Looking to buy an estate for the first time so need a bit of guidance!
Requirements are:
Preferably diesel
Manual
Space for a dog
Nice drive/stylish (know this is in the eye of the beholder)
Budget is about £3k, have perused the Volvos, Fords, Skoda estates and they all seem to fit the bill but need some real world experience.
Thanks in advance!
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Looking at the earlier threads regarding the tumble in second-hand car prices, I think you should have a very good choice of any marque you want, so long as mileage is not important.
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Lovely to drive, huge boot, different to others....Peug 406.
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I hate to say it, but it probably has to be a Mondeo.
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Thanks for the replies so far, a nice problem to have is that there is lots of choice!
Not adverse to a pug or mondeo by any means so any advice on these would be helpful
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i love my c5 estate. very economical and extremely comfortable
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Hi
I've just bought an Xsara 20.Hdi Estate
Good to Drive and reasonably cheap you should be able to find a Minted one
for well under 3K
Regards
Ian.H
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On Honest John`s latest Auction report there was a Mondeo5 4 plate, 2 litre diesel 130 estate with 95k on the clock - plus auction charges. On face value looks reasonable value to me at £3250 plus charges, if you would consider buying from an auction
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How about one of the unloved korean people carriers? Kia Carens,Hyundai Matrix?
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MG ZT-T?
You may not get a diesel for that money though. If you dont fancy the lairy styling then you could go for the 75 tourer. A diesel will be in budget for sure and they are very reliable - I ran mine to 225,000 miles with little going wrong.
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I had (over the years) two Fiat Tempras and then two Fiat Marea estates...
Won't hear a a bad word said about the Marea estate...
you can get some pretty tasty diesels including 5 cylinder same as in the Alfa 159.
But, the last one I bought was a hard find, most had been abused by builders/carpenters/plumbers, and when I did find a clean one i snapped it up and ran it happily for two years, but that was back in 2005, so finding a clean one now will be harder.
Best features:
great dash, great climate control if it works, (DO CHECK), really comfortably seats.
Rear seats fold completely flat in to floor with no hassle
Lower part of boot opens downward (like a rangerover) making a really long flat loading bay.
20V petrol goes like stink (never tried the diesels)
Reliability, yes I know, not a Fiat strong point, but I never had a single problem with two that I owned, and they felt well put together
Worst features
Completely useless luggage cover
tinny sounding speakers
last year I sold mine for £1300 (it was a W reg and still going strong)
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I'd stay clear of French/Italian car - hit or miss with reliability. Japanese - for almost guaranteed reliability. Mondeo's a very good car and if it does go wrong it's a lot cheaper to fix than our european cousins car.
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Thanks for all suggestions so far!
Am looking at mondeo/focus estates, what would be the best japanese equivalents?
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A £1000 Mondeo, and £2k applied elsewhere!
See the post I am just about to make. ;-))
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The only thing better, and cheaper, than a Mondeo is a Nissan Primera estate. Harder to find though; very unpopular - and very reliable, I'm told.
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I paid £3k for my 2000 V70 Classic (170bhp Petrol) at the begining of 2007, when it had 172,000 miles on it... it had a Full Main Dealer history (every single stamp in the book was with one of 2 dealers, now it's 3 as I've moved away) and only a little bit of bumps in the interior. It's now at 196k, and gets serviced at the main dealer for £130 a time!!!
I'd be very wary about buying a diesel at the moment as there are so many problems with the engines that are at the 70k mark.
V70 Diesels tend to command about a £750 premium over an equivalent petrol and sell about twice as quickly.
If you're looking for a Volvo have a look at Ravenscroft in Basingstoke (they also list on ebay all their cheaper px's)
Good luck in the hunt, 406's are a taxi drivers favorite for a reason...
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Am going to view a few variants over the weekend - the primera estate does look the part, okay in terms of reliability and is the satnav any good on it?
Also the 1.8 petrol in this car, a decent performer?
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