Which old estate car would you recommend

rev_henry

incensicle wrote: »

Possibles, in no particular order:

Volvo' s nice looking but V70 too big and V40 boot space seems compromised by wheel arches
Octavia I like, but does dash look a bit plasticy
Ford mondeo or focus estate, both within price range and seem reasonably economical depending on model. Not sure about reliability, but parts will be easy to get.
Vauxhall astra/ vectra estate lot of these about. Vectras have been recommended but not astra, any reason?
Others suggested not available locally at mo.

What do you think of my list?

All seem fine cars to me.

AdrianHi

incensicle wrote: »

Vauxhall astra/ vectra estate lot of these about. Vectras have been recommended but not astra, any reason?

Difficult to grasp what size of vehicle your after. Coming from a Land Rover I would assume a Vectra Estate, one of the biggest for load space, might be more what your looking for.
Octavia / Focus / Astra all similar and smaller size.
I've never liked the orange colour dash lighting scheme you get with Vectra / Astra but I think they are good value as a used buy.

Looks like you have a short list of 3 - Octavia, Focus, Astra so see if you can get a drive of each. If they seem too small try Vectra, Mondeo and the Nissan Primera Estate worth a try too, good value.

Takoda

Mondeo. Mondeo. Mondeo.

incensicle

AdrianHi wrote: »

Difficult to grasp what size of vehicle your after.

One of those that grows two foot when you need to fit a weeks gear in. they're hard to find tho!

Your right - its time to find some garages that have got a selection to try.

d77_2

I'd put a vote in for a Volvo. My dad has a V40, and it's bomb proof, very reliable, and can be quite pokey when you put your foot down. Must say, I'm not convinced by Mondeo's, we had one at work and it's already being scrapped. Needed a new turbo, and had other problems. I didn't think it was built as well as the Volvo either.

As for mpg, surely any of these cars, even the V70 will be better than a Discovery? 41mpg from the standard 2.4 diesel compared to 27 from the discovery diesel.

incensicle

Well my goodness. went to Car craft today, as thet seemed the best bet for having a range of cars too look at.
Managed to escape without buying an astra for £7500.(just) 'This is the perfect car for you' err no, the perfect car for him would be a great big Defender with all the kit!
Oh and apparently with the saving on fuel, tax etc it would only be costing us £2 a week to buy!
I actually got the impression that they had decided what car they wanted to sell us. Any way I pointed out that if I wanted to spend any more I'd do it through an interest free credit card not there finance. How can you get 2 grand interest on 5 grand over five years and say its a great deal ??*#*#*

Oh yeah, decided Vectra and Mondeo too big, (regretfully as mondeo did have v.comfey seat.
So shortlist is shrinking!
Thanks everyone for your advice, its really helpful :beer:

iltisman

And now for something completely different a Reliant Scimitar GTE. Cheap nil depreciation rust free body, heres a random one off fleebay 190370715977

AdrianHi

incensicle wrote: »

Oh and apparently with the saving on fuel, tax etc it would only be costing us £2 a week to buy!

I'd love to see his figures, but swapping a thirsty 4x4 that needs lots of maintenance money spending on it, if you do average / high miles, for a much cheaper to run Astra can work out cheaper in the long run. Not impossible, but the sums need doing and he won't have done them stood in front of you on the forecourt.

incensicle

Oh I agree with the principle, it should save us a significant amount of cash, and you right the figures have to be worked out. For example we went round some local gargages today (where we were left alone!) and it seems that diesels are about a grand more expensive than the petrol equivalent. so now I need to compare tax, insurance category, mpg etc to see if its worth that saving buying a petrol, ( I think it probably isn't, but we'll see).

I haven't been to one of these massive car places before and I was amazed at how much of a hard sell went on. He was trying to pressure us into spending far much than we had told him we could afford (and I'd told him more than the true figure). Telling us this was the perfect car for us - it completeley wasn't. We found it quite funny the way the salesman was desperately trying to 'sell' to my husband who wasn't having any of it. He's still fuming at being told he wanted a 1300 estate. He was completey insulted.
I would say to be careful even just visiting a place like this, despite us having no intention of buying a car that day they did actually put a lot of pressure on us, including bringing another bloke in who was authorised to give us a better deal - oh yeah, - and it was quite hard to escape. I also felt they were evasive about our questions. I don't believe a 1300 estate could cruise happily full loaded, and a 5yr old car is not nearly new !!!!!!.

Kilty_2

harveybobbles wrote: »

I do hope you rejected it under the SOGA...
.

Nah - part exchanged it

They had the sense to send it to auction though unlike you who would no doubt sell such a faulty car to an unsuspecting customer and then tell them to GTFO when they tried to return it :eek: