Estate Car to carry house doors inside, flat

[SteamyTea]

Had an E 300TE-24 as a company runaround.  Could get most a steamroom or sauna in one.

[Ferdinand]

Time for a bit more data. There are some remarkable deals around which I will put in a separate post - perhaps it is a good day to buy.

 

I test drove a Skoda Superb at the weekend - brief report to follow, and I also intend to have a try on:

 

Mercedes E Class Estate

Audi A6 Avant

BMW 5 Series Touring

Jag XF Shooting Brake :-). (They want to sound like an Agatha Christie book).

VW Passat Estate.

 

This is where I am:

 

Essentials

 

Big flat load space. 2m+ x 900+ is a pretty good definition.

Ability to tow up to about 2 tons - so electrics not up to it.

Loads of torque.

Sub 40k list price; I will not be paying the extra £1550 road tax.

50 mpg in normal driving.

Modern 2l diesels seem good enough. Can't really see the point in needing more than 8s 0-60 and 140mph.

Robust tie-down options inside.

Can see the corners of the car.

 

Would Likes

 

Parking Assist.

Build tin roof bars.

 

WIBNIs

 

Gadgets and Gewgaws are nice if they work but most of them are hardly necessary. Having played with the loaded Skoda 'Laurin & Clement' model, and the not loaded Audi Allroad, the only ones which catch my attention might be

 

Electric Tailgate.

Heated front screen.

I am not convinced by big 19" wheels. They are just irrelevant.

 

Ferdinand

 

 

 

 

[AliG]

If you look here

 

https://broadspeed.com

 

you will get an idea of what you should be paying for these cars. The A6 Avant with a replacement imminent can be had with a £10k discount for example, most other cars mentioned can be had with around 15-20% off the list price.

 

 

[SteamyTea]

14 hours ago, Ferdinand said:

Electric Tailgate.

Just stops the book closing don't it.  There was a bit on a once popular motoring show on BBC 2 about it.

14 hours ago, Ferdinand said:

I am not convinced by big 19" wheels. They are just irrelevant.

And make for a noisy ride.

 

14 hours ago, Ferdinand said:

Loads of torque.

Then a turbo, though most cars are going that way anyway.

Torque is an odd thing, it does not translate directly into power, or acceleration, but you would be getting an automatic anyway these days.  Manuals are rubbish.

[Ferdinand]

6 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

Just stops the book closing don't it.  There was a bit on a once popular motoring show on BBC 2 about it.

And make for a noisy ride.

 

Then a turbo, though most cars are going that way anyway.

Torque is an odd thing, it does not translate directly into power, or acceleration, but you would be getting an automatic anyway these days.  Manuals are rubbish.

 

Yep. I think they are all turbo.

 

Slightly noticeable lag lag lunge on the Skoda when accelerating quickly, but that is not really necessary anyway.

[bassanclan]

Its a shame to use  a £40k car to transport doors etc around. The delivery fee or van hire fee for doors etc will be a lot less than the loss in value of the car from a scratch or minor damage when loading/unloading.

I have a van and a car, my van was off the road for a month or so and regret not hiring/borrowing a van for that month due to the damage done to my car.

[Ferdinand]

1 hour ago, bassanclan said:

Its a shame to use  a £40k car to transport doors etc around. The delivery fee or van hire fee for doors etc will be a lot less than the loss in value of the car from a scratch or minor damage when loading/unloading.

I have a van and a car, my van was off the road for a month or so and regret not hiring/borrowing a van for that month due to the damage done to my car.

 

No it's fine. That s just the largest thing I would need in there :-).

 

And since I do rentals I have a stack of doors in mr garage that Ts preferred to have taken off while they are there that will need to be put back.

 

I admit that delivery fees are one thing I really do not like.

[Jml]

19 inch tyres can also provide harsh ride.

 

The BMW use to have run flat tyres, dont know if still does. It only came with four tyres and a tube of gunk to sort a flat, fine if tyre not shredded.  To make matters worse it did have a spare wheel well in boot, but BMW decided to put a battery in there, so no option if wanted to carry a spare.  We use to carry a spare in the boot, which kind of negates the use of a touring.

[Ferdinand]

48 minutes ago, Jml said:

19 inch tyres can also provide harsh ride.

 

The BMW use to have run flat tyres, dont know if still does. It only came with four tyres and a tube of gunk to sort a flat, fine if tyre not shredded.  To make matters worse it did have a spare wheel well in boot, but BMW decided to put a battery in there, so no option if wanted to carry a spare.  We use to carry a spare in the boot, which kind of negates the use of a touring.

 

I think the 5 Series Touring has a space saver. I think.

[bassanclan]

What about the Volvo V90 - about half of the range will be within budget. There is a new V60 coming out soon which is only 100mm shorter.

A bit more "budget" but the Mondeo estate is surprisingly spacious

[Ferdinand]

There seem to be some very good deals available at the moment.

 

When I started this thread I was seeing offers which potentially cut the ground from under lower priced brands.

 

- (via Carwow) Mercedes E Class 200D Estates (OTR price £38k) for as low as £30,300 ie 20%+ reduction.

- A BMW 5 series Touring 520d 2.0 SE Aug 2017 Pre Reg with <100 miles on the clock for under £27k. List price is £39k.

 

Audi and Skoda 4x4s fall within my criteria.

 

Personal Contract Purchases

 

These seem to be available at about £3k down payment plus approx £250 - 300  plus VAT per month for 36 or 48 months on mileages of about 8-10k/year for private buyers for cars similar to the above. Sometimes better deals are around, somtimes a little worse. I am not experienced with these so am not totally clear good that is, but it looks OK.

 

More modest brands are a little less expensive.

 

But it seems a good time to buy these diesels, especially as Euro 6 diesels are planned to be permissible in urban emission zones.

 

@bassanclan Thanks for the comment. I think the V90 is a little smaller inside (based on reviews) but I will go and have a look.

 

Ferdinand

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 2, 2018 by Ferdinand

[Guest Alphonsox]

On 28/02/2018 at 13:04, Ferdinand said:

 

I think the 5 Series Touring has a space saver. I think.

 

Unlikely - I have a 520d on 17" runflats. No spare wheel, no wheel well and no need for tubes of gunk. If you get a puncture the runflats give you a 80km range at 50mph, which is more than enough to get you somewhere to get it fixed. The car's fitted with tyre pressure monitors so you get an immediate warning.

[Ferdinand]

54 minutes ago, Alphonsox said:

 

Unlikely - I have a 520d on 17" runflats. No spare wheel, no wheel well and no need for tubes of gunk. If you get a puncture the runflats give you a 80km range at 50mph, which is more than enough to get you somewhere to get it fixed. The car's fitted with tyre pressure monitors so you get an immediate warning.

 

Talking to them, a space saver seems to be an option on the saloon not the Touring, and in the website configuration for the Touring the RFTs are an option which also requires you to buy more expensive wheels. ANd you lose the mobility kit , whatever that is.

 

So the goo may be the standard, at least on the 5 Series Touring 2.0d SE that I was playing with .. providing they give you something.

 

F

[SteamyTea]

If you get a BMW, no one lets you out of side turnings.  It is the law.

 

[Ferdinand]

Time for a brief update.

 

This is not going to an @Onoff thread, but it is likely to rabbit on for a couple of weeks whilst I educate myself about buying cars in 2018. The last one I bought from a dealer was a couple of decades ago. And I'll enjoy the test drives.

 

A couple more have come onto the list, and I had a couple of test drives over the weekend.

 

- VW Passat GTE (phev plugin) is one that I had not noticed previously. Big enough, and huge discounts available of 27-28% for cash or Personal Contract Purchase. Highyl dependent on driving profile. 1600kg towing.

- VW Passat Alltrack 4Matic  are available on quite special offer at present. £3000 down and £250 ish a month for 24 months 10k miles a year. 45mpg not 50mpg.

- Mistubishi Outlander phev seem to be available at discounts of 30%+ off the new price. Which is not exciting for secondhand values in a couple of years - also the VW GTE. Might need to look at recent secondhand too. Suspect the Outlander this does not meet my 2m load deck criterion. 1500kg towing.

 

Test drives.

 

- Skoda Superb very top of the range - "Laurin & Klement". 190 bhp or so. Big inside and comfortable. Hard to even get slight front wheel scrabble without trying. They very kindly gave me the keys and said "come back when you are done". Impressed. 

- Mercedes E-Class 220D Estate. 190 bhp or so again. *Very* nice place to be, and very refined. The comment above on RWD and snow is right. It struggled with packed snow on this hill, ut to be fair was OK with a very feather-foot. Would need All Season tyres at least, and ideally 4WD. GLS Shooting Break looks really nice, but massively outside budget and practicality.

