had an A6 quattro and with seats down it could fit my marin wolfridge in the back without taking the wheels off. or a double inflatable airbed and sleep two people comfortably. fantastic tardis like barge that did 258K miles on the same clutch and suspension! and being quattro was good to drive too. will be getting another when funds allow 😀

Big cheap and diesel mondeo c5 passat Peugeot jag xtype whatever tickles your fancy. I went c5 for the comfort and huge boot.

You’re choosing a biking car based on how it looks?

Of course I am. I don’t want to be driving around in some bland unforgettable piece of crap like a Vectra. If I’m spending thousands of pounds on something I’d expect it to look ok…

Mondeo if you have a budget.
Have had a scrapyard mk1 and a Mk3 TDCi, both estates and both capable of 5 bikes and 5 riders inside the car.
Got a Volvo V50 now, nice enough car, seats fold flat and tidy, but will never fit as much as the Mondeo, not as economical despite similar spec engine to Mondeo and nowhere near as good feeling being flung through the corners on the country roads around here.
When we got the Mk3, requirement was harp carrying capacity, Vectra was plenty big enough, possibly bigger, but hideous car to drive, hold, look at. Looked for a V70 too, but they weren’t as economical and couldn’t find one in our price bracket.

I would have a Mondeo again, but wife wanted something smaller and I hoped something smaller would have more go or economy, so disappointed with V50.

What about the YETI skoda’s stable is quite extensive ,last i heard thou there was a waiting list for them.

Plus ssen the new dacia duster at local showroom ,quite keen to have a test drive in one.

I would’ve of said Passat…. Until two hours ago the automatic handbrake decided it didn’t want to be on anymore and the car would be far better parked into my neighbours….

I had the opposite with my Passat and the electric handbrake would not disengage. When I went googling seems this is a common issue of letting go or holding tight at the wrong time.

Saying that I have had 2 Passat estates and they have both been good. I just would not have the electric brake ever again.

I don’t want to be driving around in some bland unforgettable piece of crap like a Vectra.

Ah, so sir does require the bright red Volvo from the last page then! 😉

Please!

Cheers guys, the Volvo co2 is too high so I’m going to check out the Mazda 6 and wait for the skoda

I love my older passat which has the flat boot. With just half the rear seat down you can get 2 bikes in side by side with room for kit etc still.

anyone looking at these should be aware that they had issues with water leaking where the windscreen meets the bonnet. VW issued a recall and if that was sorted then all good otherwise be cautious. It’s easy to fix but expensive elctronic bits might have been damaged in the meantime.

Having had an estate I don’t think I would ever go back to a normal saloon now

The rain gutter drain hole under the battery gets blocked with leaf debris as I recall.

That happened to my dad’s passat, ended up writing the car off- flooding back through the main wiring, nothing electrical worked reliably after that. Not sure if it still happens with new ones, it wasn’t just Passats though at the time.

Legacy/Outback and Accord made my shortlist too… Accord doesn’t quite have the mighty boot of the mondeo, though it’s good. I found it a bit soul-less but that’s a very personal thing. Legacy/Outback I would happily have had if I’d found a good one but finding the right engine, in good condition, was a problem- I found probably one likely Legacy for every 10 likely Mondeos. (was the same with the Mazda, lots of the lower powered engine models)

Until everyone here has made me paranoid about the electronic parking brake on my Passat I’d have highly recommended it!

Apart from not coming off automatically on slippery surfaces (snow, wet grass) mine’s been alright and much better than one on a hired Insignia I’d driven.

50 mpg + easily, been down to the south of France twice very comfortably and effortlessly, the 2.0l 140bhp manual version has the CO2 at 120g/km so £30 a year tax!

The boot lip is a bit annoying compared to my old Focus and the load space isn’t that tall so you can’t stand a bike up vertically with it’s wheels off like I could in my old Focus. The new Focus has gone smaller which is a shame and the jump up to the gargantuan Mondeo was too much for me.

New shape Mondeo estate can get two full bounce 29ers in the boot without taking any wheels off. It is huge.

New shape Mondeo estate…is huge

Yep, it is indeed!

It really was too big, and especially wide, when I looked at it, depends where you have to park regularly, with the narrow Victorian streets where I live I just didn’t feel I could live with it

citroen synergy , mpv, 7 seater, take the rear seats out and the middle one in the middle row and the bikes go in with wheels on upright no problem, 2 bikes go in complete, and a third can go in the opposite way round with the front wheel off. you might want to take some pedals off to save any carnage. you still get 4 seats but you may need to spin the bars if youve got 4 people in the car. totally reliable and not too bad on fuel. paid £500 for mine on at` plate 4 years ago and its still good!

