Practical but fun diesel 5 door hatchback

[hovishead]

Ok, so asking for a fun diesel car may earn me lots of insults, but I'm uhmming and ahhing about my next car and thought maybe some suggestions might help.

I currently drive a Mazda 6 2.0D 143bhp (266 lbs/ft). Well used to, I'm currently living abroad so have no car, but am already home-sick for a car so am planning what to buy when I'm back in the UK.

I have two young kids, so need it to be practical (5 door, prefer hatchback for praciticality so no saloons please).

I like the car to handle well in corners, more than for its top speed/acceleration - I drive a lot on country roads so the handling is more important to me.

Budget up to £15k (absolute max), 3-4 years old, needs to be diesel (I do about 18k per year - I know it may be a false economy but I hate standing at the pump watching my money pour away, so would prefer to pay upfront for the diesel), no more than 60k miles.

So my thoughts are:

BMW 1 series 120d - good power, RWD so good handling, BMW so you know it's good. But.... I don't really like the look of it, the rear is meant to be quite cramped, and what with all the snow we've had these last couple of years don't want to be that guy in the BMW going nowhere

Audi A3 quattro 170 - 4WD so presumably pretty good cornering - but reviews I've read say a bit lacklustre, not sure if that's just the standard FWD cars or all of them? Currently my favourite option though (think it's the gimmick of 4WD being grippier).

Seat Leon FR - not as boring to look at as the Audi, cheaper than both the above. Concerns are - too much torque/power for FWD? (Actually, just noticed all of these cars have less torque but more bhp than the Mazda 6 - I thought torque was more important for diesels, but these all have faster 0-60s (sorry if being a right noob)). Reliability?

What else should I be considering?

Thanks

[Celtic Dragon]

Impreza D RC or D RX. Only made for 18 months and under 300 in the country. Subaru took the WRX, and transplanted the engine from the legacy. Comes as 150 bhp as subaru UK demap then to this, as standard they are 185 bhp and can easily be remapped. A few of us have (maybe sadly) rebadged them to say WRXD.

Oh and I average 48 - 50 mpg on a daily commute of 25 miles each way. This was a freak as the day was 30 mph everywhere thanks to the A1.

[hovishead]

Celtic - thanks for that, definitely not a car I'd considered.

Btw - good win this morning, looking forward to the Irish game.

[Frog Dog]

Megane DCI 175 is a good shout, Renaultsport chassis and 2.0 litre derv engine with a nice shove

[danyeates]

For that budget it HAS to be the Skoda Octavia VRS TDi CR. 170hp, but easily mapped to 200hp. That budget would get a nice recent one with very low miles and a good amount of options. A lovely car. I really enjoyed mine and it was a much nicer drive than my dads 140hp A3. Much quieter and quicker.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2011...

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2011...

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2011...

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2011...

Loads of space, huge boot, very practical and a cracking drive. Really fantastic cars. Can't rate them highly enough.



Looks cool!

Edited by danyeates on Sunday 2nd October 21:57

[hovishead]

Really like the idea of the Subaru, but the boot is just a bit too small for the amount of guff I have to transport around with two small kids.

So I think the Octavia VRS is edging itself out at the moment. Seems to be what I'm looking for - very practical (nice large boot, good mpg) but also powerful and from what I've read online, good handling. Looking forward to coming back to the UK to test drive one now!

Danyeates - did you get a remap on yours or a tuning box? I ran a Megane 1.9 Tdi with a chipexpress tuning box and that worked really well, but tried a different tuning box on the Mazda6 and had to send it back as the engine went into engine protection mode. Will probably just enjoy the standard set up initially, but suspect after 6 months I'll be bored and wanting more...

Thanks all

[WeirdNeville]

You've just described a Skoda Fabia VRS ,or as mentioned, an Octavia VRS.

I'm sure you could find a decent Estate octavia VRS for 15k. Loads of room, plenty of pace, sorted!

[Mr Dave]

hovishead said:

Really like the idea of the Subaru, but the boot is just a bit too small for the amount of guff I have to transport around with two small kids.

So I think the Octavia VRS is edging itself out at the moment. Seems to be what I'm looking for - very practical (nice large boot, good mpg) but also powerful and from what I've read online, good handling. Looking forward to coming back to the UK to test drive one now!

Danyeates - did you get a remap on yours or a tuning box? I ran a Megane 1.9 Tdi with a chipexpress tuning box and that worked really well, but tried a different tuning box on the Mazda6 and had to send it back as the engine went into engine protection mode. Will probably just enjoy the standard set up initially, but suspect after 6 months I'll be bored and wanting more...

Thanks all

If the Subaru has too small a boot, then a 1 series is absolutely no use.

The Audi S3, the sporty one with 4 wheel drive is as dull as you can get in a car, any smaller engined ones with quattro will be very boring.

Why not go for a 5 series deisel touring? Massive amount of room. Or an A4/A6 estate diesel, again lots of room.

The Octavia VRS is competant, but not exciting at all.

[hovishead]

Mr Dave said:

If the Subaru has too small a boot, then a 1 series is absolutely no use.

The Audi S3, the sporty one with 4 wheel drive is as dull as you can get in a car, any smaller engined ones with quattro will be very boring.

Why not go for a 5 series deisel touring? Massive amount of room. Or an A4/A6 estate diesel, again lots of room.

The Octavia VRS is competant, but not exciting at all.

Thanks, that's put my mind at rest on the A3, must admit the gimmick of 4WD had me sort of tempted, but obviously can't just rely on specs to know if a car's any good.

There's a few reasons I'm ruling out the BMWs, but main reasons are the lack of hatchback (ignoring the 1 series being too small, and ignoring the new 5 series because of cost) and the RWD snowy/icy weather issue (I'm sure it's fine on more main roads, but drive to work on C and B roads with inclines)

I could get an estate, but whilst I'm trying to be practical, it's just a bit too practical (I'm 29 and can't quite see myself driving an estate yet, also perhaps put off by my Dad's choice's of estates when I was a kid).

I think the Octavia will be good enough for me at the mo. My list of cars to date have been far from electrifying and I'm sure this will be a notch up from the Mazda I drove before (which I was reasonably happy with). Maybe I'll get a 5 series in a few years time when they've dropped into an affordable range and stick to the motorway when the snow comes.