[Closed] the perfect car - 600miles to a tank - huge boot - cheap to buy - does it exist?

Huge boot cheap to buy is Mondeo estate territory.

My wifes Honda Accord estate will do 55mpg if you never go over 70 on the motorway and be insanely gentle in town etc.. Its huge in the back..

[i]one of those Seat MPV types (cant remember the name but neighbour has one)
T4 van?..
Funky old school Jeep Cherokee with LPG conversion? [/i]

I'd be surprised if any of these get 55mpg myself but I'm weilling to be educated.

Get another Golf. Our A3 will bring back 55mpg if my wife is driving it and that's the 150bhp version. The boot is a joke though.

+1 for Mondeo Estate

My dad drives his like an ape and floors it everywhere. Still gets 40-45ish to the gallon and it goes like a stabbed rat. (his is the 2L diesel one). You could easily get more than that if you're careful.

Funky old school Jeep Cherokee with LPG conversion?

18mpg. Gas being about 1/2 the price of diesel helps but it isn't anything like 55mpg. Mid-30s is about the equivalent.

Second Honda Accord estate. Mahoosive inside, although 500 miles to a tank full is more realistic for real world driving.

Given you haven't mentioned reliability a Renault Megane estate would fit the bill. I get a real world 62mpg from a 1.5 diesel, 700 odd miles from a tank, good boot, boxy looks.

Sounds perfect if you ignore the electrical issues.

I dunno why people quote how many miles you get from a tank. It's not like all tanks are the same size, is it?!

Prius.

+2 For Mondeo estate. 50mpg and 600miles to the tank. (yep I know Molgrips I just thought that myself!) A full tank in my Mondeo is about £75-£80!

All the toys you could want too.

Passat estate. Simular to the Golf, but it has a bigger fuel tank by 15 litres and so goes past the 600 mile barrier. It's also a fair bit roomier, but not a lot bigger and more refined. I think a journalist had one of the brand new 1.6tdi 105bhp ones for a drive round europe to see how efficiant it was and got over 1300 miles out of a tank. Cheap on the tax too. Of the older VW TDI's with the 8 valve engines like the mk4 golf, the TDI 130 seems to be the most efficiant of the lot for mpg and typically give out 148bhp, so has a fair bit of go. Just make sure that the cam belt & tensioners have been done if it's due or near as they can be expensive and as they are under a lot of tension, they have been known to break if left overdue.

how about an A4 estate, i've got the 130bhp se and it will happily do 50+ mpg and has a bigger boot than a golf, though not as big as a mondeo?

520 miles to a tank in the Prius, 750 miles in the Passat. Prius costs £45 to fill, the Passat £90.

1.6 HDI berlingo ....

Focus estate? Get 650 miles to a tank on my hatch.

I'd be amazed if 1300 miles on a single tank is possible. I believe the theoretical range on that Passat is ~1000 miles.

new vw Amarak 600miles per tank.. BIG tank
seriusly skoda have this greenline fabis estate that'll do 83mpg combined.. 14k new and ZERO annual car tax a cheap reliable economical to run new car..

Berlingo/Partner. Cheap as chips, meets all other requirements (including boxiness, in spades!), but a total dog in the corners. Or, if you prefer VW, Caddy Life, but that's considerably more expensive.

current:
audi a4 avant 2.0 litre - does 60mpg on a run with no bikes on the back, 600 to a tank; more like 45-50 mpg fully laden with bikes on towbar. boot isn't huge either.

previous:
vw t4 van lwb 2.5tdi - huge, powerful, fit all your kit - but only 40mpg, 400 to a tank

Dave

dave360 - Member
Second Honda Accord estate. Mahoosive inside, although 500 miles to a tank full is more realistic for real world driving

I find it hard to leave the throttle alone too..

My old Mondeo ST TDCI used to easily get 600+ out of a tank and had a huge boot. So boggo Mondeo estate would be cheap to buy and run. I'd get the 6spd box if possible though - made it that slight bit more economical than my mates 5spd ones.

