Estate cars - advice and tips please!

loskie

at £14K !!!

izzy65

Hi, my two pence worth would be an Audi A4 tdi a great car to drive I also had an a6 which had built in child booster seats, a bonus when there are kids involved, also don't rule out a Mercedes E class even get the 7 seat version if your planning more kids:rotfl:

forgotmyname

loskie wrote: »

at £14K !!!

They didnt say the Octavia was over £14,500. They said their budget was that.

So the car could have been the older 2012 shape which is smaller than the 2013 onwards model.

Its still a fair bit smaller than a Mondeo though.

Johnmcl7

I guess the question is what size is being referred to? I'm a bit puzzled by the Passat and Octavia being claimed as being small, the mk 2 Octavia actually has more luggage capacity than the Mondeo (580 vs 533) although less with the seats down at 1620 vs 1733 litres. Although the Octavia has always been Golf based (as is the Superb apart from the first one), it's usually been much larger with the Golf Estate only offering 505 litre capacity against the Octavia's 580.

Coming from the Mk 2 Octavia estate I was surprised how many others were smaller or more awkward, I liked the Exeo but the longitudinal engine shortens the available space and the seats don't fold flat which reduces the space further.

John

londonTiger

all new estates are a lot smaller than their earlier models.

the 10 year old v70s and mondeo estates could probably have as much room as a vw caddy with the seats down. But the boxy shape is no longer fashionable and the rear part tends to slope down. Sportback seems to be sought after as well which is a cross between hatcback and estate.

BeenThroughItAll

Johnmcl7 wrote: »

the Octavia has always been Golf based (as is the Superb apart from the first one)

Nope, the Mk1 Superb was based on the Passat B5.5 platform, and the Mk2 was based on the platform shared by the Passat, Passat CC, A6 and I think the Seat MPV thing.


Superb's never shared a platform with Golf. It may well do in the future thanks to the new VW grid-matrix build platform but not yet.

forgotmyname

I donty believe the boot capacity measurements. They must have changed the way they measure them these days.

How can the Octavia's boot be bigger than a Mondeo when its smaller in all dimensions?

Johnmcl7

BeenThroughItAll wrote: »

Nope, the Mk1 Superb was based on the Passat B5.5 platform, and the Mk2 was based on the platform shared by the Passat, Passat CC, A6 and I think the Seat MPV thing.

Superb's never shared a platform with Golf. It may well do in the future thanks to the new VW grid-matrix build platform but not yet.

I guess it depends on how you're defining the platform - the original Superb did use an entirely different platform but the PQ46 is simply a larger version of the PQ35, it doesn't differ in any way aside from size whereas the Audi platforms are genuinely different.

The upcoming Superb will be using the MQB platform which will technically be exactly the same platform even though it's no different to before, a larger version of what the Golf uses.

John

Johnmcl7

forgotmyname wrote: »

I donty believe the boot capacity measurements. They must have changed the way they measure them these days.

How can the Octavia's boot be bigger than a Mondeo when its smaller in all dimensions?

Quite simply by having less space for passengers, the Octavia is limited by the Golf platform but they can make the car longer to get a bigger boot. Also the Octavia is fairly squared off so it makes good use of the space, I've since changed to a Mazda6 which has more styling at the rear but it has a noticeable impact on the boot capacity which is also lower than the Octavia. It's quoted as being less and it definitely feels less in terms of the amount I can pack in.

John

GJ_WRX

I'm looking for something similar with child 2 on the way. Currently have my second Octavia estate. Both have been awesome, reliable, comfortable and vast.

I'm now thinking of changing to a superb as it's just that bit bigger and has a bit more room in the back for messing around with car seats. I'd go for a 2.0 over the 1.6 as the extra power and torque will make it a more relaxing drive with the miles you'll be covering without much difference in fuel costs.

You should be able to get a nice 12/13 plate with less than 30k for your budget with a bit of haggling.