Reccommend me an estate

[DBSV8]

Time has come to look at replacing the 98 Honda Accord areodeck 2.3 ES, With another Estate

The Honda has been a great workhorse , full leather interior , AC and very generous bootspace ,down side its not very powerfull 160 hp , and not very frugal returning about 23 mpg

Any reccomendations for replacement , will definitely not go French or Volvo route any suggestions.
Ideally with Leather interior , Sat Nav , Automatic ( for wife )

Some I looked at:

2010 Alfa Romeo 159 Sportwagon 5-Door 1956 cc 2.0 JTDM 16v TI

39 mpg , luggage capacity 445/1235





2010 Audi A4 Avant 1798 cc 1.8 T FSI (160 PS) S-Line Avant
30mpg , luggage capacity 490/1430




2009 Bmw 520d M-Sport Touring [Sat Nav + PDC]
42 mpg , luggage capacity 500/1650



2010 Honda Accord 2199 cc Type-S
38mpg, luggage capacity 406/1183

Edited by DBSV8 on Friday 4th March 07:31

[smifffymoto]

I changed from a thirsty Subaru Outback to a very frugal VW Passat Bluemotion(105 hp)
I really wanted another Outback but the exchange rate made them very expensive for what you get.Now I've lived with the Passat for 6 months I feel I made the right decision,It's comfortable,roomy and very frugal.

The only time I will miss the Outback is when the wife drives into a snowbank or off the road and we haven't got 4WD.

[fathomfive]

The new Skoda Superb estate is apparently very good.

[lowdrag]

Everything I read says the Mondeo is a damn good buy, especially second hand, but they seem expensive for the "lower class" image.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/search/used/cars/merce...


No one's mentioned the C class Merc, and while mine is old (11 years) I've spent £1,500 on it in repairs (aircon compressor and two front springs) over 130,000 excluding the usual consumables. Used ones are fetching as low as £16,000 for the new model with not much mileage. Manuals, if that is what you are looking for, fetch not as much as the autos. According to the Honest John road test, they seem "good for a million miles".

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/search/used/cars/merce...

I'd avoid the Alfa based on their reputation, and whether to go petrol or diesel would depend on the mileage. With the new particulate filters lower mileage drivers are now recommended to buy petrol, and the fuel consumption isn't that much different these days.

ETA - didn't notice the auto requirement at first.

Edited by lowdrag on Friday 4th March 08:12

[sicarumba]

This one even has somewhere to tie your dog!

[WildCards]

FiL has the new Accord and while it's a lovely car, the boot isn't very big, certainly not compared to the BMW and Audi you've also mentioned.

[rob.e]

Octavia vrs estate?

Mine's doing about 33mpg combined and i drive it pretty hard. It has a 600 litre boot (seats up) which is bigger than an A6. Drives well (mk5 golf GTI chassis) and nice vag standard interior quality.

You can buy new right now with the dealer paying your vat (ie 20% discount straight off before any haggle) or drivethedeal from about 16k.



More info on my car here.

[DBSV8]

rob.e said:

Octavia vrs estate?

Mine's doing about 33mpg combined and i drive it pretty hard. It has a 600 litre boot (seats up) which is bigger than an A6. Drives well (mk5 golf GTI chassis) and nice vag standard interior quality.

You can buy new right now with the dealer paying your vat (ie 20% discount straight off before any haggle) or drivethedeal from about 16k.



More info on my car here.

thats got a massive boot , but I cant see any options for full leather interior , is this option available ?

[y2blade]

DBSV8 said:

2010 Honda Accord 2199 cc Type-S
38mpg, luggage capacity 406/1183

Edited by DBSV8 on Friday 4th March 07:31

I like that I see one most days on my commute..lovely looking car

[Mr Roper]

Have you considered the Alpina D3 Bi Turbo Estate??

Have you?


Have you?

[doodles19]

C class estate is lovely imo.

[Shaw Tarse]

DBSV8 said:

thats got a massive boot , but I cant see any options for full leather interior , is this option available ?

I'd have thought so.

[rob.e]

DBSV8 said:

rob.e said:

Octavia vrs estate?

Mine's doing about 33mpg combined and i drive it pretty hard. It has a 600 litre boot (seats up) which is bigger than an A6. Drives well (mk5 golf GTI chassis) and nice vag standard interior quality.

