I have to get a new car this January as my lease runs out at work and the scheme has now ended, so have to buy one again. Needs to be an estate with plenty of room. New would be great but year old is more likely. Currently have an Octavia vRS and fancy a change. What do you recommend?
Volvo 940 for class, Subaru Legacy for performance, Passat for STW approval, Octavia for a "I'm so unbothered by logos" sticker.
I drive an old Pug 406 and if/when I change it it'll be another Pug with an oil burner (or whatever I can comfortably afford then).
Octavia VRS estate. Or 4x4 turbo like mine.
Having had one for a business trip earliser this year, I'd have no problems with a mondeo, but then I'm not the kind of chap who cares about cars saying something about me. For me, a car is a tool, no sense spending more than I need to get a more "exclusive" tool if a cheaper or more common one is the best one for the job
Have the vRS now, and want to change. Don't fancy shelling out for tyres out of my pocket. Rear cabin is cramped too for the kids.
Mundano if buying 3+ yrs old, bit heavy depreciation at first.
V70 or Accord probably best if buying newer.
159 Sportwagon too small?
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no idea what it's like but I bet there's some great deals second hand - citroens usually have mahoosive depreciation in first 12 months
Totally agree with nbt regards a car being a tool, I have a C5 which is huge and chucks back 46 mpg
[i]159 Sportwagon too small? [/i]
My Camelbak has more storage space!
skoda superb?
As much as I like my Octavia and the wife's Fabia, the Superb is bloody ugly and you have to like the looks of a car. Shame as it's a great car/ spec etc. C5 tourer looks good, not a Mondeo fan but worth a view I guess. V70 is also on the list but much higher priced.
Beemer 330d?
BMW? expensive to buy, not much bigger than Alfa sportwagon, expensive to insure. Surprisingly not expensive to run otherwise
And other drivers [i]still[/i] don't let you out
for space & not too dear, try a mk2 Vectra. Huge inside & a couple of years since they were replaced so should be cheap. Not as pretty as an Alfa though
have a scan at the mazda 6 estate.
way underappreciated.
Would say Mondeo, but I have heard the TDCi has 'issues'.
Don't think you'd go wrong with the Passat.
VW Passat Estate
All the good bits of the Skoda, but more room, more refined and better looking too.
I've recently bought a 1 year old Passat TDi in excellent condition and it's gonna get me through for many miles yet, the new ones are really very nice cars. I do like the Octavia vRS a lot (even despite the ugly face), but when you can get the same engines and a lot more space/refinement and better residuals in a Passat instead... Well... That's what I'd get anyway.
Unless of course you want to spend a load more and get a BMW 3 Series touring (though it's not a big Estate, they're amazing to drive)...
Had a 3 series beemer.........crap.......stupid run flat tyres with as much give as alu frame with no suspension(a blow out in france with no spare wheel is not great...cost £1k to get home) any way I have a white skoda supurbe estate and its great, comfy, fast (2.0tdi) will cruise at 80 and 50mpg, has proper tyres (£50 for a spare though), can get 2 bikes and all the wheels in the boot with the seats up. Best of all on the lease its much cheaper than Mondeo/C5/Vrs etc as these hold their value much better. For the same lease price I was looking at a Focus......ugly or not I know what i would prefer to be driving. Oh and no one will knick it!
Over the past few years I've had a Peugeot 405 estate (old), Nissan Primera estate (horrid), Mazda 6 hatch (superb, but slightly uncomfy on long drives), Passat saloon (best & biggest car I've ever owned - err.... had as a company car), Beemer 3 series saloon (ok, but bland - it was a very tame model though), Audi A4 saloon (see beemer).
Get a Passat - 170bhp diesel Sport if you can afford.
(currently have a 4x4 pick-up Ford Ranger, which I love btw)
for a company car i have a BMW tourer, guy who works with me has the Superb Estate. His is bigger, more practical and more toys. Mine is more economical, nicer drive,etc, but if it was my own money.........
Octavia Estate without doubt
Passenger version of florists' van? (Berlingo etc).
Have a go in a Touran 140hp 😆
As good as Passats are I like the Touran better
Mazda 6 Diesel with the 185bhp engine. Might be rare second hand but the 'new model' is now 16 months old
SMax I reckon.
I've just got a Golf Estate as my company car... Went down a couple if grades and have saved loads in doing so..
