Reliable estate car alternatives…

Untitled by davetheblade[/url], on Flickr

Or if you aren’t a masochist,

330i touring.

VAG have never been as reliable as they claim. They just did a good advertising campaign. That was the only thing VAG could throw at the Pug 205.

But people believe adverts and their attitudes to what cars are good and what are bad take years to change. It’s only in the last couple of years that I’ve heard people moaning about their VAG cars.

My brother in law paid over £1500 on his Golf GTD getting the injectors replaced. VW said it was “wear and tear”. No it’s not it’s just badly designed!!!! Trouble is he thinks that’s just part of owning a car.

The reliable bit, obviously, rules out anything French or Italian.

Load of rubbish. [/quote]

Agreed. you might think that some people actually think Topgear know what they are talking about, rather than saying what gets a laught from the middle aged blokes in imprezas…. oh sorry, forgot where i was for mo 😉

FYI, a Standard issue 2.0l HDi: (wikipedia)

The 8-valve, 2.0 L DW10, delivering 90 or 110 brake horsepower (67 or 82 kW), is part of the PSA EW/DW engine family. It is equipped with a fixed-geometry turbocharger. Initially available in the midsized models, such as the Citroën Xsara and Xantia and Peugeot 306 and 406, it was soon spread across the PSA range,This engine is fitted to the Ford Focus, 2007 Ford Mondeo, Ford Galaxy, Ford C-Max, Ford S-Max, Volvo C30, Volvo S40, Volvo V50, Citroën C5, Citroën C6 and Peugeot 408.

If you scrub off the french you need to eliminate the volvos and fords too! (and probably more)

we had more trouble from our T5 in the first 5 weeks of owning it than ive had from my 206 in 4 years.

I’ve always liked the ‘ new ‘ C5 but s quick search shows none newer than 2010. Did they stop making it?

Mazda 6: Same floorpan as Mondeo but otherwise a different car. massive inside but does taper above window height so not as great for moving furniture as it’s size would suggest. You can get 2.2m length lying flat behind the passenger seat though. Cornering is a real pleasure and a massive improvement over the mk5 Passat I had before. Diesel dpf is only a problem if you do most of your driving in the town; if it gets a blast once a week there are no issues. Mpg 45-52 is normal, better if you drive gently out of town of course. Engine free revving but with little low down grunt (low compression engine).

Seen c5s on 13 and 14 plates but very rare to see one id imagine alot of that age are still in fleet and lease.