Hi all, in the market for a used estate car. Budget 3k tops, cheap insurance etc.. Basically to be used just to cart bikes and kit in on a regular basis relatively hassle free and the odd commute when the weathers naf.

It’s been suggested a fabia estate would be good, anyone got one? Easy to fit bikes in without say any more than one wheel out? They don’t look too huge from the outside. Been looking at a focus estate up till now but it looks like a newer/lower mileage skodia can be picked up for the same price.

Anyone with experience or advice, it would be much appreciated!

Focus looks several orders of magnitude less tragic. Reason enough alone to go for that one.

Foci do have a bit of a price premium but they’re quite a bit bigger than a Fabia (with seats flat I could fit 2 complete bikes, wheels and seatposts still in, into the back of mine). Not just big, but easy to use- full width boot door with a flat entrance etc, small wheel arches… Fabia is still a reasonable size though for what it is.

Any reason you’re not looking at bigger? I spent less than that on my Mondeo. OK, fair play it’s old and looks shagged, but it’s massive and not much more expensive to run, and there’s a million of them in your price range.

There was a tempting focus on the Classifieds yesterday…..

Probably look to upsize a little from the Fabia to the Octavia – they’re massive inside

Fabia estate is actually quite small – we went for the octavia when we went for a pushchair carrying estate.

Mind you, for all the people that will tell you that an octavia is HUGE, it’s not that big tbh – based on a golf platform, so in the same class as the focus

3 bikes, 3 people in the hatch

Was cosy, but still fitted

m0rk – Member

they’re massive inside

Not really- effective/usable boot of the Focus is bigger, because of the shape and the better entrance.

If you’re comparing those 2 – look at Astra. More room in the back than either, hold value worse than Focus or Skoda which would be good for you if you’ve got a 3K budget as it’ll buy more. Swallows bikes easily with front wheel off, you’ll get 3 bikes with in front wheel off standing up and wheels around with room for 3 in the car and you’ll get the entire boot space behind the 3rd seat for kit. (Enough for a trip to the trails… a week’s biking 3 up ain’t gonna be much fun though!)

our fabia estate (combi) is fab, 116K not one fault and averages 65 mpg no matter how hard its driven. Its the 1.4 TDI model 2008. Focus is a good car too though – but Astra / Golf / 307 would be in the same league / price range too..

Mrs has a Fabia estate, great for carrying the dogs, useless for carrying bikes – they’re a class below the focus, more a Fiesta equivalent (Polo chassis).

Wor lass has a fabia estate and seats down, it’s surprisingly big for the class of car. Two bikes with front wheels off, let’s of kit and room to spare. It hasn’t been the most reliable though, which surprised me given how good my Octavia is. I drive the focus estate at work, nicer to drive than fabia, but will probably be more to insure