You can buy new right now with the dealer paying your vat (ie 20% discount straight off before any haggle) or drivethedeal from about 16k.



More info on my car here.

thats got a massive boot , but I cant see any options for full leather interior , is this option available ?

Yep, full black leather is a factory option @ £850 IIRC.

I'm not bothered by leather so I didn't tick that box. It has half leather/alcantara as standard anyway which I prefer.

I looked at all the cars you mentioned above. In my view nothing comes close to the "value for money" you get with the skoda: my priorities in order - price, space, performance, handling, ride and finally image. If you put image as the top of the list you won't buy a skoda, but if you can look beyond the badge the other cars can't touch it.

All IMHO of course.

[Bill]

rob.e said:

Octavia vrs estate?

I'm surprised at what you're saying about the boot size, I'd have thought it would match the A4 rather than A6. Certainly when I looked a few (6 or so IIRC) years ago I considered it a small estate.

And why did you choose the Octavia over the Superb?

[jamieboy]

lowdrag said:

I'd avoid the Alfa based on their reputation

...whereas I wouldn't avoid them, based on owning several for many years, including a 159 Sportwagon.

Downsides of the 159 are that it's not very big inside compared to the outside size, the lip on the estate bit is quite high, and the DPF means the diesels aren't that economical.

No problem with the Skoda image, but I looked at the Octavia vRS (although it may have been previous generation, July '08) and thought the interior was a bit cheap-and-cheerful, even for the price, and the seats weren't great although much better than the non-vRS.

[Raize]

Some sort of BMW.

[Efbe]

jamieboy said:

lowdrag said:

I'd avoid the Alfa based on their reputation

...whereas I wouldn't avoid them, based on owning several for many years, including a 159 Sportwagon.

Downsides of the 159 are that it's not very big inside compared to the outside size, the lip on the estate bit is quite high, and the DPF means the diesels aren't that economical.

No problem with the Skoda image, but I looked at the Octavia vRS (although it may have been previous generation, July '08) and thought the interior was a bit cheap-and-cheerful, even for the price, and the seats weren't great although much better than the non-vRS.

alfas reputation of breaking just means they depreciate faster.

beat the idiots and buy one 3/4 years old. depreciation done, and you're laughing.

By far and away the best looking of all the cars above. A bit different, you won't get lumped into the audi/bmw driver category, and gorgeous inside.

[rob.e]

I just put a DSG Vrs petrol estate into drivethedeal.com and ticked the full leather option and columbus sat nav as per your original post.

OTR its £20,432 which is a saving of £4,472 vs. list.

So, comparing to the alfa above (for example) its only another £600 more but it'd be a new car, 11 plate zero miles. Skoda is faster, bigger boot plus at that price it has nav too which the alfa does not.

If you ditch the nav (£1,600) and get a top of the range tom tom at 250 quid you'd be cheaper than that used alfa.

Alfa does look good though.. wins on mpg too but then that's not really fair as its a diesel. The vrs diesel would be comparable though..

Food for thought?

[rob.e]

Bill said:

rob.e said:

Octavia vrs estate?

I'm surprised at what you're saying about the boot size, I'd have thought it would match the A4 rather than A6. Certainly when I looked a few (6 or so IIRC) years ago I considered it a small estate.

And why did you choose the Octavia over the Superb?

Yep, I can fully understand this - when I started looking I was amazed that the a4 boot was less than 500 litres - the others above are not much better either. Given the octavia is golf 5 chassis its pretty clever they've managed to get so much space in the back. For the record, the A6 boot is 565 litres.

Why octavia vs. superb? Simple - you can't buy a "Vrs" spec Superb. Boot isn't massively bigger either (Superb estate 633 litres, Octavia estate 605 litres - figures from comcar) plus the OP is coming from an Accord aerodeck which is more similar in size to the octavia. The superb is great and wins hands down if you need big boot AND massive rear leg room, but given that the OP is looking at A4's and 159's I'm guessing this isn't on his list of requirements?

[chrisispringles]

S211 Mercedes E320 CDi

Saab 9-5 Aero

Skoda Superb

Skoda Octavia vRS

Subaru Outback 3.0Rn

VW Passat R36