[Closed] New car needed... Advice on big ol estates

could require the insurance company to provide you with a replacement but I don't know how easy that is to implement in practice.

Depends how big it has to be - Audi A6 estate too big? That might eat into your budget too much. Citroen C5 estate? or go boring and Toyota Avensis.. Might have suggested Saab 9-5 but servicing and reliability would rule that out methinks.

Although I mostly use my van to cart bikes about and to stay over.
I've had estates for years. Big ones, which have worked well size wise for biking and generally carting outdoor stuff about in and also the odd cheeky sleep in include; Ive done up to 11500 miles in all of these, from new...
Omega, old now, lots of space, unreliable.
Passat last model but one. Big enough, reliable.
Saab 95 (petrol) Big , Fast, turbo blew at 100k, but otherwise reliable.
Golf (last model) 1.9tdi too small for me and a bit rubbish all round surprisingly. Clutch and Turbo by 50,000.
Just got a Skoda Superb 140 tdi and it is. av. 50 + mpg. much cheaper and bigger than Passat, on par with A6 size wise and a whole salary cheaper. With buiLd quality same as Audi / VW. I'm a fussy sod but having tried this I wasn't prepared to pay the tax on more.

OH ! And, never be tempted by a Freelander, so unreliable, I felt as though I borrowed it from the garage occasionally.

For that money, go and look at the following;
V70
Passat
Mondeo

then pick the one you like the most!

Mondeo is best VFM... massive & cheap to run, but a bit low rent inside

VW Passat is also big, nice interiors but dull dull dull to drive and tend to develop stupid faults after 3+ years that cost hundreds to fix - VW do not deserve their reputation for reliability. We dumped ours recently (a year earlier than planned) and got an...

Audi A6... vast, beautifully made but fairly expensive to buy, service and run: all but the very latest are thirsty beasts.

Vauxhall Insignia is quite a nice car, we almost got one of those instead of the Audi. Not so big in the back though.

Edit... another option if you can stand the Caravan Club association is the Skoda Superb, which is simply massive inside. The saloon looks odd but doesn't look too bad in wagon mode

I just got a Skoda octavia paid 7k for it with 31,000 on the clock 1.9 tdi really happy with it so far. Very comfortable and 57 to the gallon at the minute. Its the hatch as the boot looked big enough but plenty of estates about. Early days for realiability but worth a look for your budget.

I can't fault my Mondeo estate, 180k miles now and never had any major issues. Drives like new and still on the same clutch as at 70k (possibly the original clutch). Just come back from 2500 mile drive to Lake Garda and it was great. Three blokes, three bikes and all gear and camping kit [u]inside[/u] the car. On the drive from Otley to Dover we worked out we got 54mpg on a fully laiden car (2L Diesel). the only thing is rust starting to show around the sills and doors bottoms, but not bad on 11 years and 180k miles. Next car will most likely be another Mondeo (or S-Max possibly).

Mondeo all day long.....

£6k will see you in a Mondeo ST TDCI estate. Massive, all the toys and economical.

In comparison, I wouldn't class an Octavia as 'big' when compared to a Mondeo, Passat etc (speaking as an Octavia estate owner). Example - my bike used to go in the boot of my old Mondeo hatchback with the wheels off but the seats left up. Won't go anywhere near my Octy estate. Need at least one of the seats down.

Which is part the reason why I'm getting an Mondeo ST estate next month...

You can get a reasonable van for that sort of money... for a properly decent one you'd be looking at over 10k though.

I've got a T5 LWB Kombi and it rules 🙂 5 comfy leather seats and the biggest boot in the universe.

Not the best for fuel economy (does about 35mpg), but it'll do that regardless of how many people and bikes I pack in it.

Dave

Vauxhall Insignia is quite a nice car, we almost got one of those instead of the Audi. Not so big in the back though

Have one of these on hire at the mo, seems pretty big to me. Worth a look I'd say, thoguh as mentioned is isn't going to be as big as an A6 .. not sure much is apart from the Octavia?

I have a Mondeo MkIV estate. Never put a foot wrong for me. Mahoosive luggage space and big enough to sleep in when required.

