The big, fast(ish), old estate car appreciation thread

Is it wrong that I’m really tempted by this…
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202201091163508?atmobcid=soc3

can I sing the praises of taking ones dirty big estate car and booting it away from the toll booths on the M6 toll, redlining it in every gear and watching your MPG figure disappear into American pick up truck territory

I used to do that at the M4 one. Then I realised everyone did it and those poor sods who had to work there probably had the worse air quality in Britain on a daily basis!

Is it wrong that I’m really tempted by this…

Yes mate, it’s nearly 20 years old with 150k, it’s a manual and it’s five grand?? Save up a bit longer and get this V6 bad boy

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202201081139074?model=CLS&onesearchad=New&onesearchad=Nearly%20New&onesearchad=Used&make=Mercedes-Benz&radius=1500&sort=price-asc&body-type=Estate&maximum-badge-engine-size=5.5&advertising-location=at_cars&year-to=2022&include-delivery-option=on&minimum-badge-engine-size=3.0&postcode=cf238qg&page=1

I still remember driving in torrential rain along a motorway, wondering why the Merc in front was only going 50mph through the standing water, where the legacy was cruising along at 70

Sounds like he was driving to the conditions. 4wd makes no difference to aquaplaning resistance, nor does it make a meaningful difference to the ~20bhp that’s needed at the wheels to maintain 70mph

I used to do that at the M4 one. Then I realised everyone did it and those poor sods who had to work there probably had the worse air quality in Britain on a daily basis

Don’t be daft! People sat in an area where the traffic is sat nose to tail belching out fumes have it far far worse

No cos those cars are idling, the cars at the tollbooth are flooring it. That was my reasoning anyway.

I think we’re getting somewhat off topic but I’d rather be sat in a toll booth in the middle of nowhere with people flooring their cars outside than be in a city centre with nose to tail traffic all sat with their engines running

I always thought that tollbooth job was just about the shittest job going.

Press button, take money, breathe pollution. Repeat for your entire shift. Ugh. Thank F the M4 one’s gone.

I’m not going to argue with that.

It must be bloody awful. I’m sure it’ll be fully automated before long

No reason to change it as it has so much life left in it which is lucky as other than a 340i which is similar but about £25k more expensive

@thegingerone
I was Looking at 340i touring, for my budget the milage was fairly high, and there’s not actually very many around.

I do like a fast estate. I loved my mondo ST220 but circumstance meant it had to go.
I’d happily have a Volvo T5r that are fantastic!
However the V10 M5 touring always struck me as a nice way of moving quite a lot of stuff, quite quickly, quite a long way!

My former boss had that Mercedes V6 CLS Molgrips posted above. He paid £125k for it, sold it 4 years later for £25k. That’s serious depreciation! A lot of car at used prices though.

My fave estate was my Honda Accord Type S 2.4 iVTEC. 6 speed box in 2004 only seen on proper luxury cars then. Cavernous inside, could get 4 bikes wheels off (26ers then) stacked in the boot without putting the seats down for trips to Afan.

Used to cruise very easily fully loaded with family holiday stuff down French motorways. But give it a boot and that engine would just rev up and propel you like a dream. Had a company fuel card then too so used to make the most of it!

My former boss had that Mercedes V6 CLS Molgrips posted above. He paid £125k for it, sold it 4 years later for £25k. That’s serious depreciation! A lot of car at used prices though

Not a great deal, considering the list price was £55k
https://mercedes-benz-media.co.uk/assets/documents/original/6956-clsclasspricelistdecember2013.pdf

It must be bloody awful. I’m sure it’ll be fully automated before long

Massive sidetrack continues: they did automate it mostly, it went to card payment which most people did, making the job even more boring; then they made most of the booths automatic and only a couple were manned. And finally they removed the toll altogether, which was merciful for everyone.

I am hopeful of a Golf R estate as a future car for me, maybe.

There’s a red one in one of our storage areas at work, looks pretty tidy, no idea of the mileage, or it’s age, as it has plates from the IoM or somewhere, three digits, four numbers. Probably popping up on Cazoo sometime in the not too distant.

We had an Audi RS6 Avant in, which was rejected. Body and paint didn’t look too bad, but it needed a service and disks and pads all round, so that was probably roughly 5k off the profit.

There’s one in Heritage Audi in Salisbury, registered March 2019, they’re asking a shade under £98k, IIRC.

My fast estate desire has always been the Volvo 850 T5 R.