Spot on, with plenty of room for everything.
Oh, and it's £0 for road fund license, so it means I pay buttons a month for it...
About £80 a month at 40%
Got to remember the Octavia is just based on the Golf floor plan so it is smaller.
The Superb is based on an elongated Passatt floor plan.
So when you look at going from an Octavia to say a Mondeo/406/Passatt/C5 you are essentially going up at least one car size
Seat Exeo ST. Very nice car, same basically as Audi A4.
Otherwise, can't beat mondeo for overall quality, drive, space. Just don't buy new!
Having said that don't buy any car new, your just throwing money away.
I thought my Legacy estate must be the longest. Then a few weeks ago in Sainsburys a C5 estate parked alongside... 😯
Mazda 6 is a great car and undervalued. I seem to remember that Top Gear recomended them at some point too in that segment.
Avensis also seems like a good option
get an avensis if you're 60+ and a bit boring. Not driven the new one but forgot to add the old one to my list. Awful , awful car.
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If not the Aston, I'd go for the Mondeo, the one I had was perfect, no breakdowns, 45,000+ miles per year and always felt fresh at the end of the day. 2-300 mile drive and no aches or pains, got to count for something.
I've no real interest in flash cars. Just need something to stick the bikes in. Bought a C5 estate very cheaply off here a couple of years back. Getting on for 30k later, its still going strong.
Suspension is sooo comfy compared to Passat Tdi sport.
Smax is fine if you don't mind dismantling your bikes to get them in the car...it's not a great biking vehicle unless you stick the bikes outside (in which case it is superb) - the problem are the fold flat seats - once folded you loose about 4" of height in the car so unless you ride a BMX you need to remove saddle and wheels to get the bike in.
My wife owns one and it's a great car for everything but biking duties (unless bikes outside vehicle). Certainly plenty of space (but it would do it's a Mondeo sized vehicle).
Mate has a Mazda 6 and it's real nice...I'd have a proper look at one of those if it was my choice.
Another mate is selling his 330d touring - 190bhp and it's a real nice car...but I think I'd have the Mazda over a BM-troubleyou
Seat Exeo ST. Very nice car, same basically as Audi A4
It's the last A4 rather than the current one, with some very minor external changes and the A4 cabriolet dashboard. Smart buy all the same, however not particularly big/practical as an estate, or to carry passengers in the rear seat.
Bought a C5 estate very cheaply off here a couple of years back. Getting on for 30k later, its still going strong.
Glad to hear it's still going well 😀
I have a Volvo and my next car shall be a Volvo.
I'm on my 2nd old merc estate. Not very quick off the mark, but happy cruising at 85. Very quiet, comfortable, strong, safe, reliable, enormous load space, and the two extra seats hidden in the boot floor come in very handy now and again. Also quite cheap to buy and run, with parts being readily available. Best one to go for would be the 3 litre multivalve diesel (40mpg), don't worry about big mileages but look for merc service history. They also don't really depreciate much anymore !
Don't know anything much about cars myself, but my dad has a ford mondeo estate. We just got back from france, where we fitted 4 bikes and gear in with room to spare. Nice and quiet on the motorway, very comfy, tons of room up front, and I think we got about 50mpg.
And I think he got it second hand, where it had been an underused company car for a year. It only had a few thousand miles on it, still pretty much perfect. Not quite sure how much it cost him (~£11,000?).
+1 for the Subaru Legacy. If we have another winter like last, you will be fine and can laugh, as you drive by, at all the inferior cars on the road, sliding around/stuck in the snow. It has the best 4wd system of any car I have driven(read 'will go anywhere' trust me). Loads of space. Also can get a 2.5l twin turbo version if you want some fun
My V50 was brilliant, well worth a test drive. The D5 is pretty fun to drive and quite frugal, I had the T5 which was remarkably quick but cost me lots in petrol.
Honda Accord Tourer. I have the older 7th generation and its huge. Can easily fit (ie no fiddling them in the right way) 2 large bikes with wheels off in the boot, seats up and all hidden below the load cover.
Volvo V70. If Volvo weren't mostly FWD I would seriously consider one. 3 series Touring is great with a proper engine but not very roomy. 5 series a fair bit bigger but not so fun to drive. Essential to ditch the run flat tyres. The only real weakness of them. Oh get a good boot liner too!