Citroen C5 estate

Mondeo, absolutely. Not quite as efficient with its use of space as my Focus was but enormous once inside- long, wide and reasonably tall. Your budget will let you get a fairly new one, or a low miles older one, or a very high spec one. The bigger diesels are fab, mine is an old, lightly tuned 155 2.2 and it wafts along motorways at 70mph doing over 60mpg then puts ripples in the tarmac when you put the foot down on little roads.

Though the usual diesel disclaimers apply- DMF failures, injector pains, and EGRs (you can bypass the latter easily on some models)

Main downside is that it's a big, big car- physically doesn't fit in a lot of parking spaces. Luckily corner visibility is pretty good as I've had some fun experiences in car parks that are built for lesser cars. And heavy too- it drives really well but you can't get away from all that cast iron pushing the nose around.

Octavia isn't comparable tbh, it's a fairly big chassis but the boot's nothing like as usable. Focus is a better comparison for the Octy.

This might just be my obsession, but for me a biking estate needs to have a flat boot entry. Miles easier to use the space, and also you can sit on the edge under the tailgate "roof" and watch people get rained on. A big estate with a big boot lip is just badly designed IMO.

We have an A6 Quattro, fabulous car particularly for long distance trips and in poor road conditions like snow etc, good economy and performance particularly on the motorway. What it isn't is big on the inside from a load carrying perspective. It will happily carry one or two bikes inside but they have to lie down, load bay height doesn't allow then to stand up (even with wheels off). I don;t like carry the bikes n the outside but clearly roof rails / towbar options are there for you.

EDIT: just seen comments above "vast" ? hum - it's quite long and low but much smaller than other options. I can stand my bike in the back of a Yaris (front wheel off) but not the A6. Servicing for the A6 has been pretty cheap, ie it has never had anything of any significance in 120,000 miles from new.

This might just be my obsession, but for me a biking estate needs to have a flat boot entry. Miles easier to use the space, and also you can sit on the edge under the tailgate "roof" and watch people get rained on. A big estate with a big boot lip is just badly designed IMO.

Agreed!

This might just be my obsession, but for me a biking estate needs to have a flat boot entry. Miles easier to use the space, and also you can sit on the edge under the tailgate "roof" and watch people get rained on. A big estate with a big boot lip is just badly designed IMO.

Vans FTW 🙂

Can not only sit on the tailgate lip, can have 4 people mill about under it, completely dry 😀

Dave

Octavia is about same size as Golf. Superb is a little bigger than Passat.

Subaru Forrester has always caught my eye as great potential bike car. I cannot comment on reliability etc as I haven't owned one, we looked at them prio to getting the A6 but the interior was "too plasticy"

Also not explicitly in the description the older shape Rav4 we had was great, kids loved it, remove the rear seats totally for a van like interior - huge. Luggage space is a bit tight with seats in place and economy wasn't great and a sluggish drive but Toyota reliability.

I'm on the lookout for a big estate too, and I'm probably going to go for a Mondeo or V70. Currently have a Smax but prefer the ride of an estate.

Hyundai Terracan

alfabus - Member

Vans FTW

I do get van jealous sometimes when loading or mooching about in car parks, but not when driving places...

We have a Mondeo ST TDCI estate. £6k will easily get you one with lots of change. I think ours is worth ~£3.5k trade in now, 55 plate.

Owned it from 3 years and 30,000 miles to now at 100,000 miles.

Very little has gone wrong, radiator leaked and water pipe leak recently and exhaust. All cheap enough to fix.
No signs of DMF or injector problems, but worth knowing that either will be around 4 figures to fix.

Recaro seats are worth finding, they were a rare optional extra but a millions times more comfortable than the horrible standard seats!

For pure bike-loading capability (short of a van) there are better options than an estate:
Fiat multipla
Vw sharan/ touran
Ford galaxy
Citroen berlingo or similar

Whether you would consider one of those vehicles is up to you - personally I wouldn't want such a huge car for everyday use.

As for estates, I like Mondeos. I don't think they're any cheaper to look at from the inside than a Golf/octavia and they're bigger in terms of load space. I hired an Octavia estate this year in Switzerland - boot is a reasonable size and it was a reasonable steer and decent mpg. However it was criminally underpowered and wheezed up hills (petrol 1.4 iirc). Unless you go Audi/ BMW/Merc, interiors are basically comparable from what I've seen.

Before buying my car I looked quite hard to get a ST TDCI Mondeo estate for around £7k but I couldn't find any with reasonable mileage (under 60k). They weren't made for that long so there aren't that many about. The ones I found were out of my budget.

