I’m now in need of a new vehicle for various reasons. Requirements are needs to be an estate, can have a towbar and is fast/sporty in MANUAL. Seems everything is auto/tiptronic these days which I cant stand.

Here’s a fast manual. Don’t think it has a towbar though.

Got one of them already.

Budget, Size requirement, Age?

Give us a clue!

Based on nothing as all, Skoda VRS 230 Estate. It’s a 155mph car, fancy diff to help it around corners, manual.

I’m in a similar situation. What I really want is an Audi RS4, but that is unlikely to happen. So I was thinking I will probably look at Mondeos.

Seat Leon ST Cupra?

Edit – may have central exhaust that prevents towbar

Budget: up to 45k poss more but sub 60k
Size: Not A6 size, A$ size
Age: < 3 years old, under warranty
MANUAL , not s-tronic, pdk, auto, slush box whatever. Hateful things.
AWD if possible, I live on a gnarly hill which can be difficult in winter, will have a set of winter wheels for it anyway.

That enough to go on, I’m drawing blanks as most of the nice ones (rs4 etc) are all auto only. FWIW I had a B7 RS4 Avant and it was wonderful.

M5?

[edit] not that one – the criteria appeared as I was looking for the image

I had a Skoda octavia Vrs estate which meets your stated requirements, sold it recently for £1600 which I thought was a lot of car for the money. Mine was a mk1 petrol one but they have newer diesel/petrol ones too, I think they even do LSD on them now.

If you want something proper large then I would rate the Skoda Superb estate too or something else based on the Passat chassis, TBH the transverse engine mounted Passat chassis is probably better than the longitudinal Golf chassis which the Octavia is based on.

Jaguar XF Sportbrake.

Do you mean fast as in:

“I want to cover miles quickly by hammering up and down motorways and dual carriageways at licence-threatening speeds”

or

“I want an engaging and fun experience behind the wheel that makes me smile and allows me to take corners at silly speeds”

or simply

“I want to win at traffic light drag races?”

🙂

There you go, a manual wagon. For fast just add a steep hill to go down.

perchypanther – Member
Jaguar XF Sportbrake.

Doesn’t exist in manual, otherwise it’s a good shout.

I, for one, am more aroused right now than I’ve been ever since they stopped top gear on the BBC

(apart from the “what unimog camper van for 250 grand” threads, obvz)

Based on your criteria the only thing that I can see that fits is either a 330i Touring, or a 320d if you want a diesel. The 340i and 330d that you can afford are both autos.

As is all the S4s and RS4s and all the 3.0Tdis and any Merc.

The Jaf XF is A6/5Series size, the XE Estate doesn’t exist yet.

It’s a sad day when you can’t find a manual, I’ve had pdk and dsg and I just do not like them.

I think BMW might do a 3 series touring in awd. I think they do it in manual too. Not sure of it is big enough but they are great cars and for that money I am sure you could have new. I would not go for the 2.0 d engine though, I might ne out of date but just google N47 engine issues.

I could not sew what size you are looking for, but that might be my kak phone. The VRS would defo be on my list – it is FWD, so going to be better than most on wet/icy roads and with winter tyres fine.

Too old for you, and not AWD, but the E61 550i was available as a manual. Very rare though. I think I’ve only ever seen one.

Modern big/luxury cars are all some kind of auto. I assume so that they can apply various electronic jiggery-pokery to get them through emissions testing.

You’re really going to struggle, very little interest in manual estates. I spent ages looking for the diesel 5 series touring I just traded in, pretty much auto only. Strangely I saw a manual X5 (old one) at the lights the other day, car like that definitely warrants an auto

Anything from Subaru?

Manual might also make it harder to trade in when you’re done with it

How about an Audi RS2 and something else for boring stuff?

You know, I genuinely don’t think you will find one that meets your spec. Even Alpina don’t offer a manual wagon anymore, especially not in 4wd. Merc, BMW, Jag, VW, Volvo- all their estates from mid range are auto now, and the fast ones all have more torque than their manual boxes can handle.

The Seat Leon ST Cupra comes in manual but only 2wd.

Skoda will give you 2wd manual but 4×4 only in DSG diesel.

The Focus ST can’t tow.

I think you might have to go for an auto. Most of the things as quick as you would like don’t even come in manual on the continent so you couldn’t order one from over there either.

Space mainly, no room for > 2 cars, if there was I would have something small and sporty !
If I’m consigned to auto I’ll get an RS4 then, Audi say they can put a towbar on it legitimately, the 6 has a factory option for one.

Not sure how you would get on with cars such as Audi Rs’s and BMW M’s as I’m not sure they have a tow bar load rating which might cause problems when it comes to insurance. Something to consider.

What I really want is an Audi RS4,

Thats auto too. What I would say to the OP is have you driven a car with the latest generation of 7/8speed boxes? You can use the paddles if you want to drive manual stylee, but they are so responsive you rarely miss the manual box.

Plus, as mentioned above, you will suffer when you sell.

Yep – I am a frequent rental user so have had a large number of decent spec cars in the last 6 months. I’ll go and have a few drives then seeing as I seem to be a dying breed.

320d xdrive should be plenty fast enough.

If it’s not you can get a 330d in manual if you look hard enough.

Second hand manual 5 series are like rocking horse poop.

Subaru Leggy spec B

Save yourself a few quid too.

None of the press have been very nice about the old RS4 or new S4 compared to the Alpina B3 or Mercedes C63 AMG.

Auto/tip is definitely the norm now on medium sized and larger sports models, its all F1 trickle down don’t you know 😐

I would say for an estate type car 5 series / A4 suzes and larger these boxes work well, you do lose a little driver engagement but for the majority of my driving and especially in town and on the motorway auto/tip is better, thenpaddle to drop down a gear for overtaking is very simple and quick. It’s only on twisty roads when you really want to work the box that even the paddles are inferior imho. Of course there are numerous supercars with auto/tip only.

Whilst frustrating I think if you allow manual box to decide car choice you could well end up with an inferior car

I meant to say in my earlier post

My manual 5 series got traded in against an auto E class

I’ve reached middle age early…

Octavia vrs with a stage 1 remap to 305bhp.

Only fwd but would be fun !!

Spec B Scooby Legacy?

http://www.pistonheads.com/regulars/ph-spottedykywt/subaru-legacy-3-0r-spec-b-spotted/31006

No scoobs thanks, I lived in NZ and have had loads.

HSV Clubsport R8 Tourer?

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/alpina/d3/2000-v-alpina-b10-3-3-manual-touring–fsh-from-bmw-or-specialist–local-car-architect-owner-last-5-years-great-example/6096656

Well if it was owned by a mature architect….

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/172332579269

Why do you want a compromise ‘estate sports car’? The type of people who tend to buy RS4’s etc are those who cant afford to buy a weekend toy, or actually unaware that you can much nicer driving cars.

I would get a Mondeo estate and buy a nice weekend car. But don’t you already have a nice weekend car?

The type of people who tend to buy RS4’s etc are those who cant afford to buy a weekend toy

It’s not unreasonable to want ONE car that is both practical and fun, is it?!? ❓