…..that is also good in the snow (with winter tyres) and large enough to put a bike in the back of?

I am relocating to Aberdeenshire and living quite rural and commuting into Aberdeen on a daily basis. I may investigate part driving and part riding hence the bike fit criteria

I am fully aware of the diabolical traffic and parking situation in Aberdeen and no doubt I’ll be looking for some advice on that in due course but the subject of this thread is your recommendations for a car.

Ta in advance.

Panda 4×4

rover 25 diesel, express for extra load or streetwise for extra clearance.

50mpg, low emissions and great in the snow with weight on the front and loads of bells and whistles with bombproof diesel tech and loads of cheap spares.

+1

Or a Suzuki SX4 (or the earlier model)

Where you coming from and where you going to ?

Oh and bring a car with you, prices in this neck of the woods will make you cry.

I generally head south to buy cars – dundee or central belt seem to yeild best results for me .

Easy: old model Yaris, preferably D4D.
Do a search on here, been some good threads on them recently. Ours is now on 80k, owned in our family since new. So far it has had nothing other than tyres, service, new wiper blades and 3k ago I put new pads and discs on (£35, four bolts and the easiest car I have done it on).
It does over 50mpg, pretty much everywhere. On long journeys I am convinced it uses air not diesel to run…
I run winter tyres on the thing, and have spent the last three years commuting up an un-gritted or ploughed singletrack loch-shore road and a 900′ if climb private drive with steep corners on. Only when the snow piles up on the bumper am I forced to give up, for fear of damaging front end. It stops and goes just fine, and handles slides and skids in the snow so easily.
Tax £35, insurance for me in the highlands this year £109.
Gwahn, you know it makes sense (but is lacking in that certain je ne sais quoi)

The mighty Yaris by matt_outandabout, on Flickr
Lots of space too…my bike fits in across back seat without wheels on, or slide / flip seats down and you can keep the back wheel on.

Canoe in a Yaris…. by matt_outandabout, on Flickr

I like the look of that Panda 4×4.

Already have a car. A Subaru Outback which Mrs B and and the Beamlets will be using on a daily basis so I’m looking for a runabout to get me into and out of town each day. Whilst the Outback has proved to be more than capable in the snow its a thirsty beast so I don;t want to be driving back and forth in it every day.

We are moving from Harrogate to just NW of Inverurie and I’ll be commuting into the centre of town.

That Yaris looks good too. (is it road legal having that Canoe hanging out of its back door?)

MkII Micra.
Nothing to go wrong, 50mpg (petrol, so cheaper than diesel).
Wheels will have to come off, but that’s what QRs were invented for.

Having had a Leon I’d look at an Ibiza. Never had one but if my mate can get a bike an Aygo then you shouldn’t have trouble with an Ibiza, or anything in that bracket really.

Nw – insch ? Insch has a station doent it ?

Cycle to inverurie/ insch and get the train – seriously. Youll be negotiating the haudagain round about , unless you do nightshift or work really odd hours or really need a car for your job id rather crawl over hot coals and drive any car in that direction.

Ill put a nod in for the citroen c1 or derivetives.

Good in snow, cheap as chips to run , real easy to fix and economical as hell

Vw lupo

Only problem with the C1 is that it doesn’t have a boot.
That, and it has the worst gearbox of any car made within my lifetime.
🙂

Yaris, as above, amazing cars.

That Yaris looks good too. (is it road legal having that Canoe hanging out of its back door?)

Yes.
Our Touran, although bigge, regularly has two 17′ Open canoes on the roof..I guess not in the boot.
some take it even further… 🙄

peugeot 206 diesel about 60 mpg and cheap tax
Amazed by how well it drove tbh in snow as I thought it would be dire being so small
need to take wheel soff to get bike in but yu can get an orange 5 in th eboot alone if you remove the forks as well

I use a tow bar bike rack generally as it is much easier

Doesnt have a boot but the back seats fold down and you can get a bike in there.