I’m looking at a 2.2tdci Ghia Mondeo estate, 05 plate. 77K miles, £4995, looks very tidy. Is that a good price?
I always said my next car would be a Passat again but this Mondeo is very appealing.

I know the OP explicitly focussed on estates, but are taller things (e.g. XC60, Q5, Discovery) any good for biking? Are they too tall to put bikes on the roof (unless maybe you are chalky46)

Did have a Vectra estate which was huge. Awesome load carrier as you could pretty much just open up the boot and throw it all in. I personally preferred it to the Mondeo at the time. Changed the car last year and was expecting to end up with an Insignia but really was not impressed with the drive nor the practicality of the boot. Ended up with a new shape Mondeo which I think looks very nice and drives very nicely too. Same as the Vectra in that the boot is huge.

Had a Passat many years ago and that was a lovely car but I fear that these days they are way overpriced for what they are and are not all that dependable or reliable.

You probably need to think about the size of the car you want as the models listed vary. As mentioned above the Octavia, 3 series, Focus and to a degree the A4 are all a similar size which is smaller than the Mondeo / 6 / Insignia brigade which themselves are slightly smaller than the V70 / A6 / 5 series. It also depends on what else you will be using the car for when carrying bikes. Had a Vectra hatch before and if it was only me or me and passenger, with the rear seats down I could fit the bike in without having to remove the wheels. So do you actually need an estate? If so, can you get away with something slightly smaller and probably more economical for the majority of the time? In which case go with the Octavia or Focus or Astra estate.

(e.g. XC60, Q5, Discovery) any good for biking?

…motorway fuel economy is what puts me off that kind of vehicle, as well as lugging around a lot of 4×4 technology I don’t really need!

Mountain biking tends to lend it self to big road trips and I drive down to the south of France a couple of times a year, so never really looked into them

as Bikingcatastrophe says there’s a fair bit of variation in size of the cars being discussed!

Octavias are one of the biggest of the smaller estates, Passats being based on the same platform I’d say more one of the smaller of the medium sized ones, they’re both actually based on a modified Golf base, but the Golf estate’s tiny (and very over priced!) it’s all a little subjective!

Rear wheel drive BMWs have less height, the 3s alright in side the cabin but the boot isn’t very big, 5s much bigger but you pays your money for a decent one.

If you can get on with the size of the Mondeo I hear really good things about them, I loved my old Focus (the last generation) but the new one’s too small.

This works for me and Mrs Wagenwheel

*Bikes fit Inside or outside without taking wheels off,
*3 individual seats in the back can be quickly removed (if needed)
*Slightly raised suspension
*1.6 HDI Cheep and Cheerful 🙂

The roof is a little high for reaching up to, but I have tool box that doubles as a step.

I’m looking at a 2.2tdci Ghia Mondeo estate, 05 plate. 77K miles, £4995, looks very tidy. Is that a good price?

Depends on your criteria. That’s a Mk4 – I bought a Mk5 on an 08 plate 5 months ago for £1k less. Granted it does have 45k more miles on the clock and is a base model, but the only things I’m missing from the spec which you’d get on a higher model which I’d be at all interested in are leccy rear windows and climate control, and I can quite happily live with manual windows and air-con. Very happy to have steel wheels and higher profile tyres which are cheaper to replace and ride better. Possibly even some toys I have in a Mk5 you don’t get in a Ghia Mk4! Main point though it whether you think 3 years older is worth it for 45k miles less.

OK so there aren’t many Mk5s around for the price I paid, but there were certainly a few for £5k or £6k around when I was looking with around 100k on the clock, which I’d argue is better value.

The roof is a little high for reaching up to, but I have tool box that doubles as a step.

The reason I was eventually put off vehicles of that type (or big MPVs) – but then I do tend to be putting more awkward and bulky things onto the roof. I did consider the idea of a step, but eventually decided it would be just too much hassle.

…motorway fuel economy is what puts me off that kind of vehicle, as well as lugging around a lot of 4×4 technology I don’t really need!

XC70’s pretty good on fuel. Mid 30’s average which is OK for the size of car. You can also park in the muddy/sloping/rough parking spaces that are left when you’ve got up late 😯

I like mine the best

image by gears_suck, on Flickr

Three on top and three inside. She’s so dirty.

