Estate for 8-ish K?

floatindolphin

floatindolphin

floatindolphin

Soldato
Joined
20 Jun 2005
Posts
2,777
Location
Derby
Hi fountain of car knowledge


I'm looking into a new car... (well, new to me)

Had my eye on Subaru Legacy's forever but have managed to wean myself away.

This is my shortlist:

Audi A4 2.5 TDI 180 Quattro Sport Tip Auto (or 2.0T petrol/manual)

Skoda Octavia 1.9 TDI PD 4x4

Skoda Octavia 2.0T FSI vRS

Subaru Legacy 2.0 RE (ahem!)

Audi A6 2.0 TDI DPF S Line 5dr Multitronic

Seen a couple of A6 ads, would 8K be the bottom end knackered ones?

4 wheel drive is a pretty important factor, I'm out in the Peak District all year. Sometimes helping the emergency services in the snow.

A newer Forester Turbo is also on the list. 2.0T petrol, diesel seems to be too much.


One other question, I've always looked for car below, say 80K miles and would never consider buying one over 100K. Is that daft thinking?

I travel 160 miles per week to work and about 10,000 per year. Car driving hoilidays also happen. Me/wife/Daughter plus 10 tonnes of stuff
Thanks
 
floatindolphin said:
4 wheel drive is a pretty important factor, I'm out in the Peak District all year. Sometimes helping the emergency services in the snow.
Click to expand...

I actually bought one of the same cars from your list (A4 avant s-line quattro 2.0T) for the same reason as you - lots of driving in snow.

Quattro is brilliant in some low-grip scenarios, particularly moving off from junctions/roundabouts in the wet, but it's not that good in the snow.
My last car was front wheel drive and i had snow tyres on it in the winter.
They both feel similar moving off from stopped, but then the quattro has the problem of not being able to stop or turn.

If you're planning on buying snow tyres for it anyway - the quattro would be great. If not, save some money on a 2wd car and put it towards proper tyres for the conditions.
 
yeah, snow tyres is a good option. This sounds like a rubbish excuse but storing 4 spare wheels at my place would be hard.

How did you get on with the A4? Is the boot really smaller than you think?

I've had lots of Subaru's and would probably just like 4wd again :)
 
It's a nice car to drive. The s-line suspension is a fairly firm ride. The 2.0T engine has plenty of power (more than i need really). As i mentioned, the 4wd is very good in wet conditions. Gives a lot of confidence pulling out of junctions that you wont wheelspin at all.

All of my previous cars have been hatchbacks, so i'm finding the estate has tonnes of space in it.
Most of the time, i'm driving it around with the back seats down: I rarely take more than 1 passenger and i frequently carry bicycles around.
There is enough space with the seats down to fit my road bike in, without removing any wheels or anything (i'm 6ft, so my bikes are quite large).
On the way to a race last year, I managed to fit myself, 2 passengers, our 3 bikes and all our kit (change of clothes, towels, helmets, shoes, etc) inside the car, with half the rear bench folded down - that was a bit of a squeeze though.
 
Rather than a crummy bottom of the barrel Audi , how about a proper 4x4 say a CRV. Bags of space and higher driving position for adverse driving conditions.
 
I'd probably spend £5k on a previous gen Forester 2.5 XT Turbo and save the rest of the cash for fuel. They're ugly but incredibly capable cars: 5.8s to 60, AWD, good ground clearance, surprisingly good handling and can easily average over 30 MPG on a run.
 
Seat Exeo 2.0 TSFI Estate but they are based on the older Audi platform

Honda Accord 2.4 VTEC Estate, they are very rare, I think there is one for sale in the country right now
 
You won't get a petrol exeo estate for love nor money unfortunately. If by some miracle you can find one though then they're a good shout.

I'd worry about a legacy with the 2 litre petrol - best to try one but its a big lump of a car for that engine to haul around.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom