Hi all,

I need a new car and I’d like to be able to keep my bike in the boot for easy post work rides. It’d need one of those security screens to keep the bike out of sight, and I’m looking to spend up to £3000. Any ideas?

If I’m being fussy I’d also like rear seats that fold flat for bigger adventures, roof rails for kayaks and surfboards, and have a reasonable mpg (I do around 20,000 miles per year). So far I’m considering mondeo’s, octavia’s, audi A6’s and old saab’s. Anyone have any thoughts on these models and are there any more I should consider?

Cheers,
Colin

Quite nippy too.
You could always have a look here too.

not quite as nippy

Skoda
Ford mondeo or focus.
Passat
Pug
Volvo

honda accord estate my 05 is mahooooooooosive

Out of the list you have given the A6 is by far the best and nicest. It has the biggest boot in its class, it’s very comfy and has loads of room.

If you go for a diesel don’t get the 2.5 as it’s just as thirsty as the V6 petrols. get the 1.9 – it’s not as quick but it will plug on quite happily. If you want a petrol then get the 1.8T or the larger of the V6. Avoid the 2.4 petrol as it’s a thirsty bugger but without the real grunt you would expect of a V6.

I’ve a saloon 2.8 quattro with manual gearbox and get a regular 32mpg. Much less if messing about. I’ve had 37 on a motorway run within the speed limit.

If you want any pointers about the A6 drop me an email.

Oh! and the shout for the Honda Acord estate – worth looking at. I love my A6 (I’ve done quite a bit of engine work on it) but the next practical car I’ll be buying is the Acord estate – it’s boot isn’t nearly as big but it’s still very useful and it’s a very nice car to drive but without the painful spares prices…

Looks good too.

Rover 75 2litre diesel for comfort and 50+mpg, surprisingly nippy too. For £3k you can have your pick. Mondeo is bigger though.

V70 and Accord may be over budget unless you get one with big miles.

Vectra, they are huuuuge and cheap.

Before all the rest of us Octavia Estate owners jump aboard here, it’s actually based on a Golf and isn’t as big as a lot of people think – unless you have a smallish bike I guess.

Mondeo, Accord or a Passat would be my first suggestions.

Or an old hearse?

NOT a 75! They are a bag of shit combined with a bag of trouble…

yeah accord is v exepensive, but long life..

Second the comment above re: size of the Octavia estate. I have one, and it is great, but not truly cavernous.

That said, I can get two bikes in it quite easily without taking any wheels off (with the seats folded down, obviously) and reckon three would be doable. Haven’t needed to see how many I can get in the boot with wheels off etc. so can’t comment on that.

accord looks massive but I’ve never been in or close enough to one to properly see

You can have my Mondeo estate (large boot) happily giving you 50mph, 100k miles manly motorway, yours for £2500

I’ll do some internal shots of the accord tomorrow. seats down I can shove any mtb inside without wheel removal.

I had 4 bikes in the back of my Pug 206 for my trip back from Spain, wheels off, of course.

Mondeo or Vectra estates.
HUGE boot, loads of them around so cheap as chips to buy, run, fix and insure.

We’ve had 4 bikes, 4 people, 4 lots of camping kit in/on a Vauxhall Astra estate before so most cars will work one way or another but finishing a ride and just being able to chuck the bike in is so nice!

old model mazda 6 diesel . easy get a bike under the load cover!!

Vauxhall Vectra
Ford Focus

You can get a standard hardtail in both with the seats up and the luggage cover pulled over

I do it all the time.

🙂

Vectras are cheap to buy – they are NOT cheap to repair. I now own a Mondeo…

so essentially the answer is any mid-size (ie in the mondeo, passat etc size) estate. An a6 would be good, but, like a v70 would be way older for the same money as a ‘non-premium’ brand. you’ll have to take both wheels off to get a bike in the ‘boot’ of any car, all the estates mentioned will probably take one with the luggage cover over fine. A mondeo (which I use as an example as I have one) will take 2 bikes with the luggage cover over, 5 with it off (this is in the boot. 5 is a squeeze, 4 is easy). Get something with split/fold rear seats and you can easily get boards/people in for surf weekends, mine will take a 10′ mal (just) but longboards are a bit antisocial (sit between driver and passenger) – shortboards will go in fine with just 1 seat down.

cars to avoid are x-type, vectra, v40\v50, a4, 3 series, rover 75, 156 and (according to the above) octavia, as they are all a chunk smaller than the other estates in the price range (and for no other particular reason)

Thanks so much for the input. I’ve got a few choices then, but I may well plump for a mondeo as they seam very good value in terms of both purchase and running costs.

+1 for the Mazda 6 Estate diesel. Rear seats fold completely flat and very economical.

Problem with the mondanoe is the top end of the block is weak and so is the clutch. Both costly repairs. Which is a shame as they are actually nice cars.

I’m speakong from a mechanics point of view. If you get one that has been sorted then go for it otherwise avoiid.

Vectra – boring? Hell yes but it wil (if serviced which is cheap) go on for a very long time. It aint exciting but it will keep getting you from A to B… I’ve used a few for business and they have done very well.

5lab – Member

so essentially the answer is any mid-size (ie in the mondeo, passat etc size) estate

Some cars turn out much smaller than you’d think- especially protruding wheel arches make a huge difference to how much you can carry, and how easily.

The Focus is huge because it has a low floor and also a full width bay, so you can stack it tall and wide, and use every inch . I had an Avensis hire car and it was almost as wide, just as long, but much less tall and that made it not just smaller, but less good at dealing with awkward shaped objects. The Focus is nothing amazing- it just takes all the tricks available to make a small car large, and uses every last one of them.

Raised boot lips make a surprisingly big difference too- not in capacity, but in how easy it is to use it. You can really ram stuff into a car with a flat boot exit and it’ll always come back out but when it’s got to be lifted out, things can get a bit crystal maze.

If you look at, say, a Volve V40, it’s uncanny how little boot space there is.

Mondeo weak top end?

I’ve had a couple of Mondeo’s now without any problems. I know the flywheel can be problem but then all DMF cars seem to be having the same problem i.e Nissan hence why manufacturers are moving away from them.

Back to the OP, try as many as you can as close together as possible so you can get a good comparison. Before my first Mondeo I was set on getting an Audi A6 (dull) or BMW 5 series but couldn’t justify the premium on not a much better car.
The new shape C5 is also a pretty good car and actually reliable saying it’s a Citroen, the previous model is typical of what gives Citroen a bad name.

We have had 3 bikes and 3 people plus all our stuff in the back of our Octavia estate on several occasions. Front wheels and seat posts off and all is good. Very comfortable and great to drive and cheaper than many of the other suggestionns. We would certainly look at getting another one, if not the slightly bigger Scout.