How about a 300C Touring SRT?

@northwind it sounds like you have my ideal legacy…

I had a fresh import 2007 twinscroll for a couple of years. Absolutely blinding car, until you want to do anything to it. I found that it’s pretty much impossible to run an import legacy without wanting to meddle a bit and that is where it started going wrong. The 2007 onwards had different wiring than previous years so the usual ash cruise control mod was near impossible for an average diy-er. It also has extra emissions gubbins in the engine that fail frequently, and are also very difficult to fix for the average diy-er. And expensive. I worked out I would need to spend a few thousand to solve the various issues and add lpg which means sadly it had to go.

Another massive fan of big fast estates here. If I could only have one car and someone else was paying it would be an rs6 every day.

When I was in the market for a cheapish car to replace my beloved 9-5 3l Saab estate ( which was by no means fast but nor was it particularly slow) I was so close to buying an ancient Rs6 for under 10k. What could possibly have gone wrong!!😬

Is 8 years old old? Old enough for this thread? 🙂

335d touring here. It’s awesome  on the short stuff, the long stuff and the Twisties. It was all fun and games until it some cooler broke outside Inverness ( I live in notts) and black smoke started pouring out the back and into the air vents. Oh and it’s eaten a completely unreasonable number of tyres. Edges worn, bulges and just plain worn down. Ive put a full set of non runflats on to see if this cures its rubber addiction. If i was drifting about and wheel spinning everywhere that would be fine. But I’m not!

A mate had an S4 estate. It sounded AMAZING but got half the mpg.

Neighbour went from a Granada (the later ugly one that is sure to be a classic) to a Rover 75. Again, another likely classic in V6 guise.

22k miles and £6K

Oh and it’s eaten a completely unreasonable number of tyres. Edges worn, bulges and just plain worn down.

Have you had a proper 4 wheel alignment done? Sorted mine out.

@phil5556

Have you had a proper 4 wheel alignment done? Sorted mine out.

I have now! Now it goes into kwick fit every three months on their 2 year alignment plan.

Neighbour went from a Granada (the later ugly one that is sure to be a classic) to a Rover 75. Again, another likely classic in V6 guise.

v8, probably (and already is to some extent). V6, no. It’ll just be another anchient “BL” product that is kept by grandads and worth nothing. See the prices of almost anything british from the 60s/70s/80s vs almost anything german or japanese

I would touch a SAAB with a barge pole – at least not a GM era one. My 9-3 was one of the worst cars I had. Terrible to drive and awful build quality – I am amazed there are any left on the road.

BMW 5 series will serve you well – as would an Audi A6 ( but you might want the Quattro). The BM is nicer to drive.
There must also be the Mercedes equivalent – but I wouldn’t know that is!
Anything big and Japanese will do the job

Ive put a full set of non runflats on to see if this cures its rubber addiction. If i was drifting about and wheel spinning everywhere that would be fine.

Switching to non-run flats fixed this issue for my 335D, I got on really well with Goodyear Eagle F1’s, much cheaper than the OEM Michelin but offered more grip as they’re not stupid run flats!

Passat Bi-turbo !! Fairly new though but 240hp stock and over 300hp with stage 1. Future classic ?

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202112210718748?advertising-location=at_cars&postcode=gu271he&body-type=Estate&model=Passat&page=1&aggregatedTrim=BiTDI&make=Volkswagen&include-delivery-option=on&sort=relevance

@tall_martin

Try these guys (Nottingham Wheel alignment services – basford) if you get fed up with Kwikfit, they stopped my Galaxy eating tyres

We are fans of big fast-ish (OK the current Merc is fast) estates having had 3 Merc eclass estate, two V6 diesels and 2 Honda Accord estates. The current Honda Accord Mk8 estate is a 2.4 petrol, around 200bhp so just about fastish, and by no means huge inside. It’s now 14 years old and everything works and has just had routine servicing the whole time.

Somewhere my old E320cdi, with Brabus tuning, might be running around. That was a great car!

I’ve always like d a fast estate. I’ve had 2 x 335d tourings E and F series and I’m now on a G31 540i with the M performance power and sound kit. I’ve had it 4.5 years and it’s been an excellent car. More stealthy and not as aggressive as the RS6 and E63’s I looked at but plenty fast enough for our roads. Although saying that, now it’s out of warranty I might get the ecu remapped to take it from 360 to 400+bhp. It’ll happily lug the family and 4 bikes to the alps every summer or pootle to the local dump with a massive boot full of rubbish and returns about 35mpg. I think I’ll end up keeping it until the world has sorted out exactly what it’s going to do with electric cars and how to cope with mass uptake of them.