Not quite 600miles, but my (1.6 petrol, 100ps)focus C-max does 43mpg on the motorways, 36mpg on the B roads, about 480miles to a (~50ltr) tank. And none of the expensive diesel bits to go wrong.

Bonus, the rear seats unclip completely and can be srored in the garrage, giving another foot of space over most estate cars.

seat alhambra, bought one recently as a bike wagon. Same as the Ford Galaxy and VW Sharan. Got the 1.9TDI, averages 50mpg+ over a whole tank (~600 miles a tank) which was a pleasant surprise for such a big car. Briefly considered a van (many of my riding buddies have vans in one shape or another) but this has more creature comforts.

My criteria was something that could get bikes in upright and inline which ruled a lot of smaller MPV (and even vans) out. Taken all the rear seats out but could easily leave some in and get bikes in (I guess having 2 seats inline one behind other would be most efficient). Like most MPVs the seats are individual units so (as long as you have somewhere to store em) you can have any combination that would suit whatever task.

this is bikes in, seats out (front wheels turned for stability, they can be inline with room to spare). Cheap improvised "rack" is straps between rear grab handles that support the saddles to keep the bikes vertical.

[IMG] [/IMG]

the perfect car - 600miles to a tank - huge boot - cheap to buy - does it exist?

Massively torquey 2.0 diesel destroys all hills - passengers/luggage/headwind it makes no difference.

Plenty of choice sub 10k miles less than £10k

MC - flippin heck that's a barn! I have car envy. How many does it seat, and when the seats are up whats the boot size like?

series one multipla JTD, you dont get more boxey than that. unless its a box 🙂

From my Mk5 (6?) 105bhp 1.6Tdi Golf Estate on a very gentle 200 mile motorway run last week. That's from the computer obviously, so maybe factor in 10% error. I can't believe the Passat can do better than this.

[img] [/img]

how about an A4 estate

Focus estate?

1.6 HDI berlingo ....

+2 For Mondeo estate. 50mpg and 600miles to the tank

Renault Megane estate

Second Honda Accord estate. Mahoosive inside, although 500 miles to a tank full is more realistic for real world driving.

Get another Golf. Our A3 will bring back 55mpg if my wife is driving it and that's the 150bhp version. The boot is a joke though

Funky old school Jeep Cherokee with LPG conversion?
I've got one of those

I'd be amazed if 1300 miles on a single tank is possible

If you drive at 50mph maybe.. And do the dodgy tricks that are not practical in real life...

How huge is huge? My c-max diesel would seem to fit your criteria, and you can take out the rear seats completely for extra load space.

Berlingo/Partner. Cheap as chips, meets all other requirements (including boxiness, in spades!), but a total dog in the corners

dude - change your tires ....

mines was scary on the original ditchfinders but i stuck on some conti van contacts ... job done - gokartesque handling - corners quite well for a box on wheels now !

Me Prius is happnin man.

Ok so the boots nowhere near as big as an estate, but it does hold my roadie with the front wheel removed and the 29er too.. I can get my kite stuff in the back and wsurfing stuff on the roof. All good IMO.
Ok so they're expensive to buy new and the wait for it seemed to make an iceburg melt in a fjord somewhere near Osaka.. But a lot on my journeys are <30mph where the battery drives the car. On the m'way the engines kicked in and all's normal like.

I like it, it's not something I'da gone for before but hey..

series one multipla JTD, you dont get more boxey than that. unless its a box

I reckon a Prius would have too small a boot for the OP with the seats up. Paradoxically massive with the seats down tho, although not in the same league as Berlingos and Alhambras.

I do like it tho and they are cheap s/h now.

molgrips - Member
I dunno why people quote how many miles you get from a tank. It's not like all tanks are the same size, is it?!

Exactly - there are a number of adverts about quoting how many miles a car will do from a tank and it's all rubbish! My audi a2 will do 400 miles from it's 34l tank easily and i've never put more than £35 of fuel in it. brilliant that a massive merc will do 800miles, but they don't tell you in the ad that it's got a 120l fuel tank...

Passat Estate.

Mine's an 03 and does about 46mpg on the short journey to work and back. Longer journeys I would expect a lot more. Two bikes are not a problem, and as they all have roof bars, I can fit a 5m sea kayak on top as well. Dogs optional with the bikes inboard.

Very comfortable too.

Kudos to you, they are fab looking cars. Always wanted one, dont think my wallet can take the weekly bashing though
How do you find it for lumbering gear around?
I wonder what mileage the 2.5TD would give if run on chip fat?...

You get about 30mpg out of the diesels.

slimjim

2nd hand accords are probs 30% -40% more expensive than say an equivalent mondeo. I just went through this and was looking at 05 plate accords vs 05 mondeos - less than 100k . Mondeo 3.5k , Accord 5-6K

This was the passat economy thing. I remember reading about it in Autocar or something at the time: http://www.volkswagen.co.uk/volkswagen-world/news/320/new-passat-bluemotion-sets-the-economy-standard
I don't think normail people would get anywhere near this figure, but goes to show.

Honda Civic diesel. Currnetly averaging 62 MPG and can easilly get two bikes in with back seat down

Yeah seats down only when the bikes are in, the kite'll go in the "boot" with the seats up tho' but can't get the wsurfing gear in it. But then really.. it's not designed for anything other than a Victoria Sponge Display contest is it hahaha..

I toiled for months whether to buy one, having a decent large engined diesel estate before made me think "Mrs Precious" wouldn't be quick enough, but it's really quite sparky (pun intended) and so easy to live with.. You do have to weigh up the "overall" mpg mind, I get 70mpg regularly but again reitterate I drive in on battery for 2/3rds of my journeys.

Stereos amazing BTW. And it's not always tuned to Gardeners World either.. hahaha.

And my Panama Hat looks decidedly "tipper" on the parcel shelf... OMG!

Passat Estate

Average 50mpg
600-620miles out of a tank
cheap to run, cheap to fix
Just ticked over 200k in mine and it still runs perfectly.
Boot is vast and even bigger with back seats taken out.

Toys it has 7 seats in total, as you can see with the seats out the rear is humongous!! You could easily sleep 2 people with kit in the bikes (obviously you'd have to take the bikes out). It's awesome.

Having returned from the STW weekender in my mate's big Citroen people carrier - which is much like the Alhambra - I've got to say how ace it was to just through stuff in the back without worrying about careful packing. I did have a Mondeo and it got 2 of us, 3 bikes and all accompanying kit back from weekend's away economically and comfortably, but it did need to be "packed" rather than just throwing stuff in. Lots of fun to drive when not loaded up tho'

Depends on priorities I guess. Do you want an economical fun-to-drive car that needs a lot of load space, or is the space the priority? Would you be fed up driving an empty people carrier around for the majority of the time when you could be driving something more fun?

Thanks for posting the link markrtw. Pity the article doesn't state under what conditions the test was performed.

Bikebouy.. assume you are talking about the Prius there.. Did you know Thule do a towbar style attachment for a bike rack for the Prius now? Not a real towbar of course, no towball.

Re the Passat ultramileage thing - not sure what the record it set actually is, but several years ago I read of a woman in Japan who averaged 115mpg on a tank whilst commuting to work, but apparently she drove on empty roads and was able to use all sorts of hypermiler tricks that would you get you killed on normal roads.

308SW does 60mpg/700miles for me.

Golf Bluemotion? I can't quite get the 68mpg in the previous pic but can easily get it over 60mpg without going slowly.

Mk 4 Golf estate Tdi (110bhp or 130bhp?)

I have only avg. 49mpg (comp info?) over the last 3 years with my 130bhp version, boot has a great hidden floor for tools mind.

On the motorway, driving like my nan, can get it up to 60mpg.

Quick 'Did you know'

That when you fill the tank up, if you press the button/switch with the fuel nozzel just inside the tank neck, it vents an overflow tank & you can fill that up with another 10L apx. of fuel, useful if you are doing a mega big trip straight away, have managed 700 miles to a tank this way.

Be warned mind, filling a tank this might cause spillage if you dont burn some off straight away & we all know how much us bikers hate spilled diesel on the road!

it vents an overflow tank

Bolleaux

All depends how you drive doesnt it. My 50mpg and 600 mile tank in a Mondeo is based on a 100 mile per day commute doing 80-85 on a motorway for most of the commute.

My Vectra fits all of the criteria in the title.

It's alright... but not perfect.

Wouldnt surprise me, given you can't vent the tank to atmosphere anymore there probably does need to sbe some kind of overflow/vapourlock arrangement in the tank?

BTW a photo of a mpg trip computer (even when reading 'average' rather than instantaneous) is completely meaningless without knowing the distance covered and the journey type (hilly, stop-start etc).

To illustrate my point there is a petrol station 10 miles from my house. On the way home from work the journey from this petrol station is almost all downhill and often I don't have to stop-start at all. The average mpg reading after this 10 mile stretch is often ~60mpg (from an uneconomical 2.5L petrol). However this is not representative of the economy achieved to-and-from work over a tankful, where the downhill bias is eliminated. So, the average mpg I get over a week of commutes (~40mpg) is a fair reflection of the economy for my car, on that journey, with my driving style. The 60mpg average I got for the first 10 miles of that tank is meaningless.

Noones mentioned Toyota Avensis Estates
55-60+mpg on a run
50mpg round town

I love mine. Hate Mondeo's - doors sound hollow and boxy.
I've never had the wallet deep enough to fill the tank - I normally put £60 in.

With the parcel shelf in I can get two bikes in the boot and two wheels resting on the parcel shelf.

Love it. Will have another. I also looked at Honda Accords - they do have bigger boots but the cars do seem a lot bigger too.

Just a note about the Honda Accord estate - the boot is very wide. I used to have one and could stack 4 bikes with wheels out (hardtails) with wheels on top in the boot without putting the seats down!

Cant do that in my Passat!

Wouldnt surprise me, given you can't vent the tank to atmosphere anymore there probably does need to sbe some kind of overflow/vapourlock arrangement in the tank?

Only car I ever heard of with that was the US Prius which had an expansion bladder to take up the volume of consumed fuel. Got the impression it was unique.

molgrips - Member

it vents an overflow tank

Bolleaux

I think the proper term is expansion tank not overflow tank. Whatever its called, you can hear the darn thing hiss when you fill it & it lets me add another 10L apx. to the tank.

I had two 7th generation Accord i-cdti estates and they were great cars. However they go have their issues (DMF, DPF, MAF, manifolds, turbos like most diesels). Have a look at the Accord forum http://typeaccord.co.uk/forum/forum/21-faults/ (note how many diesel vs petrol faults are reported here - that's why for our lower annual mileage Accord we've gone back to petrol). Huge boots too with no suspension tower intrusion.

Oh like lots of people say. 600miles? It depends on the size of your fuel tank! My disel estate auto will easily do it - driven reasonably gently +40mpg) but it's a big old tank +16gallon.

I'd think that any 1.6-1.8tdi "Eco" estate from the big manfacturers has to be on your list. You'll probably pay a premium for them though and you have to work out carefully if you'll ever see that back.

The OP wants something with a huge boot and theres people suggesting a Civic?

FFS

the 'miles per tank' question is probably a bit of a red herring but dont get too worked up about it eh?

Its nice to know that your car will reach a milestone figure (say 500 or 600 miles) every tank full for a bit of added convenience, and most tanks fall within the 50 to 60 litre range.

Ive had thirsty engines that would only give 300 to 350 miles max per tank full and it can be a PITA.

Very happy with some of your suggestions thank guys, I will check out some of the cavernous boot options mentioned for sure (Accord Estate sounds good). Im also keen to take a closer look at the Passat estate again, might tick the boxes I was looking for, including VW.

Vectra c estate, cheap as chips to buy, dwarfs most of the competitors for sheer boot space, decent mile muncher..ok they aren't very pretty but very practical. I'm about to change myself and I do fancy the new mondeo estate...

If you actually like driving then the Mondeo 2.0 TDCI is the boy! I have just gone from a Focus to a Mondeo Estate TDCI. Test drove loads. Had my heart set on a Passat until I drove the Mondeo. It is much better in every way. 130bhp version is more torquey and a lot smoother than the 130 Bhp Vag unit. No timing belt and water pump to fail on the Ford, chain cam driven. Bigger and will make the Passat feel like a canal boat in the corners, but it doesn't have the all important VW badge!

A4 Avant 1.9 tdi 130 here. 780 miles to 65 litre tank if driven very smoothly (my daily commute is 99% dual carriageway and i tend to sit back at a constant 60-70mph) You can take 150 miles off for "making progress"

Boot is rubbish tho. It's squared off between the arches and has a hidden floor compartment so it's narrow and shallow. Not sure if passats or cheaper a4's are the same tho??

Mondeo 2.0 TDCI is the boy

what age is yours, and hwo much does a low miler sell for? You give a glowing review so I may as well take a look

Topic title really does lean to the Mondeo.

The GF's harp fits in, which puts it in the proper big and boxy boot scale. Only other cheap car to do that was a vectra, but that was dull and flimsy.

I've got a 2004 TDCi, 6-speed 130, 50+mpg thrashed around Welsh lanes, 600+ miles from the tank - it is just passing 175k now and has had a lot less work done, for significantly less cost than friends with similar age Passats.

My Toyota Hiace also did 600 miles to a tank, but the tank was 20l bigger.

Time for an Octi mention. My 51 1.9 110bhp TDi has a huge boot, but the estate is bigger. It goes well if you give it a welly, and if you're restrained on long m-way cruises then the computer on mine has indicated 63.4mpg on a 240m round trip at a steady indicated 70. 42ltr tank, approx £60 to fill up, and I average around 450-550 miles per fill, but most of my driving tends to be short run local stuff, 15-30 miles usually. Terrific car, had mine for five years and it's great.

Mine is the 2.0 130bhp tdci Zetec Estate. It's an 04 with 70k on it with full history. Paid £3200 for it and that included 6 months tax and 1yrs MOT. It does an average of 45-50mpg. It has a 6spd box, climate, Cruise control, heated front screen which is worth the price alone in the Winter. It destroys hills, has 240 torques. Put your foot down in any gear and it just goes and keeps going! It is massive inside. I'm 6ft 4 and I don't have the seat all the way back. Put the back seats down and you'll get two bikes in easy. I usually put mine and my little lads 24" bike in no problem. The main thing is the way it drives. I just can't fault it. It handles superbly for a big car. It's very comfortable and just eats up the miles. Read the reviews for yourself on Honest John's site. Fewest breakdowns in tough TUV tests. I'm very happy with mine so far. Mondeo spares on Ebay have everything you will ever need at a quarter of the price of the VW bits. I really wanted a Passat Highline 130 TDI Estate but they were well over 5K for one with 80 to 90K, then you have to factor in the cambelt and waterpump change, 400 notes to do it properly. Service intervals of 9k as opposed to 12k for the Mondeo.

Inbred - wow, that sounds cheap. A quick search on Trader shows similar cars coming in around 4500 notes though?

Only driven the newest style mondeo but not sure what they go for. Was the 2.2 tdci estate with 6 speed semi/auto box and was a bloody rocket and just kept gripping. Yes it was big and you never forgot that but it felt smaller than it really was and when up to speed the extra size worked to it's benefit not it's detriment which I found with the older Passat estate (2002 model but I am sure the newer ones are better). Only problem was it was black and is so big it looked like a hearse.

Oh, saw a Skoda Superb estate today which looked nice. But the reviews point towards the Mondeo as being almost as big but better handling and better engine.

