Petrol, up to £5k, estate/SUV mummy car. Stumped!

[Northern.N]

Context:
My wife has changed jobs recently for the better and enjoyed her mk4 Mondeo 2.2 TDCI.
She liked the economy, comfort, space and overall reliability.
The commute was 20 miles each way and this worked brilliantly.

Dilemma:
She’s switched jobs and now commutes just 2 miles. She has to drop our child off for childcare on route- so cannot walk.

The Mondeo is still being used but, being a diesel, isn’t best suited and will need to be replaced soon.

The issue we have is finding something that we like and is suitable!

We’ve looked at all sorts but everything either has potential significant issues (timing chains, oil consumption etc) or is too costly.
She’s aiming for sub £5k, but cheaper possible.

Musts:
- SUV/estate (she doesn’t like small cars and often has to take larger things in her car) she loves estates..we’ve had a few.
-must be Petrol
-reliable, with no known big issues (ie timing chains, oil consumption, rust etc)
-auto or manual is fine, but prefer to stay away from DSG. She’s worked in automotive backgrounds where they repair DSG 😂
-up to/around £300 tax
-cruise control
-rear isofix

Bonus:
Heated seats, front isofix, heated screen.

Sadly, if it was a diesel she wanted- we have a plethora of options!

What suggestions do you have please?
Cheers

[stevemcs]

Why not stick with the Mondeo, I used to do a similar mileage in mine and gave it a run once a month and never had dpf issues.

[Mammasaid]

If you can charge at home, the MG5 is coming into budget, eliminates all the engine stuff and will cost pennies to run;

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202601099...

[Northern.N]

She would love to but it’s already showing concerns.
So sadly not an option

[Matt_T]

A petrol Avensis seems like a sensible option - dull but fairly simple and trustworthy.
https://www.pistonheads.com/buy/listing/19413665

...or maybe a petrol CRV?
https://www.pistonheads.com/buy/listing/18666883

Edited by Matt_T on Sunday 25th January 13:09

[Northern.N]

That shape CRV is definitely on the cards.

Would be brilliant if anyone has experience with them to share here?

[OutInTheShed]

An after market DPF for a Mondeo is a couple of hundred quid or less. Labour to fit is not huge?

Could be cheaper to change it than to change cars, if the current car is otherwise trouble free?
People who've got tidy estates tend to hang on to them, Tesco car park is usually full of OK estates which aren't worth much more, but they are not the ones for sale. Most of those for sale are not great.

A two mile commute is not great for any IC car.

[Matt_T]

OutInTheShed said:

An after market DPF for a Mondeo is a couple of hundred quid

...is that really a thing? Won't the car just throw error codes?

[ZX10R NIN]

Can you work with a hatchback?

If you can then the last of the line Insignia's in 1.5T form pretty much tick all of the boxes:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202601159...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202506233...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202601219...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202601219...

[targarama]

RAV4 or CRV, both have petrol auto options and all the options you ask for, and are very good cars for this use. Won't break down either at this age compared to the European options.

[OutInTheShed]

Matt_T said:

OutInTheShed said:

An after market DPF for a Mondeo is a couple of hundred quid

...is that really a thing? Won't the car just throw error codes?

Not Mondeo specific, but I've known cars with failed DPFs, a cheap aftermarket one has been fine.
You may need knowledge to reset errors, I expect that varies from car to car.
The DPF itself is a dumb lump of metal, the ECU only knows about the sensors surrounding it, which are things like pressure drop across the DPF, temperature at various points in the exhaust, lambda sensors here and there.
These things vary from car to car and even version to version and year to year of the 'same' car.
So some model specific knowledge will help!

Of course in some cases, DPF failure is an effect of some other cause like one or more poorly injectors for example.

I'd imagine plenty of indy garages can change the DPF on a middle aged Ford?

