I’m thinking of changing my car. Currently I have a Y reg Skoda Octavia. I’m thinking of getting something in the same sort of class as the Octavia.

Two of the more specific requirements I have are due to bike transportation.

I’m tall, all of my bikes have XL frames. In my current Octavia I can fit a bike with the wheels off in my boot, but it’s tight. I recall hiring a Passat estate about 3 years ago, a larger car than my Octavia, and discovering that I couldn’t fit one of my bikes into its boot in the same way. I had to take the bars off to get it to fit. Mainly this seems to be a width issue. At its widest part my Octavia’s boot is pretty much the width of the car. Other cars box in the wheel wells more so their boots are narrower. I’d like a car where I can still fit a wheel-less XL bike into the boot.

The other way I transport bikes is on a roof rack. I use my roof rack and its bike racks a lot. Old Octavias have roof rack mounting points in their gutters. A lot of modern cars don’t seem to do this, instead requiring roof racks to clamp through the door seals. Yuck! So any car I get would need to have a proper way of fitting a roof rack.

Beyond that, I’d be looking for a car that’s 3 years old or so, i.e. another one I can keep for a decade before thinking about changing it. I know that current Octavia hatchbacks fail my second criteria and maybe the first too, though the estates (with roof rails) may be OK. A friend has suggested I look at the Mazda 6. Mondeo estates were discussed but apparently either they have nasty petrol engines or have diesel engines and have quite high second hand prices. I don’t do the mileage for it to be worth paying extra for a diesel engine.

Any suggestions?

Skoda Superb estate, or Octavia estate?

I would be happy with either, or if I wanted something smaller would go for a Roomster as they seem to be good value and have loads of room.

I have had a Passat estate and a BMW 3 series estate. Both are not as efficient as Skoda in the arrangement of boot space, Passat obviously better than useless BMW though.

Honda Accord Estate has a massive boot and roof rails on some models.

I have a Mazda 6 Estate and it’s a big boot, but the Accord is far bigger I believe. 2.0 petrol engine Mazda’s are bomb proof. There was an issue with rust on some 6’s, so buy carefully if you go for one. They are cheap…my 05 reg 6 Estate was £1300.

This might sound odd but it might be cheaper to go bigger. The octavia and the passat (and A4) are nearly identical but 5 series, A6, V70, E class might give you the space you’re looking for? Worth considering anyway, I’m guessing you have a reasonable budget if you’re looking for only 3 years old.

Mazda 6 diesel sport estate here. Had it just over 6 months and love it. It broke my heart to sell the impreza but it ticks so many boxes. Won’t hold money as well as similar German models but for the same spec and power you’ll be paying 3-5k more. We only do 6k a year but out of that 6k we holiday/camp/visit people/places a fair distance away so thats why I went for the diesel. Easily saved us £150 quid this year on our two weeks holiday near forest of dean then onto Cornwall.

<we’ve talked about this before but>

The price difference for mondeos between a 2 litre petrol and diesel really doesn’t seem too massive to me, and there’s a lot of them around which is good for choice. When I was looking for Mazda 6 estates the main issue was that there just weren’t many of them.

Have you got a limit for budget, age and mileage? Faster probably than the Skoda but how much?

(it’s a 2.0 n/a petrol you have IIRC? So 115bhp, 11 seconds to 60 sort of thing)

That was the exact reason I went for the six.
Black horse car sales near brum has a fair few. All ex lease so varying mileage but every stamp in the book and all genuine Mazda history/parts.

The 2 litre petrol engine in my old Mondeo was sweet as a nut.

Unless they suddenly got a lot worse, I wouldn’t rule the car out on that basis.

I’m guessing you have a reasonable budget if you’re looking for only 3 years old.

Have you got a limit for budget, age and mileage? Faster probably than the Skoda but how much?

I got my Octavia 10 years ago, it was 2.5 years old, had 23,000 miles on the clock and cost about 7k. I could probably spend a bit more this time round, but it’s a good starting point.

(it’s a 2.0 n/a petrol you have IIRC? So 115bhp, 11 seconds to 60 sort of thing)

1.6, actually. ~100hp, don’t know the 0-60.

I will give the Accord some though. Not so convinced about big Audis, BMWs and Mercedes, they sound like brands that hold their prices for a long time and it’s not that I need more space, more that the space needs to be the right shape…

Citroen C5 estates are cavernous too, and full of cheapness.

Another for Mazda 6 estate. I have had 4 bikes on the roof, one in the boot and all our kit. 5 lads of to the coast for a ride. But hot and stinky on way back but the car is just what I was after.

Another for Mazda 6 estate. I have had 4 bikes on the roof, one in the boot and all our kit.

What size was the one in the boot? 🙂

Nothing wrong with the petrol engines in the mondeo. had a petrol and a diesel of last shape. 1.8 petrol needs working but for lower annual mileage would be fine. It won’t set your world on fire though.

The tdci is great but with a 3 year old one you are in dpf and dmf risk world (as with any modern diesel) and that could easily wipe out fuel savings.

OK, to try and explain the issue about needing the right sort of space, not necessarily a huge amount of space, here’s a picture of a boot much like my Octavia’s:

Note how it gets wider near the boot’s lip. When I put one of my bikes into my boot, the left hand end of the handlebar gets jammed into the boot in the top-right corner, and the end of the stays and the mech go into the nook on the bottom left of the picture.

A lot of modern cars have filled in those nooks. This is apparently the boot from a new Octavia estate:

Now I’m sure it’s a large boot, but it may not have the right shape (specifically a certain amount of width or bottom-left/top-right diagonal space) in the right places to work for me.

Bah, that top picture is a mk2 Octavia. Google does not wish to provide me with images of mark1 Octavia hatchback boots. Still hopefully it gives an idea of the sort of space I need. (Also having seen inside a mate’s mk2, unless it’s changed then the size of those nooks isn’t as big as it looks. Plus the mk2 has the nasty roof rack mounting points.)

Bought a mondeo estate a couple of months and it is massive. Should have got one years ago!

Touran 💡

V70