Fwiw you can also get a bike in a smart cabriolet.

Gear box wasnt an issue when i had a hire one – admittedly a peugeot derivitive of it . Was like a wee 900cc go cart , used to crash through the gears like i was jenson button in that thing.

Sorry, but any car I buy has to be German. Accept that Toyota & Honda well made too, but generally soul-less…even compared to the germans.
No problem up 1 in 5 climbs with a few inches of snow in a rear wheel drive (large) car – light throttle & winter tyres. Always funny watching news with half an inch of snow & drivers “stranded”, burying their foot in 1st gear – which would get me nowhere on a dry day!
So, small BMW or a VW group car. 1 series remarkably efficient & the VW 1.6 diesels impressive too.

Loved my old P reg 1.9D Polo. Was great in the snow with a heavy engine over the front wheels, and 48mpg from a non-turbo mechanical injection engine.. Would probably run forever on warmed up earwax.
Not cheap to tax though!

Sorry, but any car I buy has to be German. Accept that Toyota & Honda well made too, but generally soul-less…even compared to the germans.

Ahahahahahaha etc
Says a man who has owned Passat and Touran alongside Yaris and 323. Both VW’s have gone wrong more, cost more when they do and are designed by muppets when it comes to fixing things.
To put one bolt back on the Touran boot lift strut would cost £1200 for the garage to remove, replace and re-paint half the car. I now use a bit of drainpipe to hold up the boot.
On the Toyota it has a) two bolts for added redundancy and b) easy access to the bolts.
I ran a 135k, 13year old 323 for a year and it cost one MOT and a tyre.
My 120k, 8 year old Touran cost £2.5k in repairs alone last year.
New VW cars? Not with your long stick….

Sorry, but any car I buy has to be German.

That’s ok, we all have our funny little quirks / superstitions.

astra van / estate. The diesels get around 60mpg, they’re cheaper to buy than superminis – (the yaris is nice but its reputation means its over-valued secondhand) and loads of boot space for a bike.

A set of 175 winter tyres and its totally well mannered in snow

Honda Jazz – like the tardis inside.

Cheers all, thanks for your suggestions and recommendations.

One final criteria I forgot to mention – nothing French.

Panada 4×4 Twinair as mentioned above, not got one but am considering….

VW Golf Mk4 Estate 1.9 pd130.
Can do 60+mpg , will swallow a bike with only the front wheel off .
Quick for a diesel too . Just make sure its had the cambelt changed recently.

I have a Honda Civic 2.2 CDTI, it’s good in the snow with the right tyres, I get approx 50mg from it and can fit 2 bikes in the back as the seats fold up.

A friend of mine lives in Daviot and commutes to the centre of Aberdeen. He parks in Inverurie and gets the train.

I have a panda it easily takes two bikes in the back with the seat down or one with the seat up and is fine in the snow . Cheap to tax and insure but I’m not as stunned by the mileage 50 mpg on long runs and about 40 on short commuting . Love it though .

Never buy a Clio. Worst car for reliability ever!!!

Standard 1.2 Panda, no need for the 4×4 on road. The normal ones are extremely capable in snow with winter tyres on, and will retun 50mpg pretty consistently.

Youngrob

Thanks for that commuting advice. I’ll be about the same distance from Inverurie as your friend so driving to the station and taking the train may well be the best option.

Does he ever ride to the station?

Hyundai i10. Base model with skinny steel wheels, wind up windows and all. Retro-tastic. Ours has been bomb-proof and still had 3 yrs warranty when we bought it at 2 yrs old.Puls will not quicken when you drive it, or when you need to get it serviced…

Beamers, re commuting I lived in Insch for 4 years and commuted by car to the city centre for those years (including a couple of years parking in the Denburn car park pretty much in the centre).

