I'm considering getting a new (to me) car and have been thinking of getting an estate to give myself a bit more room. Friend has recommended BMW 3s and 5s and a colleague the Citroen C5 estate. I'm not interested in it being high performance, just decent fuel efficiency. Anyone got any other suggestions?
Mondeo. Mine has been great, and they don't cost much in the first place.
Budget?
Mondeos are great VFM and the TDCIs are thrifty, Astra estate (last shape) is HUGE inside and uses very little fuel with the lower power engines and don't forget the Octavia Estate either...
Toyota Avensis estates are worth looking at the 2.2 diesel is quite frugal too
Mondeo +1
Got the hatch myself but will be buying estate when time comes.
Drives very nicely, OK on fuel (2litre petrol) and parts are affordable.
Skoda Octavia... all the tech/ride of Audi / VW but fraction of cost.
Diesel Mondeo
Love mine cost £4800 with 55k, should do me for years as i can't be arsed changing cars
Drives great for a large car
servicing is just oil and filter really so that cuts a load of cost off, specially as you can do it yourself
another mondeo , depending on budget i had one last year was 96 ran great and cost me 150 quid upgraded now have a 53 plate . great value for money motors
Another vote for the Mondeo I'm afraid.
Way bigger than the Skoda and Astra, nicer inside than the Toyota, better specced than BMW for the same money, more reliable than the Citreon etc.
TDCi is thursty if you have a lead foot but comparable to a Vectra.
Cheap to service etc but IIRC tyres were a bit steep 'cos they were a odd size.
Mondeo TDCi is powerful & economical, but has some common faults that can cost a lot to fix. (£0.7k DMF, £0.5-1k injectors). Ford parts from Ebay etc, are very cheap, but dealers can be very expensive. If you get one stick a new lower-LH intercooler hose in the boot...it will split at some point. 🙂
Mondeo is huge inside, Avensis isn't. C5 is massive but mk1 has been known to be unreliable.
What do you want? Comfort? Space? Ruggedness? Test drive a few and see for yourself.
Mondeo is huge inside, Avensis isn't. C5 is massive but mk1 has been known to be unreliable.
What do you want? Comfort? Space? Ruggedness? Test drive a few and see for yourself.
V40
mondeo
I know that its the usual reply on this forum, but there is a reason. They are good cars: Octavia, had mine 2 years, it was a 3 year old L&K TDI 140PD and I had it mapped to 190. Never had any problems at all, cost me 8K when similar specced Audis and VWs were sometimes >50% more expensive.
another mondeo driver here...had a passat..loved it and was huge but kept going wrong...bought my first ford...mondeo hatch...2 fully built dh bikes in with the rear seats down :D....then saw an estate at a good price and fsh etc...i still have it now...
700 miles from a tank without trying
Fits 3 car seats across the back seat and a large boot
Electric heated windscreen....no silly scraping 🙂
Comfy
Cheap to buy and run..normal parts are cheap
No cambelt to change/worry about.....chain driven
only downsides are that the injectors and DMF's can and do fail which are quite expensive
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I am on my second C5 first one cost about £1000 a year in servicing/fixing and depreciation (serviced/fixed by myself)bought for £5000 had for 5 years and traded for £1000 (reckon £1000 in servicing/ parts) consistently over 45 mpg and huge. Had this one for a year and happy so far , the good thing is all the naysayers keep the prices down.
But, but......... it's French!
Vive la france
My last 5 cars have been french and I have been pleased with all of them ( 1 peugeot and 4 citroens)
Mondeo TDCi is powerful & economical, but has some common faults that can cost a lot to fix. (£0.7k DMF, £0.5-1k injectors). Ford parts from Ebay etc, are very cheap, but dealers can be very expensive. If you get one stick a new lower-LH intercooler hose in the boot...it will split at some point.
These are problems common to all the newer generation common rail diesels, especially the cost of injector replacements. The pressures in these engines are in the realm of science fiction, which means the injectors need to be really firmly wedged in. Getting them out again can sometimes take days which in garage hrs is £1000s. The trouble is you won't know til its attempted just how big a job it'll be, so you are effectively handing your garage a signed blank cheque when you go in for a repair.
If you're not looking for performance and refinement but are looking for cheap then maybe look at older-fashioned, simpler engines.
I live in France.
My car is German.
QED
Oh yeah, it's a 2000 1.4 petrol Bora estate, 130 thousand k's on the clock and going fine.
Wouldn't recommend it to you though. Get a Skoda, you know you want to 😉
how big do you need ? can get two bikes in Back of Skoda NP....
+10 Mondeo
I didn't want another Mondeo, but they get great reviews on everything except depreciation, so it was a bit of a no brainer IMO, especially as I keep cars until they are pretty worthless.
Mine has been faultless, I bought it for £4700 on 4 years old 75k (52plate 2L Tdci Zetec), now 8 yeears old on 150k. It's starting to cost me money now, but still just wear and tear stuff. Up until 1 year ago my daily journey was all uphill and down dale, on twisty country lanes, lots of stopping and starting, braking and accelerating. So, it's had plenty of wear. Parts seem to be a reasonable price.
+1 for Octavia.
Not really sure on price really. Was looking 5-10k plus PX of my polo (not much value, has 80k on it) depending on what it is. Just struggling for ideas really. Mate has a Mondeo saloon that he seems to like quite a lot so might have to go try one out.
Had a '98 Mondeo (hatch) cost £750 with 91k on it. Local incompetant garage killed it at 140k three years later.
Older Endura TD engines more reliable (and slower!) than newer TDCis. Definately recomended.
If on a bigger budget V70 or Accord. At £5-10k you should have plenty of choice.
My choice would be to get a '99 Mondeo for a grand and blow the rest on a Foes DHS...
My choice would be to get a '99 Mondeo for a grand and blow the rest on a Foes DHS...
+1 for the above.any money chucked at a mechanical arsehole i.e.car is a waste.buy yourself 1 or 2 bikes you like with the saving and buy a car for a couple of grand max.i work on cars everyday and one is very much the same as the other.the newer stuff is very trouble some.buy something pre 2002 and save your money.
Eh?money chucked at a mechanical arsehole i.e.car
i got a Peugot 307SW 90 SE for sale with 55k, diesel, fsh, we're 2nd owner, vgc, loads of space (rear seats removable one by one), tow bar, 2004, glass roof, seat belts for 7 (add 2 Peugot boot seats), blah blah blah
looking for £3800 ish
martindddde AT googlemail DOT com
Not an Astra.
I've got a 58 plate 1.7ltr which is pretty slow and not very good fuel consumption at all. Also isn't massive in side.
Mondeo for the win (or maybe a Vectra estate which genuinely are massive inside!)
I have a mondeo TDCI and it's great - however for proper tight fistedness I'd suggest a Rover/MG 75 Tourer/ZT-T.
Some have the L-series diesel with 130bhp chip - ie old fashioned style diesel which are incredibly reliable and cheap as chips (and ~5-mpg), others have a BMW diesel in there that I know nothing about.
Parts are dirt cheap and servicing is v easy too (I do mine every 6k miles for under £45 for everything). Plus the later models are dripping with all the extras too.