What diesel estate to buy for 6k?

[themuppeteer]

HI all,

I'm looking for a diesel estate for around the £6k mark and wonder if anyone had any thoughts or opinions. I am open minded, but ultimately want economy and reliability. I was considering the Honda Accord Sport, but I'm not quite convinced on the styling....

Any thoughts?

Cheers

Dan

[themuppeteer]

Also considering the Toyota Avensis T180, quite nippy for an aga. Have read some bad reviews though with some concerns about head gasket issues. Anyone had one of these?

Ta

[jimbop1]

themuppeteer said:

HI all,

I'm looking for a diesel estate for around the £6k mark and wonder if anyone had any thoughts or opinions. I am open minded, but ultimately want economy and reliability. I was considering the Honda Accord Sport, but I'm not quite convinced on the styling....

Any thoughts?

Cheers

Dan

I think you should overlook styling for 6k.

Look at vw or audi.. Their engines where bullet proof. Ignore what people say on here.

[hornetrider]

At that money save a few k and get a PD130 Passat.

[Jasandjules]

For 6k get a Passat Estate.

[Matt UK]

hornetrider said:

At that money save a few k and get a PD130 Passat.

Agree with this. The later b5.5 highline model was loaded with kit.

[daemon]

themuppeteer said:

HI all,

I'm looking for a diesel estate for around the £6k mark and wonder if anyone had any thoughts or opinions. I am open minded, but ultimately want economy and reliability. I was considering the Honda Accord Sport, but I'm not quite convinced on the styling....

Any thoughts?

Cheers

Dan

What mileage do you do?

You're very much in the danger zone price wise of when things start to go wrong on a diesel - DPF, DMF, injectors, turbo, pump, EGR valve, etc, etc.

You could spend more on maintenance than you will save on fuel.

[dbfan]

jimbop1 said:

I think you should overlook styling for 6k.

Look at vw or audi.. Their engines where bullet proof. Ignore what people say on here.

As someone who has just paid around £3500 to change a VW engine on a five year old Golf, I would disagree. As would a neighbour who has just scrapped a Mk5 Golf 2.0 TDI because of water leaks (cracked head) and turbo failure. Or perhaps another neighbour's friend with a 2009 2.0 TDI Octavia with 60K and FSH (from a main dealer), that was in the dealer's for at least three weeks with engine problems!

Put it another way: I will be looking at other makes after 24 years' of VW ownership!

Beware though: forums are often the wrong place to ask questions - you'll usually hear the bad stuff and not the good.

I would hate to admit it, but there's a lot to like about a Mondeo - if you keep a close eye on the engine oil! I'd agree about the Honda - not beautiful, but well engineered. The big downside is the image (thanks largely to Top Gear) of Hondas being old peoples' cars!

I'd be tempted by a smaller Volvo - though I've been warned about the Ford engines in some of them.

A couple of neighbours have C5s - and have had no problems with them! That's something you don't hear too often!

[DevonPaul]

I did this a couple of years ago. Size was all important, but the Mrs hates steering theels that look like video game controllers - so the Mondeu with its 18 (yup, eighteen) buttons on there was a non starter.

Tested the Accord, liked it. Family all owned Volvos and Passats, loved the V70s, and had no end of problems with the VWs.

I bought a V70 geartronic, hated it. Terrible around town, thirsty as hell. The manuals are *MUCH* better.

Then this weekend I drove sister in laws beloved V70 X Country. 2004, 130k on it, worth (she claims) 5k and does over 50 mpg.

Her first worry was whether tit would get the 170 miles back as the fuel meter said she only had 300 miles left in it. She doesn't know how far it goes on a tank as she never fills it up properly. Apparently she believes the fel meter for the 50 mpg - mine routinely read 20-25% over the actual fill-fill calculation. It's had about £1k spent on it in the last 3 months.

It drove like the Sesame Street bus. The inside was worn and tatty, the steering was woeful, worse than my 180k 15 year old Camry was, brakes were good but very sudden, clutch was vague and probably on its way out, ride was very loose, but it is the XC version. Considering her opinions and the Volvo reputation, it hadn't held its mileage well.

Having said that, a couple of the Accords I tested were also quite sloppy, generally the ones from the smaller and more "back street" garages. Also they were cheaper.

[Fittster]

dbfan said:

As someone who has just paid around £3500 to change a VW engine on a five year old Golf, I would disagree. As would a neighbour who has just scrapped a Mk5 Golf 2.0 TDI because of water leaks (cracked head) and turbo failure. Or perhaps another neighbour's friend with a 2009 2.0 TDI Octavia with 60K and FSH (from a main dealer), that was in the dealer's for at least three weeks with engine problems!