I do get van jealous sometimes when loading or mooching about in car parks, but not when driving places...

Ever driven one? Mine goes like a rocket and has really comfy captains' seats with armrests 🙂

Dave

Not sure why the worries about saab reliability? Saab diesels are GM common diesel engines for all their types.

Saab 9-5 estate - cheap as chips for a BMW/Audi equivalent.

Cheers Guys...

I have slept a good few nights in my Accord, (with seats down, and window insulation) So I would be looking for a long load bay, plus flat!

Not sure why the worries about saab reliability? Saab diesels are GM common diesel engines for all their types.

Saab 9-5 estate - cheap as chips for a BMW/Audi equivalent.

the guy I take my Saab 900 (new style, sadly) to for service always has a stack of 9-5s outside for service, it's not so much the diesels as the other bits, quite a lot of them seemed to be beyond economic repair.

And stuff like original Saab parts are becoming (subjectively) harder to come by, that can only get to be a bigger problem. resale value because of all the woes will be next to zero. but that works both ways!

ive got a BMW 325 M Sport for sale at the moment. i can send details and pics if you like. looking for around the £6000 mark

nick

I know Spudnick is a mate, but he uses that BM quite happily for mtb carrying etc.
Decent, very tidy, car and worth a look.

alfabus - Member

Ever driven one? Mine goes like a rocket and has really comfy captains' seats with armrests

If you can find me a van that's significantly bigger than my Mondeo, can do 60mpg on the motorway, get me to 60mph in 8 and a half seconds, and has as comfy and quiet an interior (and I'm including here my heated/cooled leather seats and my rather nice stereo), but costs £300 to insure and cost £2300 to buy, then I'm in 😉

I've camped in the Berlingo more than a few times, plenty of room for bikes and sleeping and probably shorter than the big estates for parking purposes. Plus the tailgate extends even further than that on an estate - cup of tea on a wet day anybody?

Had an Audi A4 - lovely car, nice to drive, great interior, good fuel economy but crap for interior space, both rear leg room and boot space.

Now driving a VW Passat. Way more space (which we now need for the children and dog) but not as interesting to drive. Does what it says on the tin, a steady estate.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201235483125436/sort/default/usedcars/price-to/7000/fuel-type/diesel/body-type/estate/model/5_series/make/bmw/onesearchad/used/postcode/bs66bs/radius/1500/page/9?logcode=p

BMW 5 series would be in my list.

Now driving a VW Passat. Way more space (which we now need for the children and dog) but not as interesting to drive.

Less interesting than an A4 [s]estate[/s] (sorry - [i]avant[/i])? Blimey.

Mind you, I'm sure buying an estate based on how they are to drive is a bit irrelevant.

Out of interest - what does everyone think about leather seats? In my mind they're a great idea for a bike-carrying car, being wipe-clean and all.

Mine are annoying because they're quite heavily perforated/stitched- so yes, should be wipe clean, but aren't really. Still far easier than cloth though. Better with damp too- once my old cloth seats were wet, they stayed wet.

Downsides- yes they get hot in the sun, though not as bad as the vinyl I remember burning my legs as a child. And they can be pretty noisy too, mine are old and creak like a tall ship in a gale, but even new ones can be pretty creaky.

[img] [/img]

HTH 😉

[img] [/img]

I have one like this - great space and good to drive but expensive to run - lots to go wrong. When on form will do 45mpg on a motorway run. Not so many around now and probably too high mileage for you - worth looking at the next model although I'm personally not a fan of the styling.

Audi A6 Avant - take care!!

I am on my second A6 Avant 2.5TDI Auto and I love them. Great engineering & build quality BUT....my first had a toptronic gearbox (same as BMWs) and went for 220K without any major problems.....

My present one a 2003 Auto has a CVT (constant velocity gearbox) auto transmission and this is an absolute LEMON. If in any doubt read the audi forums. I've just spent £2.1K having mine re-built Ouch!! New ones are about £4k plus fitting. Some A4s have the same box.....

If you want an A6 (excellent cars normally) go for a manual OR the Quattro A6 version which still has the reliable tiptronic box. The later ones (post 2005) are said to have the updated 7 plate clutch - but they were in the yard to be re-built along with mine......

