Flappy paddle petrol estate
Discussion
I’m after a petrol estate with an automatic gearbox with paddles.
Prefer mid sized rather than large but boot must carry family luggage for a week and the rear seats must accommodate two tall teens. Trying to avoid anything with an Achilles heel as far as possible.
Happy to strike a balance between performance and economy - at the risk of putting numbers on it, preferably 40+ mpg average and 0-60 in under 8.
500 mile range would be a bonus! 10k miles a year, 50/50 motorway/other.
£12k cash or £20k with finance.
I’m not fussed on tech but it must have factory DAB for £20k.
I have a very strong preference for “sport” trim (eg M Sport / AMG line / VRS).
A Golf R is the answer and is where all this started, but performance aside they do very little for me.
So far the Mercedes CLA 250 AMG (DAB a rare option!!) and BMW 335i/340i M Sport have stayed at the top of the list. Others have come and gone. Wildcard is the Kia Proceed 1.6 GDi GT DCT at £20k. £12k options are things like a Civic, Accord, Octavia or the odd Passat. Others involve more of a compromise (ie diesel) but currently appealing (to the head at least) is a Golf GTD at £15/16k with good performance, strong identity and great economy.
Am I being too focussed (3 series GT?)?
What am I missing?
Thanks for any ideas!
Prefer mid sized rather than large but boot must carry family luggage for a week and the rear seats must accommodate two tall teens. Trying to avoid anything with an Achilles heel as far as possible.
Happy to strike a balance between performance and economy - at the risk of putting numbers on it, preferably 40+ mpg average and 0-60 in under 8.
500 mile range would be a bonus! 10k miles a year, 50/50 motorway/other.
£12k cash or £20k with finance.
I’m not fussed on tech but it must have factory DAB for £20k.
I have a very strong preference for “sport” trim (eg M Sport / AMG line / VRS).
A Golf R is the answer and is where all this started, but performance aside they do very little for me.
So far the Mercedes CLA 250 AMG (DAB a rare option!!) and BMW 335i/340i M Sport have stayed at the top of the list. Others have come and gone. Wildcard is the Kia Proceed 1.6 GDi GT DCT at £20k. £12k options are things like a Civic, Accord, Octavia or the odd Passat. Others involve more of a compromise (ie diesel) but currently appealing (to the head at least) is a Golf GTD at £15/16k with good performance, strong identity and great economy.
Am I being too focussed (3 series GT?)?
What am I missing?
Thanks for any ideas!
ED209 said:
I very nearly went for this exact car but ended up with a CLS Shooting Brake instead at the weekend, however this car is a diesel and the OP mentioned wanting a petrol. Great car though.Technoholic said:
I very nearly went for this exact car but ended up with a CLS Shooting Brake instead at the weekend, however this car is a diesel and the OP mentioned wanting a petrol. Great car though.
Yea I just realised that. I wasn’t being deliberately awakward I genuinely misread. I would recommend a petrol v90 to him but mine gets nowhere near 40mpg ha ha
I recently bought a Civic 1.8 VTEC tourer auto, 66 plate, 17k miles, flappy paddles and factory DAB, for £12k from a main dealer with all the warranties. I like it a lot, but I get the impression it may not be powerful/fast enough for you. Plenty of room in the boot and rear seat (I've got teens too), and a massive storage area under the boot floor (even with a space saver in it there's loads of room). I bought it to replace a Mercedes E320 CDI estate, and I don't miss a thing about the bigger, more powerful car.
Technoholic said:
I very nearly went for this exact car but ended up with a CLS Shooting Brake instead at the weekend, however this car is a diesel and the OP mentioned wanting a petrol. Great car though.
Thanks, I do like the current Volvos. A friend has one and rates it highly. For the full £20k though I think I’d try to stick to everything on my wish list. Think my mate’s is petrol - I’ll have to check - although he paid more than I can and bought new. rix said:
Leon cupra ST- A cut price Golf R Estate...
Good call. These come up from time to time when I set all the filters. They seem to have a range of different power outputs?It’s probably the closest thing to a Golf gti estate which, frankly, is what I want!
Do they suffer any of the past VAG DSG woes or are they ok now?
griffter said:
rix said:
Leon cupra ST- A cut price Golf R Estate...
Good call. These come up from time to time when I set all the filters. They seem to have a range of different power outputs?It’s probably the closest thing to a Golf gti estate which, frankly, is what I want!
Do they suffer any of the past VAG DSG woes or are they ok now?
My Civic's a TC auto though.
ElectricSoup said:
I recently bought a Civic 1.8 VTEC tourer auto, 66 plate, 17k miles, flappy paddles and factory DAB, for £12k from a main dealer with all the warranties. I like it a lot, but I get the impression it may not be powerful/fast enough for you. Plenty of room in the boot and rear seat (I've got teens too), and a massive storage area under the boot floor (even with a space saver in it there's loads of room). I bought it to replace a Mercedes E320 CDI estate, and I don't miss a thing about the bigger, more powerful car.
