[Closed] Small estates, cash purchase, choice of three.

FORD!!!?? How the mighty have fallen! 😉

VRS estate?

Not my choice, but note I put the Audi at the top....

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The Focus 1.6 ecoboost is your car if you ask me.
Quick enough for real world driving and the ride is far nicer on bad roads.
The ST will be poorer on fuel, and the seats take up loads of interior space.

Can't comment on the drive of the Audi.

...and the seats take up loads of interior space.

The others have seats as well.

May I suggest Stonebridge in Wembley, you would be doing the world a favour 😉

Will I have more load space if I remove the seats then ?

The ST has bulky Recaro seats which give less rear leg room than on the zetec s.
Oh, and cash purchase or not Ford have the £1250 Deposit allowance on 2014 cars.
Borrow £2500 on HP over 24 months, 1 payment of £120.79 then pay it off. might allow you to get a few extras on the car for the same amount from your employer.

If loadcarrying is a major factor then it's one of the Foci, the Focus boot is better than an A4 never mind an A3 not-really-estate. Not as tardislike as it used to be but still excellent.

(I had a mk1 estate, the boot was so big you could park another mk1 estate in it)

The company has to pay the cheque angryratio....

Can't comment on the specific cars but I had a company Golf with the 1.4 122 TSI lump and it was as sweet as a nut! I miss that car, regretting getting an S-Max TBH

That Audi is a nice car and gets excellent write ups.

Size wise, it needs to get a bike and some camping gear in the back, thats as much as I would carry about. I have Thules should I need more.

I'm warming to that zetec S having read some reviews....

Fabia VRS

Assuming the ST is some kind of sports model, I'd go for the new Focus.
182hp...christ it must shift a bit.!!!

http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/carbycar/audi/a3-sportback-2013/

I never thought I would say this but what about the Skoda Octavia estate? Much more room than Focus or A3 but still with the 1.4 VAG engine.

IMO the Focus ST is a complete chav car and nothing more. The Audi is very nice, but feels small.

But hang on, Im looking from private buyer perspective,not company. Company Audi every time out of that list, and if you want a practical car the Skoda

I only have the option of those three cars, courtesy of a bonus offer from work with the local dealers in mind.

I do have an alternative, and that is to "wait" until April 1 2014 and see if anything better comes up - it [i]may [/i]not be car based but possibly a pay rise to go with a promotion.

What have you got at the mo?

If you like that just wait for the pay rise.

Well, an 11yo 330i Sport saloon. Which is paid for BTW, and has all the toys so no doubt taints my jugement of going back to things like cloth seats*...

*I know!

The issue is I have a car allowance the comapany isn't happy about me not using it so to speak... whereas I'm quite happy not to use it on another car purchase. Appreciate the moral factor, I been through it on STW before so please don't go there....

A3 doesn't have much boot space, I've not been in a sportback but they don't look much bigger. I used to have an S3 and there's no way I could have easily got a bike in the back, sportbacks look to be about 2 inches longer!

Your current car will be nicer to drive than any of those, you'd be swapping a very nice older car for a significantly less nice newer car. Once the novelty wore off I reckon you'd miss the 330i. In your shoes I'd keep the BM and hold on to see if anything better comes up.

ST, definitely.

Unless the fuel consumption is a worry (but you're driving a 330) then I'd go for the 1.6 zetec.

I have the Focus estate Titanium X 182hp and I am chuffed to bits with it. Love the way it drives. My old Skoda Octavia 1.4 TSI was pretty dull in comparison.

The Skoda had a bit more volume inside but the Focus has a much wider boot as the wheel arches don't intrude. Can easily fit a 29er in there with out taking the wheels off. On the Skoda it was a bit tight.

robinlaidlaw - Member
Your current car will be nicer to drive than any of those, you'd be swapping a very nice older car for a significantly less nice newer car. Once the novelty wore off I reckon you'd miss the 330i. In your shoes I'd keep the BM and hold on to see if anything better comes up.

Even though I have to wedge a bike on the backseat or put it on the roof.... Oh, but of course I can....

Millstone/neck..... 🙁

Focus ST, without a doubt. Try and get it with the powershift gearbox.

If you're doing motorway milage, do not get a 1.4

The 1.6 Ecoboost is a superb motor, I`d drive them all and see which one you like, I think the Audi will be too small

I`d take the new ecoboost Focus estate.

It`ll be cheaper to run than the ST, on fuel Tax and everything else

As it happens, I'll be looking to down-size the Mongdeo estate in the next couple of months. Looking at the usual STW, estate, culprits -
A4
Octavia
Also considering -
Golf Estate
Yeti (?!!)
Any other suggestions?
The main thing is that it'll have to tow a c***van. 8)

(/thread-hijack)

Thing that puts me off so much about small/midsize vag estates is the boots. Most (all?) have high lips on them which makes them much less usable, and none of them are very big- encroaching arches, etc. If you're used to just throwing bikes into a mondeo then putting them in an octavia feels more like trying to get them into your back pocket.

Also, once you've sat on a flat boot under the tailgate in the rain, it's hard to go back to non-flat boots... Ridiculous way to build an estate frankly.

Think teh Yeti is an exception to that though, haven't actually tried one of those.

No lip in the Focus.

Plus I have the Ford reversible fold out mat. It folds out all the way to the back of the front seats and has straps to attach to the headrests. When folded out it is rubber faced. Folded back up it has carpet. It also has a fold out bumper protector.

My Octavia was 2009 so still fairly recent. The boot carpet in that was just a piece of thin crap. The Focus standard carpet is about an inch thick. The Focus is a much quieter car. The Focus is an all round much better designed car. I din't try the new Octavia though.

Who pays for fuel?

If them then its got to be the st. Just for shits and giggles

Neighbour has one of the higher powered yeti tdi (red d and i)

I am jelous of it. It looks like bike swallowing brilliance judging by the way her sons wheel chair goes in and its 4wd 🙂

She has had no issues with it . Its on an 11 plate.

If it were me I'd be all over the ST. I'd possibly choose one over the mk3 Octavia vRS which a few people have mentioned (which also haven't fallen into £20k territory yet).

Actually, scrap that. The ST isn't orange is it? Don't go there...

I'd keep the BMW.

Now, thinking about this for a bit....

The 330i is as much, if not more (RWD semi auto) fun at the ST, and more relaxed in a cruise than any of them. It has leather. It costs £800 a year to tax and insure fully comp, and whichever car I drive I get 20ppm with the allowance or 40ppm without.

The estates are more practical than my saloon, yet will cost more in cash/benefit in kind. They don't have leather, or climate in the 1.6 Zetec. I already have roof racks for the BM, all bikes fit on the backseat. Personally, it only does 29mpg though. Tax, insurance and servicing would be paid by the company on the three new cars....

*ponders*

I've got a spreadsheet that allows you to add up all the costs (fuel, insurance, maintenance, deprecation etc)for different car options so you can see the totals over a year or 3 years. I can easily e-mail it to you. I'm sure you could do your own but it might save a little time.

[i]Fabia VRS[/i]

*Chuckles*

You know what you want.......S3! 8)

robin, that would be very much appreciated! Email in profile, thanks.

However, Its seems I have six months before I get "told" to make use of my car allowance on something other than Nursery/School fees. Thing is, I could understand it if I turn up to my customer in a old banger, but the BM is fairly tidy.

How did you work out the A3 was an estate? It's just a normal hatchback.

robin, that would be very much appreciated! Email in profile, thanks.

So, you get a car allowance ... but you are not using it for paying for a car?
Wow - doesn't the company specify, how old, how many doors etc??
We used to - and you could down trade - but you still had to have an under 4 year old motor ...

Well just to put this on track - I have a Sportback A3 in 2.0 170 DSG format.
The newer chassis is better road mannered, the 1.4 engine is very good as long as it is a new one - the first ones suffered terribly with snapped chains, lunched turbos, etc.
All solved now though.
The Audi version of the DSG is now called Multitronic.
A bike will go in fairly easily with the seats down.
Not across the back seat though.
Strange as it would in my 330D Touring and they are the same width.

the new focus st is a four cylinder direct injection turbo with 246 bhp. it's not the same as the old 5 cyl turbo volvo lump

I hope the focus has improved from the 06 version we had ( I assume it has). Dunno why, but it was just nasty to drive - and my wife disn't like the shape of it, so she modified all the corners on it!!

I have rented an a3 sports back and AM bike would go in with seats down and inside a duff monster bag, it was a nice car and I may well buy one from a mate who's selling his ex company car, FYI 3yrs old it will be around £12k. I have a bias against the small engines seen these days, so hard for me to recommend a 1.4 in anything except a city car.

get the ST, I just got one over the weekend and it's brilliant. chav car or not I don't care!

I've now done 10000 miles in my Fabia VRS - it's a hoot!

1.4TSI with 180PS. Oh - and it still manages 44ish mpg, even with my idiotic driving style. Mine's the hatchback and the estate apparently does slightly better mpg.

Rachel

mrmoofo - Member
So, you get a car allowance ... but you are not using it for paying for a car?
Wow - doesn't the company specify, how old, how many doors etc??
We used to - and you could down trade - but you still had to have an under 4 year old motor ..

Yep, 4 years or under is the stipulation. As green as possible is advisory but not a definitive requirement.

If you have to get newer to keep the allowance, how about swap the BMW for a newer BMW with a private / non dating plate and just tell them it is newer than it actually is? If all the options are going to cost you something, why not spend the money on something you actually want?

Have you actually tried driving any of 'em?

When I replaced mine earlier this year I drove all sorts and, TBH, the A3 was a disappointing pile of shite - the Golf is a much better car. The Focus was, in both guises, a better drive than the A3 and just as well built (IMHO).

I was very disappointed with several promising cars so, much like the advice I give to bike shoppers, you need to try some before you buy. You never know, you might end up loving the one you least expect to 😉

Nobby, don't be ridiculous. You know thats not the way to do things.

Oh hold on...

The answer is simple - which one make you look the coolest?

Not my current car:

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oldbloke - Member
If you have to get newer to keep the allowance, how about swap the BMW for a newer BMW with a private / non dating plate and just tell them it is newer than it actually is?

Erm, the company is responsible for purchasing it and hold the V whatever form?

I'm not in a position to buy a <4yo car right now myself.

I have had an A3 Sportback from new for 7 years (2.0t FSI Quattro). Other than a new battery and tyres I have not spent a penny on it. It is the most expensive car I have owned but the cheapest to service, cheaper than a VW Up!

It is the only car I have ever owned for this long and I am still very happy with it. So my money would go on the Audi.