You have been warned! - John

Del, you beat me to it. Come on Tom, have you learned nothing?

[img] [/img]

Plus

[img] [/img]

=

Enlightenment

I don't say this often but, /thread:

[url= http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GHOSTBUSTERS-ECTO-1-CAR-AMBULANCE-HEARSE-PONTIAC-STARCHIEF-REPLICA-1959-CADILLAC-/251149693112?forcev4exp=true ]
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GHOSTBUSTERS-ECTO-1-CAR-AMBULANCE-HEARSE-PONTIAC-STARCHIEF-REPLICA-1959-CADILLAC-/251149693112?forcev4exp=true [/url]

[img] [/img]

Nah. That doesn't have the flat boot doodah you sit on to watch your mates get wet.

I picked up one of these for £3,000 .
2.8
V6
4 wheel drive
Tan leather
85k miles
And 25-30 mpg

Remarkably better than the fords I had before.

[img] [/img]

And stuff like original Saab parts are becoming (subjectively) harder to come by, that can only get to be a bigger problem. resale value because of all the woes will be next to zero. but that works both ways!

There was a brief glitch with parts last year but that has been resolved - Saab Automobile Parts AB did not go bankrupt and is happily continuing to trade under the new ownership.

A new (and wider) network of approved service centre has also been put together & is continuing to grow.

I hired a 160bhp diesel Insignia this weekend. I wouldn't buy one. I'd drive one but I wouldn't put any of my money on one.

I'm thinking about a Mondeo 2.0 petrol manual estate - I don't need a diesel as my mileage is bike/trip mileage no- commute.

Apart from the usual mechanical checks there isn't anything else to look out for?

I really really really regret not buying a fellow STW'ers V6 Mondeo 🙁

and also you can sit on the edge under the tailgate "roof" and watch people get rained on.

My saab 95 even has lights in the "roof" which makes it amazing when night riding in a dark car park somewhere.

If you're considering a Saab now is the time to get one as prices are silly low and they're still new enough to go on for a long time. Mine is an '01 and has done 160k so far, no plans to change.

[i]I really really really regret not buying a fellow STW'ers V6 Mondeo [/i]

Mate - you've admitted to owning a new C1, that would make me pretty much regret not buying most cars...

Not at all. Its light, has a responsive 3cylinder engine, bags of character and can easily sit at 90 on the motorway. I drove an Aygo to South Germany on eco tyres on New years eve a few years ago and apart from ONE* driver everyone allowed me to pull out/back in effortlessly.

*A British plated Octavia VRS.

I hired a 160bhp diesel Insignia this weekend. I wouldn't buy one. I'd drive one but I wouldn't put any of my money on one.

Why not? My hire seems like a perfectly decent big estate to me. Roomy, fast enough, economical-ish. Even drives OK.

Apart from refusing to start for 30 minutes in Haldon last night 👿

Diesel Passat estate here. 3 chaps, bikes and kit no bother. Holidays too. With the seats flat it hard to believe just how much crap you can squeeze in the rear. We're not long back from a week in Donegal and I took all the luggage, food and toys for 6 (7 if you count the dog) no problem.

More than enough poke (130TDI) and handles alright for a bus. Mine has all the trimmings (no leather seats though) and is a relaxed and comfy drive. I had a habit of rolling the tyres of the rims when I first got it :lol:, but as long as you behave it's decent. 35-40mpg sounds about right and service cost are fair if you avoid VW garages. 160+k on mine and it's still a fairly tight car.

Plenty of other ideas here too, and there's probably not much in them - but i'd personally avoid the vauxhall/saab options.

Based purely on budget / space ratio then Mondeo diesel.

Why not? My hire seems like a perfectly decent big estate to me. Roomy, fast enough, economical-ish. Even drives OK.

I liked its engine. However:

-42mpg average. On a diesel?!!
-I dont mount my sat nav on the window, I like to listen to it but there is nowhere to put/rest the satnav if you are using the cupholder. For a dash/car that big lack of storage in/ontop is ridiculous.
-The coin tray is very shallow and the size of a postage stamp (why mention it? Why even bother with it?)
-The cupholder is obscured by the central armrest
-The steering is electric
-The steering wheel has alot of adjustment but not enough to get comfy
-The 160bhp engine is nice.
-The unsettled/undamped ride gave mrshora car sickness.