Any reliable diesel estates, £2000-£3000 mark

londonTiger

Ok I really need a diesel, my wife will be using the car and she unfortunately has to commute from London to northampton, she's a trainee nurse and needs to go around on placements a lot.

Trouble is I dont think she can deal with a turbo failure on the motorway which will cause the car to break down on the m1

Are there any real "bomb proof" diesel estates about or do they all the DPF/turbo/DMF issues?

She current drives a daewoo matiz. She's already crashed it

BeenThroughItAll

Get her an old 1.9XUD non-turbo Citroen ZX. That's about as bombproof as you'll find.

Talc1234

Turbos are generally reliable. Failure of a turbo is non catastrophic (unlike a timing belt) so the car should be able to be driven off the motorway. My cabbie friend swears by diesel Skoda Octavias

Strider590

A lot of people are now shying away from Diesels, they've either experienced serious problems or know someone who has, the upside is plenty on the used market, especially around the 2008 to 2010 some of mark, the downside is they've probably all been abused.

Estates........... I don't think many really bother anymore, the hatchback versions have so much boot space now that estates have almost become redundant. My "new" 2010 Mondeo has a 550litre boot, I thought the Vectra was big, but this is just insane and true to my word it's a 2.0 petrol, not a diesel.

motorguy

londonTiger wrote: »

Ok I really need a diesel, my wife will be using the car and she unfortunately has to commute from London to northampton, she's a trainee nurse and needs to go around on placements a lot.

Trouble is I dont think she can deal with a turbo failure on the motorway which will cause the car to break down on the m1

Are there any real "bomb proof" diesel estates about or do they all the DPF/turbo/DMF issues?

She current drives a daewoo matiz. She's already crashed it

VAG 1.9TDI in any form really - Golf, Passat, Octavia, Superb Leon, Toledo. Difficult as it will be, aim to get one with a FSH and ideally from a genuine private seller.

Another alternative is the Peugeot 2.0HDI, fitted most commonly to the 206, 307, and 407 (as well as 406, 306 etc). Robust engine if well looked after.

Most of those variants wont have either a DPF or a DMF, but check before you buy.

Also, get your wife breakdown cover with homestart. Its not expensive and theres a board here on it. Personally i'm with Start Rescue who are cheap, have good customer service and recover quickly.

forgotmyname

Turbo's usually fail because they have no oil or have been making a noise for some time and ignored. Rarely do they fail totally unexpected these days.

Check the prices for injectors and dual mass flywheels on most diesels. Replacing a set of injectors and a clutch/flywheel will quite often cost more than the car.

Cannot deal with turbo failure get her to check the oil weekly.. A dying art it seems.

motorguy

forgotmyname wrote: »

Turbo's usually fail because they have no oil or have been making a noise for some time and ignored. Rarely do they fail totally unexpected these days.

Check the prices for injectors and dual mass flywheels on most diesels. Replacing a set of injectors and a clutch/flywheel will quite often cost more than the car.

Cannot deal with turbo failure get her to check the oil weekly.. A dying art it seems.

I would say avoid DMFs and DPFs all together

ilikewatch

If you don't need a huge estate you could consider a Volvo V40 (up to 2004), as long as they've been well looked after they are super reliable and you should pick up a good one for £1500 or less. The diesel uses the well regarded Renault F9Q engine, just with Volvo electrics and ancilleries.

londonTiger

had a chat with a wife, she's not comfortable in an estate, she wants a vw beetle. Good thing VAG are good on turbo diesels.

So it's going to have to be a 2002-2004 1.9TDI VW bettle.

londonTiger

I will just sell my golf for an estate, had good experience with the VAG group. Tempted to get a passat estate. It would make servicing a litle bit easier if I have the same 1.9TDI as the wife. Can use the same tools for all the work.

livetoclimb

Nooo!

E46... Yes.

E90 325d... Yes. It's a 3 litre and a good, understressed engine.

E90 320d... No!!! It's the N47 engine, which has a history of timing chain tensioner failure. BMW have just ended a 'quality enhancement' recall on certain cars, but it's one of the biggest recent BMW issues. Google it - it may only be a smallish percentage of cars which fail, but this is not necessarily a reliable engine.

As far as recent reliable estates go - 1.9 TDi VAG engines (particularly pd rather than cr) are pretty good, although suspension components etc will all wear as usual in VAG cars. Octavia/Passat/Audi A4 or A6 estates with this engine regularly see 200-300k on the original engine.