 

 

I think I'll need a speed limiter. It would be very easy to drift up to banning speeds on a motorway without noticing.

 

Thank-you for all the previous comments.

 

Ferdinand

 

Edited March 5, 2018 by Ferdinand

[Visti]

my 2 cents: Honda Accord estate (2.2 version)  is excellent value if you're considering used cars. The latest incarnation isn't out in the UK for some bizzar reason, but there's a reason i've had three of these over the last 10 years as they barely feel the miles.

 

I believe mine (7th gen) has a 1850mm boot space, but the seats fold completely flat. Not sure about the 8th and 9th gen ones though.

 

[Temp]

If it's not too late I might have a 2005 Mk2 Ford Galaxy for sale soon. Only 215,000 miles. The special 5 speed gearbox (1,2,3,4,6) is in good condition :-) Doesn't drink petrol.

Edited March 5, 2018 by Temp

[Ferdinand]

25 minutes ago, Temp said:

If it's not too late I might have a 2005 Mk2 Ford Galaxy for sale soon. Only 215,000 miles. The special 5 speed gearbox (1,2,3,4,6) is in good condition :-) Doesn't drink petrol.

 

Several weeks to go yet. I am really horribly out of date.

 

@Visti Yes .. I looked for the Accord estate and found the hole in the range where it isn't.

Edited March 5, 2018 by Ferdinand

[Ferdinand]

A small coda to this thread.

 

The VW Passat GTE (hybrid) has been withdrawn and the new one has an electric range of about 118 miles (claimed) compares to 31. a significant difference.

 

Currently on backorder until God-knows-when, however.

 

[Ferdinand]

The mountain has laboured and I provisionally ordered my molehill. Left it alone for a few weeks and came back to the issue when clear of clutter at the end of the quarter.

 

I have gone for a Skoda Superb Estate 150bhp TDI SE Executive with 2WD or te 190bhp version with 4wd. Either will give me loadsaloadspace, 50mpg ish and 2 tonnes of towing, which will do the basic things well. I think it will be the 4wd version as It would niggle for years if I had turned out to need it and not bothered. And I also get some really useful stuff - fold flat passenger seat and a nice system of Velcro load retainers.

 

It turns out that with the appropriate software there are various features that can be turned on electronically, as for a lot of cars these days.

 

The interior colours are delightfully Germanic ... beige or black. 

 

You can get them in orange or bright greens and reds in places like the Czech Republic, but here it is mainly business so very sober.

 

One question for the hub. Has anyone been able to get 4 season tyres fitted at the outset; this will come with summer tyres which would be Pirelli P0s or P7s, and I want something like Cross Climates. How did you work that if the OEM tyres are summer tyres?

 

All season tyres are advertised, but on these cars I am aware that this is a translation confusion due to slightly different terminology, so I will do this aspect myself, and I do not want to end up with about £500-600 of Pirelli tyres sitting in my garage that I have to fire-sale on EBay. I would happil6 Trade th3m away for 60% of the best open market new price to a local tyre fitter for stock, but will need to wait until a 3-4 weeks before delivery to discuss that.

 

Ferdinand

 

Edited July 5, 2018 by Ferdinand

[Onoff]

I need to get my MK1 Focus estate workhorse back on the road. Didn't realise how much I miss it! Mechanically sound and outwardly tidy but rotten sills and then only the "soffit" sections due to a stupid design. Yes I've got them and the welder but haven't gotten around to it!  (Rear subframe etc also needs to come off for a refurb).

 

Tempted the other day by a Volvo V70 XC. Circa 2002 for £1.5K. Looked mint. Must resist, got enough old cars!

[Ferdinand]

I do not have the space for an auto-graveyard.

 

Had to deal with one of those .. 3 x NSU RO80 plus a 40ft artic trailer ... when dad passed on. No one wants RO80s.

 

Think of the children ?.

 

F

Edited July 5, 2018 by Ferdinand

[newhome]

46 minutes ago, Ferdinand said:

3 x NSU RO80

 

Isn’t that the car with the wanky engine? 

 

 

[newhome]

1 hour ago, Onoff said:

Must resist, got enough old cars!

 

Goes with the territory in Bidonville surely? 

 

 

[joe90]

If you are buying tyres consider using Asda, yes Asda, look up Asda tyres, they list hundreds of different tyres, (the good bad and expensive) you select a local tyre fitter, they deliver them in a couple of days and give you a time slot and day to have them fitted. I have saved ££££££ on tyres.