The Haudagain roundabout isn’t the worst, its the Dyce/airport one. If you can get there before 7.30am its actually all right though. I tried all sorts of ways to get in but found that it was just as quick to go in the A96 all the way. Coming back home is a ‘mare whatever though. Not too bad if you can get out of Dodge by 4.30. If not best to wait until after 6!

The train from Inverurie would be the sensible option but be beware that sometimes they cancel trains. Okay I’m talking about the 09/10 4 month nuclear winter but I found it more reliable to take my car than rely on the train (would have been stranded the first day back of the new year if a colleague hadn’t lived 5 minutes from me and drove a 4×4….).

Theoretically you could park and ride from Kingswells. There is currently a huge new development happening there and I don’t know how that is impacting on things. Also trying to get back on to the A96 is a pain (at the Marschalls Trailers junction its dangerous, pulling out into traffic doing 70!), and the Westhill is slooooow. Cutting cross country is not for the faint hearted. I tried it but got fed up meeting boy racers coming round blind corners in the middle of the road at speed.

Don’t know if I’d fancy cycling into Inverurie myself as the A96 isn’t really wide enough for cars to pass safely and they’ll pass anyways… Back roads are tighter so unless you can find a nice route…

But don’t let this put you off, the Garioch has a special place in my affections. Anywhere in view of Bennachie gets the thumbs up from me 😀

Yaris +1

I am a Toyota person so Yaris or Yaris Verso.

I have Toyota Corolla (05) at the moment but was thinking about Yaris Verso before that.

Sorry to sound like a broken record, but…with the right tyres and some good driving technique, I can hardly think of a car that wouldn’t be at least acceptable, if not downright good, in the snow.

Clios and ibizas to name but two with in adaquate ground clearance for aberdeen snow. Found them both on rural roads with front wheels clear off the ground due to snow depth.

English snow maybe . Rural aberdeenshire snow it is the depth that will get you before a lack of grip.

Old shape Ford KA. Brilliant in the snow, bike in the back with no wheels on, basic engine means few electronics to go wrong. Same principle as the Yaris I guess. Get one with rubber bumpers and you won’t mind tapping it occasionally when you decide to go and play in the snow!

Metalheart

Thanks for that commuting advice.

We are going to be living in Meikle Wartle so Bennachie will be in view.

I have experienced some of the commuting features you mention like the hair raising cross country rat runs and the Marshalls Trailers junction whilst house hunting and going for job interviews. I was driving in in the mornings from Kemnay with a relative and he subscribed to the leave-the-house -by-no-later-than 0630 model.

I saw a couple of people riding on the the A96 and made a mental note to avoid that at all costs. Fortunately Meikle Wartle is to the North of Inverurie so no requirement to ride on the A96.

I think I’ll end up doing a combination of things to be honest.

Ref 2wd v 4wd I spent two winters in Canada driving a 2wd Dodge Grand Caravan (aka Chrysler Grand Voyager) fitted with winter tyres and it would go anywhere in the snow and ice so I am not averse to opting for something Yaris-esque with the correct tyres fitted.

However, having enjoyed the winter conditions this year in a Subaru Outback with winter tyres I quite like the invincibility of 4wd (plus winter driving skills of course.)

The Mighty Dodge in Canmore:

061217-car by Mark and Kirsty Beaman, on Flickr

Sorry, but any car I buy has to be German. Accept that Toyota & Honda well made too, but generally soul-less…even compared to the germans.

define German, my VW is south African, i know some BMW are chinese… We all know that Skoda make the cheap VW now. As for other brands Toyota Aygo is a C1 is a 107….

really is a stupid comment to make

I’m a little late to the party, but my aunt in Banchory has a one owner Honda HRV, It’s an S reg with 83k. MOTed till January 2014. It’s just had a £500 cat fitted. It’s been well serviced. She’s in her seventies and really only uses it to go to the golf club in. She’s hoping for somewhere around £1100 for it.

If you are interested, email me and I can pass on her details.

I think this is the model year, and it’s a fetching gold bronze colour.