I’ve had a few of these, Alfa 156 and 157, Saab 93 aero, Mk3 Mondeo ST155, Mk4 Mondeo Titanium X Sport, now an F31 330d.

I’ve never wanted anything faster than the current car really.

The other day, I saw one of those lottery/draws for an Abt-tuned RS6, about 700bhp and probably 150 miles to a tank of fuel. It was quite a sight and i’d certainly stare if i saw on in a carpark, but i ended up thinking “oh come on, it’s 2022”. Strangely, they called it “the car of the moment”.

Thanks @StuF 🙂 if it eats the run flats I’ll give them a go

I had an Omega saloon.
Scrapped at 285,000. 🙂

Would have been cruel to keep it going, but a lovely place to be.

I would love a nice, clean, fastish petrol estate.

8, probably (and already is to some extent).

Yes I thought so too, wrote V8 and edited it for the advert. Tempted. Although Mrs TiRed lusts after a Maserati GT. My stepfather runs a lovely XJS and a Mark 2 (and an XF estate). A 156 GTA Sportwagon would be wonderful. Already a classic – just see how many are available. But the decline in numbers of the Rover 75 is a marker.

A mate had an S4 estate. It sounded AMAZING but got half the mpg.

I’ve been idly window shopping for S4 Estates on Autotrader for a bit.. the (really very first world) problem for me is I think the early B9 S4 doesn’t have the right ‘tech’ for Carplay, the later facelifted once does, but apart from the fact they’re really very expensive, they’re also Diesel.

I’m not anti-diesel, and the current DEF diesel are, well, no worse than Petrol cars, especially comparing a 3.0 TDi with a 3.0 Turbo Petrol, but it doesn’t seem very “Audi S model” to me, more like a S-line with a hefty price tag.

Anyway, now I’ve discussed the merits of £50k Audis, I’ll go back to organising a Service for my Skoda.

I have an ’01 V70 T5, which is quite amusing in a straight line, really cannot get the power down in anything other than bone dry weather. And the steering is akin to a yacht – zero feedback, but super comfy heated seats for plopping into after wet rides, and cost £1400 3 years ago, so no complaints here !

£1,400, 2001 and T5…… where do you think the oil is leaking from at the moment? 😉

I have an ’01 V70 T5

just checking it’s not metallic green is it? 😆

I used to have one of that vintage around 2003/4. loved it, but for some reason the passenger side was always freezing, and the turning circle was more of an orbit.

had the bixenon headlight jobs, they could burn holes in hedgerows. The turbo lag/fun was great – coming up a slip road out of Ikea with the car absolutely rammed with stuff, and booting it to get up to speed with the motorway was great fun

it doesn’t seem very “Audi S model” to me, more like a S-line with a hefty price tag.

That’s the beauty, you can have a decent performing car, with oodles of smooth awesome torque, and get 45mpg, or 35 if you want even more torque.

I appreciate that people like noise from their cars, but they’re wrong. Quiet and smooth but still quick is best.

ones that I enjoyed driving

Audi RS4 Avant- quick in straight line, not exactly spritely in the corners due to a massive lump of engine and very hard front suspension. Also an inverse tardis in that outside it was fair sized estate, inside it was a fiat panda.

Passat W8 estate- awesome noise, real sleeper of a car, could fit loads in it.
ooo one for sale !

https://www.gumtree.com/p/volkswagen/2002-volkswagen-passat-4.0l-w8-4motion-5d-auto-271-bhp-estate-petrol-automatic/1418221851

Subaru Forester STi, totally bonkers for a car that looked like it was drawn by an 8 year old.
(bloody hell, they have gone up in price!)

Neither particularly big or fast by modern standards, but 18 years old and still looking (to my eyes at least) good.

I don’t approve of most of the cars on this thread but that Passat made me chuckle because it’s an oddity, an example of daft but complex engineering and the fact it looks more or less exactly like a normal Passat.

Ok so it’s not old, and its a bit more thn fastish but this is my bike transport. The worlds most impractical estate car. Noisey, unbelieveably inefficient, won’t take a towbar, gets through tyres faster than some cars get through fuel and I love it, but the eco guilt is hitting me these days, now I’ve scratched the V8 itch I think I need to go electric.