Which Diesel estate- Audi or Volvo

[sparky21]

I can beleive I am at this stage of life where I am now looking at diesel estates lol.... but here I am. I have narrowed it down to either an Audi A4/A6 1.9/2.0/2.5 tdi or a Volvo V50 diesel estate, my max budget is £5000, please can people give me there thoughts or experiences with either of these? ie best engine choice etc, It will be used to tow my track car and boat which will be 1500kg max which as far as I have researched that both of these cars will do ok... any help would be much appreciated, cheers

[andy43]

Only advice I can give is stay away from the Audi multitronics - big trouble.

[sparky21]

Ah ok that is not the 1st bad report ive heard on them.... thanks

[R1-Jay]

A4 avant, 1.9TDI then chip it

mines goes bloody well and still gets between 50-60mpg

[Skodaku]

Volvo V70 with the 163bhp D5.........no DPF..........and chip it if you must. You'll get lots of change out of your £5k and have a car that should be a megamiler and allow you to subcontract for Pickfords if money gets tight.

Or, as someone else said.........Audi A6 with the 1.9TDi PD and use the correct engine oil at the specified frequency.

[sparky21]

Thank you, any reason why the V70 and not the V50?

[furrywoolyhatuk]

I've had a Volvo v50 with the 2.0 Diesel engine. It's not got the capacity of a v70 but if you think of it as a larger then average hatchback you won't go far wrong. The interior is a lovel place to be, I had the r design trim which both inside and out looked subtle but smart. Fuel economy is not brilliant but still in the realms of acceptability.

[sparky21]

when you mean not brilliant, roughly what were you getting?

[Skodaku]

sparky21 said:

Thank you, any reason why the V70 and not the V50?

I wasn't sure if the V50 came with the pre-DPF, (pre-Euro IV), D5 or other diesel. No other reason. Of course, if your usage pattern isn't likely to clog a DPF then having one is no drawback. Sorry, not really au fait with what the V50 can have up front.

You could always look at a Skoda Octavia Estate with the 1.9TDi PD. Must be a good competitor for the V50 and the A4 but bit smaller than the A6 - and probaly cheaper than any. Don't know your thoughts on the "Badge" thing, though. (And that's nothing to do with me, anyway )

[furrywoolyhatuk]

sparky21 said:

when you mean not brilliant, roughly what were you getting?

When i was mainly stuck doing 30mph-40mph in town with stop start driving/traffic I got around 35-38mpg. On a long motorway run it would be around 48-51 mpg. My car was an auto.

I still miss it, it really was a brilliant all rounder.

[sparky21]

I have also been looking at the 320d estate which I think is master Kingy drives, at the end of the day I am sure they will all do the job great but I think am swinging towards the audi a4 1.9 tdi with the pd engine.

I am thinking the Audi because with my budget I am looking at cars with 100-120k ish mileage so I need something that will do 200k with ease, I know the volvo and the beemer will easily do this but I can not beleive the amount of 200k mileage Audi A4's are for sale which unbeleivably still command a strong price.

I have sold my daily driver mk5 golf gti and am just waiting to sell the Landrover 90 then will be ready to grab one.

I hear stories of the A4 1.9 tdi getting up to 750 miles to a tank..... all though they are 70 litre tanks lol so will cost a fair bit to fill up

[6fire]

I was idly considering an A6 2.5 quattro a while ago. Consensus seemed to be that the engine was rubbish (thirsty and ate camshafts) and that multitronic gearboxes all contained their own little bork fairy egg waiting to hatch...

Also the front suspension on Audis wears very quickly - or at least it used to, I'm not sure whether they've fixed that but it might be worth checking as it's tiresome to drive when all of the links are shagged and tiresome to replace every 2 or 3 years.

I'd go Volvo. Cracking engine, cracking seats and generally lovely.