on the clock can be had for just under £12,000.

It's a beautiful car the CLS, though it does rather stand out. The build quality is something of a return to form for Mercedes and the interior is simply excellent. Early petrol cars have got very cheap now. Diesels are likely to cost up to £2000 more, have much higher miles and offer poorer reliability. Go petrol unless you do huge miles.

A lovely black, 2005 CLS with the ultra smooth 3.5 petrol engine and just under 60,000 miles is for sale from a Lexus main dealer for £12,000.

Why no Audi A5? Well there are very few 5 door cars in the market and we'd argue that the 6 series is more than big enough if you don't carry anybody other that kids in the back seat - also it really does show what flavor of stylish German luxury you can pick up for this kind of money if you know what to look for.

: A 2005 car, with only 60,000 miles on the clock, in dark grey and featuring the utterly mighty 4.4 petrol V8, can be had for £12,500.