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 4×4 verison, massive , loads of kit.

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. Still FWD though.

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 4×4 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 **** 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.