FAO saloon owners

Ricochet J

Ricochet J

Ricochet J

Soldato
Joined
29 Jun 2004
Posts
12,957
I desperately want a comfortable saloon or a coupe. I will decide which of the two closer to buying time.

I have previously owned hatchbacks. My hatchbacks have come to my rescue. E.g. I can happily put the rear seats down and remove the parcel shelf to transport abnormal loads (e.g. an Ikea billy book case, very large suitcases [I'm aware these can fit in an S class/7 series comfortably], d̶e̶a̶d̶ ̶b̶o̶d̶i̶e̶s̶, etc).

How do you saloon owners cope without this feature?
 
I think most coupes come with the split fold rear seats (at least all the ones I have looked at do), and on saloons it is often an option.

I personally wouldn't buy a saloon without that option, but there are many out there that don't have it. The problem then becomes the "small" hole through which you load all the crap you want to transport. In this instance, an estate is preferable.

I used to prefer the looks of saloons, but then that was in the early 90's when estates looked like wardrobes on wheels. Now though, estate cars can look VERY nice, and that's why I now only buy estate cars (when buying newer cars).

My Passat is a saloon though, with the folding rear seats, and it is practical enough until you have something big enough that the small boot opening isn't big enough. I would say the boot space in a saloon is bigger than that in an estate, assuming you keep the boot cover on obviously.
 
Estates are massively more practical and look great these days but what drives me mad about them is they are less refined and more noisy inside - i guess its the extra body flex as although the brand new LCI 520d Touring I had a few months ago didn't creak or make any estate-type-noises all of the 2010-11 ones I've driven including my parents F11 do, so I guess its something that develops over time...
 
I am under the impression most the cabin noise comes from the boot. I'm not sure why I have this impression.

Anyway with an estate surely road noise is an issue?

I'm not expecting complete silence. I do want to be able to drive down the M1 and not listen to the radio super loudly just to overcome road noise.
 
Ricochet J said:
I am under the impression most the cabin noise comes from the boot. I'm not sure why I have this impression.
Click to expand...

I can understand the increased exposure to noise from the rear tyres and potentially exhaust, due to the fact that the boot isn't isolated from the cabin by the rear seat structure, but surely the manufacturers increase noise suppression materials to compensate for this?

Has someone done any blind tests on this, i.e. is increased road noise of an estate vs. its saloon equivalent actually measurable amongst modern estates?
 
I find it to be a real pain in my car. I'm fortunate that we have always had a hatchback that we can use to carry larger items. I think if we only had one car then a saloon without folding seats would be a bit of a no no and personally it would deter me from getting one.
 
Not all estates are bad tbh. My wife's E39 is very quiet. Yes there are some very minor creaks now and then, but it's still a quieter car than most. I was astonished at just how quiet a car it is when I test drove it. It is louder than the saloon version I had a few months before, but not by a great deal as it's so well damped and insulated.
 
My F10 saloon doesn't have through load or folding rear seats and I'd under estimated how useful this is. I will probably end up changing it to an estate in the coming year or so.
 
When I went to look at the BMW there was nothing mentioned in the advert about the fact that it had folding rear seats so it was a nice find when I was initially looking around the car. I can get my mountain bike in the back, but only after removing the front wheel on the bike and folding the seats. It'll never be as practical as my 306 was though, I managed to get a full set of seats from a MK2 Golf in the 306 and the 306 was a 3-door :p

My step-dad has an E46 touring and there is maybe just a little bit more noise in the back, but it's not enough that would make me tell myself never to get an estate. He does have a dog guard in the back (not a BMW guard because he didn't rate the BMW dog guard he bought for his old E34) which despite being a pretty tidy fit does make the occasional clunk over a bump, but other than that noise wise I wouldn't say there's much between touring and saloon in the E46 at least.
 
To answer the original question, now I've moved to a saloon, we do the tip runs in the wife's car :)

If you need the load capacity, consider an estate and make sure you test drive with the back seats down.

My old X-Type estate (mondeo in a fur coat) was fine. You could tell there was extra noise when the back seats were down but it was nothing excessive. Unless you've got super sensitive hearing or buying an abused shed I think you're worrying about nothing.

I bet most issues people have are down to the estate having being treated like a hired white van.
 
[TW]Fox;26965676 said:
Estates are massively more practical and look great these days but what drives me mad about them is they are less refined and more noisy inside - i guess its the extra body flex as although the brand new LCI 520d Touring I had a few months ago didn't creak or make any estate-type-noises all of the 2010-11 ones I've driven including my parents F11 do, so I guess its something that develops over time...
Click to expand...

I wish my Mondeo was an estate as life would be a lot easier when it come to packing the camping gear.
 
Broadly speaking I find that having a saloon doesn't impose any practical restrictions

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Was a bit of a faff about when I first got my car, until I removed the liner from the rear of the boot.

The fittings and the mechanical side of the fold down seat were there, just not the levers on the top of the seats, undid the catches from within the boot :) proper fold down seats.

Only issue with mine is there are braces at the left and right hand side so kinda cuts down the width of things I can fit, but Ive fitted full lengths of wood n stuff in it fine :)

Much more practical with no boot liner in the back haha
 
The rear seats in my A8L don't go down but that doesn't matter as the boot is huge, full size 19" spare under the floor, kids double buggy, weekly shopping plus bits I always keep in the boot such as oil, petrol can (empty of course). It all fits in no problem with some room to spare.
 
I've never found it an issue but I don't generally fill the boot with anything more than suitcases for trips away for two of us - which the saloon is particularly good at because it's quiet, refined and the boot is secure. I've never had a saloon with a through load flap either :(
 
I don't think there is much I could fit in my GTI with the seats down that I couldn't fit in my new E Class with the back seats up.
But any large purchase I would have delivered anyway. So its only suitcases, groceries, kids bikes and the occasional Ikea stuff that goes into it.

If I did plan to cart large items around on a regular basis I would have got a SUV or an Estate.
 
Can only fit long slim items in my saloon, nothing bulky will fit, whereas my dads old hatchback used to be able to take fridges, washing machines etc, that wider opening makes a huge difference.

Have never needed to carry any bulky objects so no problems for me, if I ever need to then I can hire a van or borrow my dads MPV.
 
I don't generally have any issues with the boot space in my coupe. The rears fold down which means I can load quite a bit in. If it's really that much of an issue then why not buy roof bars so you can transport stuff around that way?

The other week I went cycling with my sister and her bf and we had 2 bikes on the roof and the narrower of the rear seats folded down so we could slot another bike in the back. There was still plenty of room in the rear for a passenger..was really impressed actually!
 
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