Were the problems with the 1.9 engine?

[POORCARDEALER]

c320 Cdi estate or E320 if you need something bigger....C class does 40 mpg on a run...if you need better economy a four cylinder model 220 might be worth a look

[daemon]

dbfan said:

jimbop1 said:

I think you should overlook styling for 6k.

Look at vw or audi.. Their engines where bullet proof. Ignore what people say on here.

As someone who has just paid around £3500 to change a VW engine on a five year old Golf, I would disagree. As would a neighbour who has just scrapped a Mk5 Golf 2.0 TDI because of water leaks (cracked head) and turbo failure. Or perhaps another neighbour's friend with a 2009 2.0 TDI Octavia with 60K and FSH (from a main dealer), that was in the dealer's for at least three weeks with engine problems!

Put it another way: I will be looking at other makes after 24 years' of VW ownership!

Beware though: forums are often the wrong place to ask questions - you'll usually hear the bad stuff and not the good.

I would hate to admit it, but there's a lot to like about a Mondeo - if you keep a close eye on the engine oil! I'd agree about the Honda - not beautiful, but well engineered. The big downside is the image (thanks largely to Top Gear) of Hondas being old peoples' cars!

I'd be tempted by a smaller Volvo - though I've been warned about the Ford engines in some of them.

A couple of neighbours have C5s - and have had no problems with them! That's something you don't hear too often!

1.9TDI VAG if you want reliablity.

[dbfan]

The new engine is indeed a 1.9TDI (the BLS 105 PD one that suffers oil pump drive failure). Unfortunately, that wasn't mentioned on forums when I was looking to replace the excellent (ATD 100 PD) 1.9 TDI engined MK4 Golf - which, people said the BLS was based on! I'd still have that Golf - though it wasn't as involving to drive, it had a much higher quality interior than the Mk5.

The original 1.9TDi engine (as per B3 Passat) was an excellent engine. My Passat had the TD engine (indirect injection), which had a pin locating the bottom cam belt pulley that often sheared if you took the pulley off (though you shouldn't) when changing the cam belt!

Not sure what £6K would get in the Passat estate range - probably a 2007 or so 2.0 S ("S" being pretty basic!).

[10 Pence Short]

Don't bother with the current shape Avensis. I've just inherited one and it's crap to drive. The driving controls feel like a 10 year old sit-in arcade game with force feedback. The interior is not well thought out, for example there are no easy little cubby holes in the dash for putting small items, just a cup holder and a big fk off bin underneath the armrest. It rattles because some bright spark designer thought a shiny hard lattice insert would sit nice and quite on another bit of shiny plastic. I've got the 140bhp diesel and it's not particularly economical, either.

[anonymous-user]

My old PD130 Passat estate was the best car I've ever owned. I sold it because it was boringly reliable, practical and cheap to run. Did almost 50mpg too.

What an idiot.

[wemorgan]

The Honda 2.2 diesel has a cam chain, so that's one less expense over the VAG equivalent.

[HereBeMonsters]

Having just been looking for an estate with a similar budget, I'd say you won't have much trouble finding a decent diesel. EVERY single bloody one was a diesel, when we wanted a petrol. I found an E91 318d in your budget locally which would be my choice - althought I'd probably try to stretch it for a 320d at least.

[Neilperryman]

My neighbour got a Mondeo a year ago in this price range about a year ago. Now with an extra 30K and total mileage just over 100K, he says he wouldn't get anything else.

Incredible reliability, great value, good spec and can be left anywhere with nobody giving it a second glance.

[themuppeteer]

Thanks for all your thoughts.

I was considering the Passat, but again have heard a few negatives (a midst many positives).

Jimbop1 - I agree with you, I'm not that bothered by styling (I'm getting a diesel estate complete with kids seat for goodness sake, ) and value reliability and engineering over it.

dbfan - thanks for the warning, I too have heard of VAG's falling apart. I like the newer Mondeo's, and despite Honda's having the OAP image, the Honda hatches I owned as a lad were almost unbreakable (I treated them so badly but they still smiled and kept going!).

10 Pence Short - that's interesting to know, and a shame! ON paper the 180bhp version looks a goer!

Neilperryman - I had thought about the Mondeo, my only concern with Ford is how well it will still be screwed together in 18 months time?

Also considering the Mazda 6 and BMW estates, but am put off BMW as the last one I owned (albeit some years ago) cost an arm and a leg to maintain...

Decisions, decisions!

[grumpyscot]

of all the diesel estates I've had only two are worth remembering:-


Saab 95 - oozed comfort and super to drive. Just a tad noisy on the engine front

Toyota Avensis - almost as comfortable as the Saab, but oh so quiet!