been looking at the passat estate (currently have a 03 passat) and its supprising value compared to the seats and skodas (for an almost identical spec car).

Wouldn’t bother with FR unless you are a boy racer tbh.
Buy a car purely for the amount of torque? Thats a new one on me.
Reasonable to me. I like a torquey relaxed drive.

Boy racers buy the cupra – FR less so, but I do see your point. I bought an FR for the extra spec, comfier seats and because you don’t see that many around here.

Yeah the spec situation is/was a bit annoying. Some stuff was only on the FR.

I really liked my 53 Ibiza (my first decent car) but when I test drove an Altea when looking a couple of years ago I was distinctly underwhelmed. It had the same all or nothing 1.9 TDI where others had moved on, there was loads of wind noise at the door pillars and the interior looked dated. The Passat I ended up with was a million times better. Precisely measured on my betterometer.

Just moved fom a passat. No denying the finish is better on vw, but not 4grand better.

BMW dealer servicing costs are not actually that bad you know. Certainly comparible to VW dealer prices

They even made my indicators work

I had a fixed budget and it was a case of older nicer (to me) car vs newer less nice one.

Older and nicer won hands down.

Similar position to you, but the equivalent golf gti/gt just didn’t stack up for me. They had high miles, 2 years older and 3 ins groups higher. Same bleedin chassis and engine. If I had more to spend it would’ve been Audi or vw, the residuals are excellent

Never spent more than 4K on a family hack. Wife’s car is brand new every three years so I’m no skinflint, I just can’t bring myself to spend a lot of dosh on my own car that spends it’s time towing caravans, carrying bikes and acting as a family taxi for my kids and his friends. Current car is a Mondeo Zetec Estate 130 TDCI. Was going to go for a Passat Highline 130 TDI. The Mondeo is faster, handles better, is bigger and has a better towing capacity. Can’t comment on reliability yet but the parts are cheap so we’ll see. It doesn’t have leather which is handy to wipe chocolate off etc. Had a petrol Focus Estate before that and a Golf TDI estate before that! The Golf had a great engine but was the worst handling car I’ve ever owned, the Focus handled beautifully. The Focus was the most reliable car our family has ever had. Only a water pump and rear wheel bearing in 5yrs.
If I needed a family hack for bikes etc but didn’t need to tow a caravan I would go for a Focus Estate 1.8 Tdci 115 hp. No DPF which is a bonus. VW’s not as reliable as they once were.

VWs are better again after a poor patch. Was a catastrophic fault with a small batch of the engine I have, which was subject to a recall but it really damaged their rep.

Also (apparently) a lot of people are being told their car needs £2k worth of injectors where it’s actually the wiring looms instead for about £50…

i have to say any honda with the 2.2 cdti engine is well worth a look at. civic, accord, fr-v
they come standard at 150bhp 250f/lb tourqe.
i quick remap and there usuing 190bhp and 350f/lb
quick as a 2L type r honda and 50mpg average.
and all the honda backup warranty to die for.
honda are worth every penny just look at which cars get te best relabilty results.
if hondas are not your fav then anything from the vag group, vw, audi and skoda are a hit too.

Oh yeah, I’d have got a Civic if the Passat hadn’t been £3k cheaper. Brilliant car and engine.

Mind you my 2.0 TDI Passat also remaps to 190bhp.

Molgrips the old Altea interior was awful, newer ones much improved and ours has a 2.0 140 diesel. Plenty enough for any family car.

Yeah I tried the 140, but the way it drove was not as nice as the 140 Passat. I think it was a 2 year old car I tried, and that was 18 months ago.

Did they fix door pillar wind noise?

Current car is a mondeo petrol 2 litre hatchback

Get another one but make it a diesel. Guaranteed 50+ mpg no matter how/where you drive it, blast up hills fully laden on a tidal wave of torque and the boot is big enough to hold a party in. Although it’s only a couple of inches wider than a Focus (my previous car) it is like four feet longer.

Hugely sorted motor, massive choice of used models you know you want one.

Skoda Yeti?
Volkswagen Touran?

If you want something with a boot don’t get a Yeti. Nice to look at but no boot space.

For years my wife has had Octavia’s (Hatch’s and Estate’s) and the boot space was fantastic. With the rear seats up, I could easily get my bike in the boot (with both wheels off). Last month she got a Yeti and the bike doesn’t go in the boot anymore. 🙁

I thought about the Honda Accord Tourer but was put off by the reports of clutch failures. If you are covered by their warranty then you’re OK but if you have bought it from a non franchised dealer then you’re in trouble. 900 pounds for the parts only then Honda labour rates as the clutch is a pig to change and special Honda tools are needed. Apparently all the higher powered diesels 130+ hp suffer from clutch problems, cant cope with 240ft/lbs of torque regularly put through the clutch. Fords probably the cheapest to replace ie most common circa 400 pounds all in. That’s what swung it for me. The Honda’s were lovely to drive though. Lot’s of probs with the new TDI 140bhp VW’s. Oil pumps failing seems to be common.

hmm some more to think on, thanks.

