Spec me a barge

Mr Gimp

Mr Gimp

Mr Gimp

Soldato
Joined
6 Sep 2003
Posts
3,497
Location
Somerset
I'm looking into a replacement motor for my Dad's aging and chronically awful Vectra Estate, as quite frankly, how it made it through the last MOT is a mystery, let alone what voodoo would be needed the next one!
Anyhoo.. It has to be an estate, big enough boot for a load of painting and decorating gubbins, probably diesel makes sense seeing how many miles he does too.

Budget is a paltry £2000

Help!
 
I thought it might be asking a lot, so am open to petrols if they aren't going to be LOLCRAP on fuel. His Vectra is a 1.8 EcoCheese and he seems happy enough with consumption on that.
 
Passat/Octavia/A4/A6 1.9 TDI would be where my money goes.

You'll likely get a better Passat or Octavia for the money.
 
There'll be plenty german diesel estate cars to choose from for £2k. But they wont be mint, probably at least rusty wings. And they will no doubt be in excess of 150k on the miles. But Passat / A6 would be a great car for that, and so long as there is decent service history, the engine at least should easily go on and on and on.

Also consider looking at Ford Mondeos, Saab's and Volvo's and such like, as you may end up with something a little newer, or lower miles for the money.
 
xs2man said:
There'll be plenty german diesel estate cars to choose from for £2k. But they wont be mint, probably at least rusty wings. And they will no doubt be in excess of 150k on the miles. But Passat / A6 would be a great car for that, and so long as there is decent service history, the engine at least should easily go on and on and on.

Also consider looking at Ford Mondeos, Saab's and Volvo's and such like, as you may end up with something a little newer, or lower miles for the money.
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There will be plenty of non rusty non moon mileage German estates available for £2K. Most German cars are pretty good with rust & corrosion because of the way they are galvanised, they certainly wont rot away like an old Ford. I don't think they hold as much value as you think they do either. :p

E.g:

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classif...had/used,nearlynew,new/model/passat?logcode=p

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classif...d,nearlynew,new/transmission/manual?logcode=p

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classif...audi/onesearchad/used,nearlynew,new?logcode=p

Older A6's are a bit more huge and also a chunk cheaper:

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classif...earchad/used,nearlynew,new/model/a6?logcode=p


OP, you could also look at V70/V50/V40 estates, 9-5/9-3 estates etc.
 
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Octavia estates are quite small in the old shape, nice square rear mind.

If petrol is an option then maybe Mondeo 2.0 or a very cheap Accord estate but that'd be bottom of the barrel.

I think I'd go Passat tbh
 
acme15 said:
There will be plenty of non rusty non moon mileage German estates available for £2K. Most German cars are pretty good with rust & corrosion because of the way they are galvanised, they certainly wont rot away like an old Ford. I don't think they hold as much value as you think they do either. :p

E.g:

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classif...had/used,nearlynew,new/model/passat?logcode=p

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classif...d,nearlynew,new/transmission/manual?logcode=p

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classif...audi/onesearchad/used,nearlynew,new?logcode=p

Older A6's are a bit more huge and also a chunk cheaper:

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classif...earchad/used,nearlynew,new/model/a6?logcode=p


OP, you could also look at V70/V50/V40 estates, 9-5/9-3 estates etc.
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Ok. So, first one has dodgy gears, second one isn't German and is golf sized, so doubtful it's barge enough, third one is nigh on 150k and as stated in ad, bodywork isn't so good, which was really my point.

Never heard about the lack of rusty arches before. Most vw's and audi's of this era have rusty front arches. Mine has them, as did just about every motor I looked at in this budget area where I was actually looking. Some worse than others, but most of them, to some degree, had it.

A6 looks nice. But low powered engine for such a massive car. 130 is minimum you should be looking at really. And 150k again...

I know what these cars are currently worth because I currently have one, albeit not an estate, that I'm currently selling, and am looking for an estate to replace it, all in exactly this price range.
 
Fair points. I will admit that I only skim read the ads. :)

The Skoda does use mainly VW parts though.
 
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I wasn't meaning anything bad about the Skoda, it is essentially a VW built in Czech Republic, (in a similar vein to SEAT's being VW built in Spain, essentially). BUT, it isn't German. I would happily have one though. As the old stigma attached to Skoda is no longer relevant.

The Octavia is too small though, the Superb is the estate you really want if going for a Skoda.
 
acme15 said:
There will be plenty of non rusty non moon mileage German estates available for £2K. Most German cars are pretty good with rust & corrosion because of the way they are galvanised, they certainly wont rot away like an old Ford. I don't think they hold as much value as you think they do either. :p
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Err no not really, a lot of them rust faster than a British Leyland Rover.

I wasn't meaning anything bad about the Skoda, it is essentially a VW built in Czech Republic, (in a similar vein to SEAT's being VW built in Spain, essentially). BUT, it isn't German.
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The Skoda is a VW underneath so it's fair to say it is German. If you wan't to be pedantic you can say it is x,y,z as it will made up of parts from around the world.
 
I don't think it's EVER fair to say it's German. And it's not really being pedantic as it's BUILT in Czech, not x,y & z. Just because it's owned by a German company doesn't make it German.

In the same way you wouldn't accuse Land Rover of being Indian, or Jaguar for that matter.
 
xs2man said:
I don't think it's EVER fair to say it's German. And it's not really being pedantic as it's BUILT in Czech, not x,y & z. Just because it's owned by a German company doesn't make it German.

In the same way you wouldn't accuse Land Rover of being Indian, or Jaguar for that matter.
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It really doesn't matter tbh, the mk4 golfs and Audi a3 8l's were built in several different countries ( from memory Germany, Slovakia, Belgium, south Africa - though not sure if we got those ones) I'm sure the Passat will be the same. Anyway the Octavias are decent cars but I'd agree too small in the boot for barge duties.
 
rodenal said:
It really doesn't matter tbh, the mk4 golfs and Audi a3 8l's were built in several different countries ( from memory Germany, Slovakia, Belgium, south Africa - though not sure if we got those ones) I'm sure the Passat will be the same. Anyway the Octavias are decent cars but I'd agree too small in the boot for barge duties.
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Lots of them are built all over the world, but usually for domestic / semi-domestic markets. For example, China build their own, a lot of it to do with import duties. But then you can buy a new Santana there. Canada have a plant that produce for the NA market, as does Mexico, and more recently US.

I have always had German built VW's / Audi's though. You can tell as the first character in the VIN is the country code...

You can tell by the first character of the VIN

1 = United States
3 = Mexico
9 = Brazil
W = Germany

The 11th character of the VIN is the assembly plant

A = Ingolstadt
B = Brussels
E = Emden
G = Graz
H = Hanover
K = Osnabruck
M = Mexico
N = Neckarsulm
P = Brazil
S = Stuttgart
V = Westmoreland,P.A.(US)
W = Wolfsburg
Y = Spain
 
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