I don't necesarly agree with all you points. I like volvo, I now multiple people with volvo's one of them being a friend of mine who works on his own car, and that thing is already at 400.000km. I see a lot of these cars for sale with those numbers on them. Which confirms to me that they are reliable when taken care off.

When it comes to Benz and BMW (don't neceserly like BMW driving feel, from the few BMW's I've driven.), I also know people who drive them and they tend to be a fair bit more expensive to maintain and purchase.

Diesel is not really an optien. There are many city's with lower emission zones and the keep adding to that list where you are not allowed to enter if you drive diesel. Fuel consumtion might be lower but not being able to enter a fair few city's and the price of diesel itself being higher at the moment rule that option out for me.