Had an Audi A4 avant 2.0tdi which I loved as it had plenty of poke ,170hp, but not at all roomy.Built like a concrete bunker but sadly lacked space.
Traded up to an A6 allroad 3.0tdi much bigger and loads more space for bike kit and driver. Only downside is the cost really ,a VW passat or Skoda estate are of great built quality and great mpg if buying diesel.
i have the new 170 tdi octavia vrs and think its great, tried the seat exeo st and it is absolutely tiny , small boot and very low roof height.drove the mondeo and didnt like the seats after a few days. what about a skoda superb estate even bigger than the octavia and on par with price. i also looked into getting a vw caddy sportline van with rear windows and seats but that was a killer on company car tax.
Just took delivery of new Superb Elegance Estate 2.0TDI 170bhp this past week. Bought the wife an Octavia Elegance Estate in June. Superb so much bigger. My previous car was a Passat TDI estate; Superb is bigger, better specification, better to drive and better built. Little wonder it won Top Gear's Luxury Car of the Year award.
C4 Grand Picasso, great for kids and loads of room, had one for 3 years and would do the same again. Looked at the Smax and did some measuring but not enough height with the seat down for Kevins bike, sales rep said it must fit in as Ford says it will
Tracey
i've got a bmw 320d estate. I won't make the same mistake again.
I had one. Lovely car but "estate" is stretching it - actually, that might not be a bad idea...
I have a swedish vauxhall now. 9-3. Much bigger boot but still fits on the drive
I've got a 325i touring. Does the job and is decent to drive as well.
If I was getting something more practical I'd get an x6.
quite like the look of the C5 estate. Bloody massive mind.
Just get a 335d Touring and be done with it 😉
Sorry, more practical an X6?
Does not compute.
5 series Touring or even an X5 I could understand but that X6 is the stupidest car I have ever seen.
It always amazes me that when someone posts that they want a new car, an estate thats functional and cheap and they dont care about looks etc...and then everyone jabbers on about their latest XR, VRX, V10 Fanny Wagon whats it.
Craggyjim - Member
Honda Accord Tourer. I have the older 7th generation and its huge. Can easily fit (ie no fiddling them in the right way) 2 large bikes with wheels off in the boot, seats up and all hidden below the load cover.
Craggyjim - Job swap means my Mondeo hatchback is been replaced by the new Accord estate.
Can you get a MTB in complete with wheels on in the back of the Accord estate with the back seats down?
Only one of my bikes will go in like that in the Mondeo.
Angela - it's because we all want to try and show off. But we all fail!
DickBarton - Member
Mate has a Mazda 6 and it's real nice...I'd have a proper look at one of those if it was my choice.Another mate is selling his 330d touring - 190bhp and it's a real nice car...but I think I'd have the Mazda over a BM-troubleyou
Mazda6 Estate has been superb, its one of the few cars I have owned that I get in and just enjoy driving, the Bose sound system is a +
Mondeo is not bad TBH but the panels are very thin. unless your into 5 series territory then the BMW will be cramped and the VW's annoy me with the shite they kick out as you accelerate
if it was me i'd get this Insignia Estate, you can get a 4x4 verison, massive , loads of kit.
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A new Vauxhall? 😆
honda accord tourer 2.2 diesel,look no further!!
I recently changed my 7th gen Accord tourer. I really faniced a 8th gen but I walked in the showroom, opened the boot of the demo model and walked out. Boot on the 8th gen is about 2/3 the size of the 7th gen and has huge wheel arch intrusions. You would not be able to fit a bike in with the seats up.
JohnClimber - The current Accord tourer has a very small boot compared to the old model which I had and was great. You are talking about 400L, last model was around ~600L and had the easy fold back seats. New model has losts these, and the electric boot opening, and the rear wheel arches intrude terribly into the boot.
Nice car (and looks much better than the old one) but the lack of practicality was the reason I didn't buy another Accord when I changed cars recently.
Snap
The previous honda accord tourer, nice to look at from the front. A horror movie from the rear. What happened?
Bit daft of Honda to ruin the Accord so much. Always liked them. Still FWD though.
Surf-Mat - Member
Volvo V70. If Volvo weren't mostly FWD I would seriously consider one. 3 series Touring is great with a proper engine but not very roomy. 5 series a fair bit bigger but not so fun to drive. Essential to ditch the run flat tyres. The only real weakness of them
Given recent winters they are also useless when it snows and tail happy when it rains 😕
I reckon last of the Vectras would be good value and have loads of space. Probably nicely specced to so they could shift last of the old models, prob a year or 18months old now so plenty of depreciation has already gone.