How about one of these as a wild card: http://www.lingdalemotors.co.uk/used-cars/mg-zt-t-2-0-cdti-5dr-cleveland-201129403343830

VERY big and cheap with BMW engines.

I had to travel to Bradford from Durham to get mine. Wharfdale car sales. I think the diesel cars have all shot up a little bit at the moment.
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201128402250164/sort/priceasc/usedcars/engine-size-cars/2l_to_2-5l/body-type/estate/transmission/manual/fuel-type/diesel/model/mondeo/make/ford/radius/60/page/1/postcode/dh12bb?logcode=p
This one is only 115bhp but its only 2700.

HAINEY, has your mate reported the bike thefts to the police? Get him to ring:
Elaine Elliott
Station Enquiry Officer
Contact Management Department
Derbyshire Constabulary
Wyatts Way, Ripley
Tel: 0345 1233333 (Internal 790 1752)
It may all be in hand but just in case.
You posted in another thread a while ago but I didn't see a reply.

I wonder what mileage the 2.5TD would give if run on chip fat?...

Not sure which Cherokee you mean (old boxy one or slightly newer rounded ugly one like mine) but I believe the Cherokee KJ (what the Americans call a Liberty) won't run on bio-diesel. The VM / Merc engines use hoses and seals that won't stand up to the corrosive nature of bio-fuel.

Might be bollox but I'm sure I've read it somewhere.

I have a 2004 2.5 CRD, I get about 27-29 MPG with all-terrain tyres and no thought for fuel consumption, a little higher is possible with a light right foot but you move at a glacial pace. With one back seat down you can get three bikes in (front wheels off), gear and three people.

It's a great car, it's slow, it's ugly and it's not fuel efficient but in six years it's cost me about 400 quid in parts & labour (apart from servicing which hasn't been too bad at my local independent garage). Most reliable car I've owned, which is good because I believe parts are horrendously expensive.

thanks again chaps, lots of options to weigh up.

Ive just come into a small inheritance so have some time to think about the perfect upgrade from my current car.
Also fighting the temptation to let the heart rule the head and buy something ive always fancied over something more practical!...

Landy Defender anyone? (gonna have to start a thread on these to guage opinion)..

I [b]love[/b] Landies... Really do... however, you compromise a lot with them.

How tall are you? The driving position isn't great if you're around 6 foot tall, the cabin area is cramped as they still are designed for three seats in the front (look for tales of 'Landrover shoulder'), if you're not handy with a spanner then expect to be your local garages best customer (its never over, with a 'rover) assuming you can keep it on your driveway long enough (you think bikes get nicked often?) and the noise on long distance trips could drive Ghandi to consider genocide.

Still.... just [b]look[/b] at them, beautiful things!!! I want a 110 soft top, with a V8, auto box and big wheels... [i]*continues planning dream-build*[/i]

I went from a Golf Estate to a Octavia (1.9/105pd) hatch.

The boot is pretty big, about the same space/volume as the Golf. Estate would obviously be bigger.

Did a camping/climbing trip last week (3 people, a biiiig tent, etc and 2 rucksacks). Averaged 62mpg (according to computer) and over 600 miles in a 55L tank. As the fuel warning only came on about 640 I could probably have pushed to 700...

Oh my old Golf struggled to get 50 mpg but the guy I sold it too found that the rear brake pistons weren't fully retracting so brakes were always slightly on... Apparently a common issue.

Personally I've found the Skoda has most useful room internally. Audi's much smaller inside for some reason. Golf is a smaller car overall...

VW touran? I quite fancy one as a biking car. Not as big boot as an estate but shorter (and easier to get into tight spaces) and you can chuck the bikes in easily with the seats down.

Mondeo!! i have a 2.2ST TDCI easy gets 46 mpg on a good run. Huge boot.
Great fun to drive.

Had a landy defender but not as a daily. Great fun again but have got to want one as they are a pain to live with.(No soundproofing,rubbish mpg,uncomfy seats,heavy clutch, crap door/window seals e.t.c)But i would have one again but only as a toy.