Reliable replacement for BMW 3 series estate?
Discussion
Following on from yet another maintenance bill of over 500 quid,
what would be your opinion of a *reliable* replacement ?
I don't care about FWD versus RWD, driving fun or chains versus belts.
As long as it has cruise control, parking sensors and cloth seats I don't much care.
Anything English, French or Italian is out of the question and posters will get laughed at for making such a suggestion.
I am thinking perhaps East Asian. Maybe a Mazda 6 estate or a Hyundai i40 estate ? Do Subaru or Toyota have anything suitable without going down the SUV route ?
Would a newish Skoda Octavia be reliable enough ?
Any other ideas ?
what would be your opinion of a *reliable* replacement ?
I don't care about FWD versus RWD, driving fun or chains versus belts.
As long as it has cruise control, parking sensors and cloth seats I don't much care.
Anything English, French or Italian is out of the question and posters will get laughed at for making such a suggestion.
I am thinking perhaps East Asian. Maybe a Mazda 6 estate or a Hyundai i40 estate ? Do Subaru or Toyota have anything suitable without going down the SUV route ?
Would a newish Skoda Octavia be reliable enough ?
Any other ideas ?
Well it depends if you want to keep your car for more than 7 years. If you do, then I’d avoid Kia and Hyundai, as well as Mazda. Go for the toyota corolla estate in manual form (if it exists), the CVT is crap but even that will have excellent reliability. The hybrid is pretty quiet
^ assuming you want new/fairly new
^ assuming you want new/fairly new
Edited by anonymous-user on Wednesday 7th April 18:01
E63eeeeee... said:
Some idea around budget, age and use case would be helpful here for any proper suggestions.
£10-15K for the right car. I think I can get something 3-5 years old.Use case would be general UK pottering around with a few visits across Germany
to Austrian Alps per year. 200 kmh is about as fast as I drive these days, so it is likely that a 4 cylinder petrol turbo would do the job better than anything six cylinder or larger. Around 150 BHP would probably do it.
Toyota Corolla estate a good suggestion, but I was thinking
of some estate car in the 4.5 - 5.0 meter length range, so the
Corolla is probably too small.
Mazda 6 Estate with the 2.0 NA petrol would be a good choice. Unlike the diesels the petrols are largely bulletproof.
I like the i40 - used to drive one a lot for work. Hyundai parts can be eye watering expensive though - my Mum has a 65 plate i30 and the dealer wanted £400 to supply and code a replacement key, and she's been quoted for more a service than I'd pay for my E Class at the Merc dealer. If I was going for one I'd get one a bit older and keep well away from the dealers.
I like the i40 - used to drive one a lot for work. Hyundai parts can be eye watering expensive though - my Mum has a 65 plate i30 and the dealer wanted £400 to supply and code a replacement key, and she's been quoted for more a service than I'd pay for my E Class at the Merc dealer. If I was going for one I'd get one a bit older and keep well away from the dealers.
Octavia Estate, had one as a courtesy in 1.5D flavour last summer and it was plenty comfy, spacious and fast enough to have me thinking about one as my next car. Currently cutting about in a 3 Series Estate. It will be a close fight between 5 Series Touring or Octavia Estate I reckon.
dcb said:
£10-15K for the right car. I think I can get something 3-5 years old.
Use case would be general UK pottering around with a few visits across Germany
to Austrian Alps per year. 200 kmh is about as fast as I drive these days, so it is likely that a 4 cylinder petrol turbo would do the job better than anything six cylinder or larger. Around 150 BHP would probably do it.
Toyota Corolla estate a good suggestion, but I was thinking
of some estate car in the 4.5 - 5.0 meter length range, so the
Corolla is probably too small.
I’m an estate fan but outside of the German marques the big estate is basically dead. And the few that there are most aren’t particularly reliable, in fact I would even say you would get better bang for your buck from a straight six BMW diesel, I assume you were in a 520d or something, which is a good idea but does not have excellent reliability. The 530d is much better, and realistically not much worse than a Kia or whatnot outside of warranty. At the end of the day, as all are white goods, the BMW will hold its value the best, and probably the best engineered. Use case would be general UK pottering around with a few visits across Germany
to Austrian Alps per year. 200 kmh is about as fast as I drive these days, so it is likely that a 4 cylinder petrol turbo would do the job better than anything six cylinder or larger. Around 150 BHP would probably do it.
Toyota Corolla estate a good suggestion, but I was thinking
of some estate car in the 4.5 - 5.0 meter length range, so the
Corolla is probably too small.
I think you’re better off leaving estates behind and going for a 4x4 to be honest if you are anti BMW...
Have a look at the honda crv
sleepera6 said:
I’m an estate fan but outside of the German marques the big estate is basically dead. And the few that there are most aren’t particularly reliable, in fact I would even say you would get better bang for your buck from a straight six BMW diesel, I assume you were in a 520d or something, which is a good idea but does not have excellent reliability. The 530d is much better, and realistically not much worse than a Kia or whatnot outside of warranty. At the end of the day, as all are white goods, the BMW will hold its value the best, and probably the best engineered.
I think you’re better off leaving estates behind and going for a 4x4 to be honest if you are anti BMW...
Have a look at the honda crv
XC60/XC70/XC90 are bland but comfortable.I think you’re better off leaving estates behind and going for a 4x4 to be honest if you are anti BMW...
Have a look at the honda crv
dcb said:
£10-15K for the right car. I think I can get something 3-5 years old.