My old Passat would take 3 people, 3 bikes & a weeks worth of kit, all inside the car. Flat boot lip too, so made a useful seat & the top of the light cluster was a perfect spot to rest your cuppa. Great motorway car, but less so on rural roads – it had a wallowy ride & ponderous turn in – could still hustle along, but you had to be very smooth with steering.
There’s an A4 & A6 in the family. The A4 is a small boot (smaller than my 3 series). The A6 is a good size, but it is a heavy car, so fuel economy not as good as some & suffers in same way as Passat in corners. S-line suspension…read “clattery”.
I have a 3 series as found the Passat bigger than my needs 90+% of the time. 3+3 may be a stretch now, but 2 is easy, which covers what I want. I did consider a 5 series, but bigger than I need. More economy, more performance & better handling & ride than the Passat. I could use roof bars to stretch capacity, but they do hit the fuel economy pretty hard.

You probably need to think about the size of the car you want as the models listed vary. As mentioned above the Octavia, 3 series, Focus and to a degree the A4 are all a similar size which is smaller than the Mondeo / 6 / Insignia brigade which themselves are slightly smaller than the V70 / A6 / 5 series

Here’s an interesting fact for you then.

Skoda Octavia estate boot capacity with the seats up: 605L
Audi A6 Avant boot capacity with the seats up: 565L

With the seats down the A6 nudges it though (only 25L though).

In terms of how Audis use their boot space, I don’t think its very good because the A6 is a BIG car on the outside. On the other hand, the boot in the Octy, for a car of its size, is brilliant.

On the subject of perfect estate cars for mountain biking…

Anyone interested in a 53 reg, Mazda6 estate with 155,000 on the clock for £1000 (special STW deal!). Utterly reliable and lots of service history. Email me…

I can’t speak highly enough of our Mazda. Ok so its the older model but its been a brilliant car and i’d recommend them to anyone who wants a trouble free, reliable and practical car.

are the Audis relatively bigger on the outside and smaller than you would expect on the inside because they have more safety stuff in their design?

Really happy with our Octavia 4×4 estate. Brilliant bit of kit. Comfortable, fast enough, big enough for 3bikes and 3 people all inside, well made. Highly recommended

XC70’s pretty good on fuel. Mid 30’s average which is OK for the size of car

Fairly rubbish for the size of car if you check out what other people on this thread are getting.

Currently driving a Subaru Legacy (everyone does round here). Awesome car, shitty mpg. Have friends with big SUV utes that go through less polluting juice.

wagenwheel –

How tall are you and what height step have you got? I’ve been wondering about getting roof carrier for my berlingo but will need to use a step as well!

I’ve got an SMax. It is based on a mondeo esatate floorplan/chassis so is absolutely humungous inside – with the seats down its like a transit van. It’s got an internal racking system so you can attach bikes inside the car – which is great in many ways (security, keeps the outside of the car clean, so quiet on the M/way and maintains fuel efficiency), however the downside is you can’t avoid getting the interior of the car mucky, so i’m thinking about getting a roof rack and only using the internal racks for when I need the security. It’s also a pretty quick car (2.2 TDCI), drives round corners well despite its height and weight. Quality of interior is easily as good or even better than the usual German alternatives that are generally more expensive and far less well specc’d.

Why an estate? Unless you’re going to carry the bikes inside the car – which most estates are not big enough to do, and you get the problem of mucking up the interior (not so bad for road bikes though), then having an estate specifically for biking is a bit pointless if you’re just going to put the bikes on the roof. Though I tend to prefer the estate version of most cars anyway.

VW Type 3 Squareback.

Volvo Amazon estate?

the downside is you can’t avoid getting the interior of the car mucky, so i’m thinking about getting a roof rack and only using the internal racks for when I need the security

So many disadvantages to putting the bikes on the roof. Why not just get a load area liner? I use a plastic groundsheet in the back of mine, which works just fine with an occasional shake out.

Why an estate? Unless you’re going to carry the bikes inside the car – which most estates are not big enough to do

Eh? I always carry bikes inside the car – don’t even own a proper external bike rack. Even the tandem fits inside – I can get that and a couple of single bikes in with 4 seats still available. Why do you have so much trouble fitting bikes inside?

Peugeot 308SW? Wheels off, 2 bikes fit in the boot without folding the rear seats down. The rear seats come out, which creates a bigger load capacity than an SMax. 1.6HDi will see around 65 mpg too

wobbliscott – Member

Why an estate? Unless you’re going to carry the bikes inside the car – which most estates are not big enough to do,

All proper estates are big enough for this. And I think you can take it for granted that if someone’s buying an estate for biking he isn’t going to buy one of the pretend ones.

DaveyBoyWonder – Member

On the other hand, the boot in the Octy, for a car of its size, is brilliant.

Octavia is the size of a Focus isn’t it? Focus has a brilliant boot, Octavia by comparison is ****- it’s not small but it’s nothing like as usable.