But just to make a few things clearer, current Mondeo is a hatchback, not the estate, and I’m looking at slightly smaller than that. I like the mondeo to drive and image isn;t a big driver for me with a car, but biuld quality is a bit lacking with the mondeo an I’ve had several of the common faults….door lock units, reversing light switch..and several others like exhaust gas recirc valve….over 6.5 years ownership that isn’t too bad but add it together with niglly little bits of trim and paintwork faults and I’m considering other makes this time.

I won’t buy new, The mondeo was 2.5 years old and 22.7K on the clock, bought for 9K, half the book value new for the model. I’d look to similarly buy one that had already lost a good chunk of depreciation….by at 3 and sell at 8 to 10….supposedly the cheapest way to own a car.

I only do about 6k miles a year, so although diesels are good car these days they are expensive for me, I don’t do enough miles to pay back the higher original cost or service costs….

New mondeo does get great reviews but I don’t want another. Vauxhall insignia is prettier and gets better reviews and in my previous expereince vauxhalls are fractionally better biult…maybe I was lucky before though. VAG cars all get good reports usually, although the current Octavia seems to have a growing list of common faults…still tempted by the Octavia or SEAT Exeo…probaly not the A4 as it’s more costly for what? Image? but if I see a good deal on one then I might change my mind
Volvo V50 gets good reviews. Volve aren’t so good now Ford own them, but they still seem better than the blue oval.
Hondas…hmm, great reviews. I’ve tested an Accord and disliked the engine, lack of torque…I agree with molgrips on torque. Civics look small to my eyes but I’ve not had a close look and may well do.

Hi there,

I have a 320D Touring through work which was recently in the garage for 10 days as someone drove into the back of me. Had an Insignia hire car to replace it, and it was so bad to drive mainly due to poor wheel balance that it had to go back. It was also very plasticky inside and just felt cheap. Got an Exeo to replace it which was really nice, reminded me of being in any well-specced VAG estate. Drive was like any other VAG 2 litre with the nice diesel kick between 2500 and 3500 revs. Bit of torque steer though. The A4 I had previously felt tighter even with 5 times the miles on it, and drove better but it was a Quattro so not a fair comparison.
Colleagues have various cars; Octavia VRS is highly rated, Accord is very thirsty (worst in the fleet), Superb is massive inside and really well specced, Passat is nice but needed £4k of work after 3 years.
Loved getting the 320 back though. Rear wheel drive is so much better and I get an indicated 50mpg for vigorous mixed driving; probably closer to 45mpg. It’s also the smallest of the lot so if space is important don’t get one.

Hope this helps.

cheers, very useful that….so insignia pretty outside but not inside! Hmm, Exeo and Octi still sounding good options.

Not sure I fnacy a beemer….too scared of the labotomy that I’ve heard all drivers require 😉

My brother in law hired an Insignia last year and I was in it for a day then too. It is not a car I would buy.
Octavia VRS would be high on my list if I was you, followed by the Mondeo.

cheers.

Any V50 owners want to chip a thought or 2 in?

I used to have a Series 2 Megane CC and vowed I would never have another Renault again.

About 10 months ago I bought a 1.5dci Renault Megane Dynamique 5dr hatch. It is superb! £35 a year to tax, I’ve got 68mpg on a run and it has loads of gadgets you wouldn’t expect (the later one’s come with Sat Nav as standard). I bought mine for £11k 10 months old with 19500 on the clock. It has 2 year / 20,000 mile servicing intervals also. The build quality since the business with Nissan has really gone through the roof. I am REALLY impressed with it.

Really cheap to run, within budget and you can get people in it. The rear leg room isn’t the best, but I’m 6-1 and like a ‘relaxed’ driving position so the person behind me suffers.

the new ford deisels are the same engines as the mazdas they may be worth a look in too?

Civics look small to my eyes but I’ve not had a close look and may well do

They are bigger than they look. Back seats flip up and a bike goes in sideways – ace.

Lot’s of probs with the new TDI 140bhp VW’s. Oil pumps failing seems to be common

AFAIK that was a specific batch of 2006 cars where the oil pump was almost guaranteed to fail after about 50k miles and trash the engine. They were subject to recall, but any that weren’t will have died by now anyway.

Mine’s fine 🙂

Volve aren’t so good now Ford own them, but they still seem better than the blue oval

whats that based on?

based on commetns I hear, JD power surveys, reviews….nothing quantitiative, all subjective but everythiing I’ve heard about Volvo since ford have owned them is…not what they were but still nice enough.