Buy a van. You won't regret it.
AWD Volvo V70. Fast. Comfy. HUGE boot!
Trek -they are great in the rain. If you turn the traction off in the wet in a 335d them it gets tricky but otherwise fine. For Winter, I'm getting Winter tyres. Make a huge difference.
320d tourer here. Like it. Not as economical as my old Passat, surprisingly little difference in internal space - with the seats up the Beemer has much better rear legroom than the VW, but a smaller boot, seats down, its a little narrower between the arches, but not a lot. Length is give or take the same.
Night and day to drive compared to the Passat. It really is FUN. The ride is on the firm side - don't have runflats, but do have sports suspension - the dampers are due for changing, so I might have a tinker with something different. Ragging it round the alps this summer though - fantastic.
It dealt OK with the snow - most of the time I rode my bike, but the journeys I did have to do by car, I got there fine.
We're currently looking at 6-year-old Astra diesel estates. £2.5k and should run forever (we found a T-reg with 305k miles on the clock).
I like the look of the new C3 picasso. Not sure if you can get a bike in the back though, lengthwise without removing at least one wheel.
I like the fact that the rear seat squabs move out of the way as you lower the seat backs (like they do in the Mazda6 estate, I believe). Too many estates (and hatchbacks) are a real pain when it comes to lowering the seats easily.
Surf-Mat - Member
Bit daft of Honda to ruin the Accord so much. Always liked them. [b]Still FWD though.[/b]
Does that bit in bold matter 99% of the time on 99% of the roads? All it seems to do is give an excuse to drivers of RWD cars when they bin it on a wet road or if they can't drive due to snow......"oh, it's because it's RWD......" whoopdy do.
Anyone that thinks a RWD car is bad in the wet can't drive. They are FUN in the wet. And for snow - get a spare 4x4 or Winter tyres. With the latter you end up with better grip than 95% of FWD cars and even 4x4s on Summer tyres (which most use all year round). FWD DOES matter - it's fundamentally the wrong set up driving and steering the same wheels. It's done because it's easy to drive slowly and it's cheap to make. If you can't appreciate the advantages of RWD then you shouldn't be adding suggestions to a car thread.
Mike - we had a 2005 Astra 1.9CDTI 150 from new and it was a decentish motor - cheap to buy, well specced, massive boot for the size of car. Made fairly well but it did go badly wrong at 42k miles (swirl flap failure) - luckily fixed under warranty. A lot of car for the money though. However a fair bit of torque and bhp meant it broke traction a lot (FRONT WHEEL DRIVE) and understeered when pushed. Learned to drive around those issues but it made wet weather driving a little interesting.
Mazda 6 estate or Saab 9-3 Sportwagon.
'If you can't appreciate the advantages of RWD then you shouldn't be adding suggestions to a car thread.'
Pretty dumb comment considering most of the options will be Front wheel drive. You could discount RWD and still want advice on the 90% of cars that remained. You are still awesome though.
Thanks for the helpful suggestions. Personally FWD or RWD couldn't give a monkeys so long as it meets the requirements of large, reliable etc.
Anyone that thinks a RWD car is bad in the wet can't drive. They are FUN in the wet.
If you can't appreciate the advantages of RWD then you shouldn't be adding suggestions to a car thread.
If a sparrow clocks it you'll get that willy pecked off. 😉
Primera 2.2 Dci or Di Estate pretty reliable and all the toys.
C5 estate - unbeateable value 2nd hand and reasonably reliable with the 2.0HDi. Ultra comfy with the hydractive suspension but handles like a boat when pushed hard on twisty roads - unless you have one with the switchable suspension.
you shouldn't be adding suggestions to a car thread.
Yes, that's right, a car thread asking about estate cars... 🙄
Anyone that thinks a RWD car is bad in the wet can't drive. They are FUN in the wet.
Yeah cause the OP wanted a car thats going to put him through a hedge, thats what he asked for advice on didnt he? By fun you no doubt mean unsafe, I bet you are a ****in great driver though and I just dont understand how amazing your car handling skills are and I should bow down to your wonderfulness and let you drive too fast around public roads in peace.