[stevemcs]

OutInTheShed said:

Not Mondeo specific, but I've known cars with failed DPFs, a cheap aftermarket one has been fine.
You may need knowledge to reset errors, I expect that varies from car to car.
The DPF itself is a dumb lump of metal, the ECU only knows about the sensors surrounding it, which are things like pressure drop across the DPF, temperature at various points in the exhaust, lambda sensors here and there.
These things vary from car to car and even version to version and year to year of the 'same' car.
So some model specific knowledge will help!

Of course in some cases, DPF failure is an effect of some other cause like one or more poorly injectors for example.

I'd imagine plenty of indy garages can change the DPF on a middle aged Ford?

Aftermarket dpf’s are rubbish, they never fit. We have replaced them but it’s only an issue if people continue to drive them with the engine light on. The fuel vaporiser is the most common failure on theses

[AddyT.]

Northern.N said:

That shape CRV is definitely on the cards.

Would be brilliant if anyone has experience with them to share here?

My parents had that shape CRV for a few years, albeit the 2.2 diesel. It was bulletproof. Didn’t have one issue with it at all. I think it was a high spec one (EX maybe) they bought secondhand from Honda. I drove it quite a few times. Nice and comfy. Unfortunately I cant speak for the petrols but the one they had was a really good car for them and no trouble at all.

[POIDH]

Northern.N said:

Context:


Dilemma:
She s switched jobs and now commutes just 2 miles. She has to drop our child off for childcare on route- so cannot walk.

We had this for two years. A bike and kiddy trailer was perfect for the job. Stored it in a shed facing outwards and her work had a covered bike rack which helped speed of use.

[66HFM]

Honda Civic Estate (Tourer?) or Volvo V60, although so many of the Volvos are diesel.
Seat Leon ST (estate) or Golf estate.

And isn't the answer always to get a Yeti...?

Edited by 66HFM on Monday 26th January 09:38

[ashenfie]

I would be nice if all the low priced Toyota were not ex taxi's and i would discount find a cheap one. Depending on size any reasonable sized engine will work as long as it's not what they call a wet belt (cam belt). The only issue real issue with chains was that BMW Diesels had rear wheel drive and the chain at the back, It was rather hard to change them. The BMW solution was to chain tensor issues was to replace the chain & tensor which was expensive. Petrol BMWs have the chain at the front so not an issue and no wet belts to break.

That rather leave the best of the rest. Nissan/Honda. The Honda CVR is fine as long as you don't go near mud. Mazda are another option. I would still keep away from the 1.1 & 1.2 size engines, So you should be able to find a Mazda CX-5 within your budget

[Matt_T]

You can pick up Outlander Hybrids for not much money...
https://www.pistonheads.com/buy/listing/19728773

[OutInTheShed]

Matt_T said:

You can pick up Outlander Hybrids for not much money...
https://www.pistonheads.com/buy/listing/19728773

140k miles, what state is the battery in?
I like these cars, a mate had one and worked it hard as a local runabout for his business, charging it more than daily.
That hammers the battery in time.

£4k seems like more than enough for a car which might not have much left to give.
The seller here hasn't bothered to write anything specific in the ad, just dumped the feature list scraped from the web.
Suggests it's not really something they care about?

[Matt_T]

OutInTheShed said:

Matt_T said:

You can pick up Outlander Hybrids for not much money...

140k miles, what state is the battery in?
I like these cars, a mate had one and worked it hard as a local runabout for his business, charging it more than daily.
That hammers the battery in time.

£4k seems like more than enough for a car which might not have much left to give.
The seller here hasn't bothered to write anything specific in the ad, just dumped the feature list scraped from the web.
Suggests it's not really something they care about?

The OP has a commute of 2 miles - even if the battery is now at 70% capacity they can probably do a whole month on a charge. Anyway, it was just a suggestion for a cheap, reliable SUV suitable for a 2 mile commute with kids.

[nobrakes]

E class estate 1.8litre petrol 250CGI

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202512178...