Use case would be general UK pottering around with a few visits across Germany
to Austrian Alps per year. 200 kmh is about as fast as I drive these days, so it is likely that a 4 cylinder petrol turbo would do the job better than anything six cylinder or larger. Around 150 BHP would probably do it.
Toyota Corolla estate a good suggestion, but I was thinking
of some estate car in the 4.5 - 5.0 meter length range, so the
Corolla is probably too small.
If you are going up to the Alps for skiing, look for an Octavia Scout or a 4x4. Use case would be general UK pottering around with a few visits across Germany
to Austrian Alps per year. 200 kmh is about as fast as I drive these days, so it is likely that a 4 cylinder petrol turbo would do the job better than anything six cylinder or larger. Around 150 BHP would probably do it.
Toyota Corolla estate a good suggestion, but I was thinking
of some estate car in the 4.5 - 5.0 meter length range, so the
Corolla is probably too small.
vaud said:
sleepera6 said:
I’m an estate fan but outside of the German marques the big estate is basically dead. And the few that there are most aren’t particularly reliable, in fact I would even say you would get better bang for your buck from a straight six BMW diesel, I assume you were in a 520d or something, which is a good idea but does not have excellent reliability. The 530d is much better, and realistically not much worse than a Kia or whatnot outside of warranty. At the end of the day, as all are white goods, the BMW will hold its value the best, and probably the best engineered.
I think you’re better off leaving estates behind and going for a 4x4 to be honest if you are anti BMW...
Have a look at the honda crv
XC60/XC70/XC90 are bland but comfortable.I think you’re better off leaving estates behind and going for a 4x4 to be honest if you are anti BMW...
Have a look at the honda crv
Thanks for all your answers.
The person that suggested a Renault, when I'd explicitly said I didn't want
a French car, got sensibly ignored by everyone.
Volvo I hadn't considered, but the xc60 seems to have over 200 BHP,
insurance group over 30 and fuel consumption in the low 30s, so that
was easy to dismiss as too expensive.
Toyota Avensis seems to be diesel only, so that was another easy dismiss.
I'd rather avoid a diesel if I can.
Honda CRV not that big, only length 4600 mm, insurance group over 20
and nothing special on the fuel consumption. #21 in a 2020 reliability survey, however.
Hyundai i40 does well for boot size, insurance group and MPG, but is not
even in the top 75 in the survey.
Mazda 6 does slightly below average at most things, but is only #11 in the survey.
Skoda Octavia does very well on boot size and MPG and insurance group.
#34 in the survey.
Skoda Superb has the largest boot size (over 1800 litres !), ok on insurance group
and well on MPG. #10 in the survey.
So it looks like the two Skodas and the Mazda are on the short list.
Inevitably, I collated a spreadsheet to analyse the data. I tacked
on my current BMW 325 and made up a results column for illustration.
Boot volume seats up seats down car length power BHP Insurance group MPG road tax reliability results
Honda CRV 589 1669 4605 170 24 38.7 150 21 75483.5053571429
Hyundai i40 553 1719 4775 135 13 47 150 100 34368.0992307692
Mazda 6 522 1664 4805 145 19 41.5 150 11 172474.794258373
Skoda Octavia 610 1740 4659 147 13 56 150 34 134476.018099548
Skoda Superb 660 1865 4856 147 18 51 150 10 348755
Toyota Avensis 543 1609 4800 Diesel only
volvo xc60 495 1455 4690 250 35 34 475 100 6996.47142857143
Bmw 325 460 1385 4527 215 33 31 240 100 5984.87878787879
The person that suggested a Renault, when I'd explicitly said I didn't want
a French car, got sensibly ignored by everyone.
Volvo I hadn't considered, but the xc60 seems to have over 200 BHP,
insurance group over 30 and fuel consumption in the low 30s, so that
was easy to dismiss as too expensive.
Toyota Avensis seems to be diesel only, so that was another easy dismiss.
I'd rather avoid a diesel if I can.
Honda CRV not that big, only length 4600 mm, insurance group over 20
and nothing special on the fuel consumption. #21 in a 2020 reliability survey, however.
Hyundai i40 does well for boot size, insurance group and MPG, but is not
even in the top 75 in the survey.
Mazda 6 does slightly below average at most things, but is only #11 in the survey.
Skoda Octavia does very well on boot size and MPG and insurance group.
#34 in the survey.
Skoda Superb has the largest boot size (over 1800 litres !), ok on insurance group
and well on MPG. #10 in the survey.
So it looks like the two Skodas and the Mazda are on the short list.
Inevitably, I collated a spreadsheet to analyse the data. I tacked
on my current BMW 325 and made up a results column for illustration.
Boot volume seats up seats down car length power BHP Insurance group MPG road tax reliability results
Honda CRV 589 1669 4605 170 24 38.7 150 21 75483.5053571429
Hyundai i40 553 1719 4775 135 13 47 150 100 34368.0992307692
Mazda 6 522 1664 4805 145 19 41.5 150 11 172474.794258373
Skoda Octavia 610 1740 4659 147 13 56 150 34 134476.018099548
Skoda Superb 660 1865 4856 147 18 51 150 10 348755
Toyota Avensis 543 1609 4800 Diesel only
volvo xc60 495 1455 4690 250 35 34 475 100 6996.47142857143
Bmw 325 460 1385 4527 215 33 31 240 100 5984.87878787879
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