Thanks for your helpful view. I have a few of these saved. You’re right the performance isn’t electrifying, but it doesn’t have to be, especially for £12k. It’s reliability, practicality and the lower price are all well in its favour. I’m lucky enough to have a cheap S2000 for thrills so although the daily car is important (its where I spend the most time by a long way!) it doesn’t have to be the last word in performance or driving dynamics. Just something that’s a nice place to be and can be enjoyed when the occasion arises. But the more I would pay, the more I would want...
griffter said:
ElectricSoup said:
I recently bought a Civic 1.8 VTEC tourer auto, 66 plate, 17k miles, flappy paddles and factory DAB, for £12k from a main dealer with all the warranties. I like it a lot, but I get the impression it may not be powerful/fast enough for you. Plenty of room in the boot and rear seat (I've got teens too), and a massive storage area under the boot floor (even with a space saver in it there's loads of room). I bought it to replace a Mercedes E320 CDI estate, and I don't miss a thing about the bigger, more powerful car.
Thanks for your helpful view. I have a few of these saved. You’re right the performance isn’t electrifying, but it doesn’t have to be, especially for £12k. It’s reliability, practicality and the lower price are all well in its favour. I’m lucky enough to have a cheap S2000 for thrills so although the daily car is important (its where I spend the most time by a long way!) it doesn’t have to be the last word in performance or driving dynamics. Just something that’s a nice place to be and can be enjoyed when the occasion arises. But the more I would pay, the more I would want...
If you're anywhere near Reading, they've got a couple at Marshall Honda, where I bought mine, and I found them good to deal with.
Edited by ElectricSoup on Tuesday 7th January 11:08
Griff74 said:
If you can find one a Leon FR touring with either the (pre face lift) 1.8tsi DSG or a (post face lift) 2.0tsi DSG, both are fast enough for dailying and get decent MPG.
That's what I'd go for, or maybe even a Cupra if you need more.The 2.0 TSI engine is a peach, especially when paired with the DSG. I'm currently running that engine in my Scirocco and it's both quick and efficient. It's not an exciting engine but it's very effective. Really can't fault it IMO.
So, closure.
TLDR Renault Mégane Sport Tourer 1.6 GT Tce
It turns out the answer was indeed a car I didn’t know existed. After 12 months of rerunning autotrader criteria searches this was the first time I’ve seen one of these. Consequently I jumped on it. I’d love to know how many were made. Howmanyleft guesses suggest 30-300 (can’t distinguish between body shapes and model descriptions overlap). Launched in 2017 but they only seem to have been made for a year before the Mégane range adopted GT line trim but dropped a (warm) performance variant.
Anyway, well within budget (a couple of k more than Civic tourer budget, including a deposit contribution) I got:
67 plate
18k miles
2/4 years manufacturer warranty remaining
205cv 1.6 petrol turbo (Clio RS engine)
7 speed DCT (Clio RS transmission)
Alcantara
DAB, Nav, driving modes etc
LED headlights
Decent rear seat space
OK boot
It ticks all my boxes and at the price I paid is far newer with more manufacturer support and tech than I dared hope for.
First impressions are very good. I’m not a new car person so anything would have seemed pretty amazing but - accepting it is a warm Renault with RS dna and not a Golf R competitor - I’m very very pleased with. I believe the engine is the proven Renault/Nissan unit and the transmission is Getrag and seems to be ok. The platform is obviously pretty generic and should hopefully be cheap enough to run. The tech is a bit of an unknown but fingers crossed it’s reliable.
Reviews of the hatch are plentiful and a bit hit and miss but meet my priorities. The Sport Tourer GT seems very rare but this review does it justice:
https://drivemag.com/testdrive/2018-renault-megane...
Thanks again for the pointers. If anyone does have any experience or advice with this car I’m all ears!
TLDR Renault Mégane Sport Tourer 1.6 GT Tce
It turns out the answer was indeed a car I didn’t know existed. After 12 months of rerunning autotrader criteria searches this was the first time I’ve seen one of these. Consequently I jumped on it. I’d love to know how many were made. Howmanyleft guesses suggest 30-300 (can’t distinguish between body shapes and model descriptions overlap). Launched in 2017 but they only seem to have been made for a year before the Mégane range adopted GT line trim but dropped a (warm) performance variant.
Anyway, well within budget (a couple of k more than Civic tourer budget, including a deposit contribution) I got:
67 plate
18k miles
2/4 years manufacturer warranty remaining
205cv 1.6 petrol turbo (Clio RS engine)
7 speed DCT (Clio RS transmission)
Alcantara
DAB, Nav, driving modes etc
LED headlights
Decent rear seat space
OK boot
It ticks all my boxes and at the price I paid is far newer with more manufacturer support and tech than I dared hope for.
First impressions are very good. I’m not a new car person so anything would have seemed pretty amazing but - accepting it is a warm Renault with RS dna and not a Golf R competitor - I’m very very pleased with. I believe the engine is the proven Renault/Nissan unit and the transmission is Getrag and seems to be ok. The platform is obviously pretty generic and should hopefully be cheap enough to run. The tech is a bit of an unknown but fingers crossed it’s reliable.
Reviews of the hatch are plentiful and a bit hit and miss but meet my priorities. The Sport Tourer GT seems very rare but this review does it justice:
https://drivemag.com/testdrive/2018-renault-megane...
Thanks again for the pointers. If anyone does have any experience or advice with this car I’m all ears!
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