10k budget - family/work car

BAcon

BAcon

BAcon

Soldato
Joined
7 Apr 2004
Posts
4,815
Location
near Bristol
Hi,

My Saab 9-5 1.9tid is nearing the end of it's life and I am now looking for a replacement.

No firm budget, but I would like to keep it under £10k, happy to spend less!

Use case:
* Commuter - 50miles a day, mostly motorway
* Family car - have a 5yr old and an imminent new-born, so 2 child seats, push chair etc
* 12k ish annual mileage
* Roof box for holidays

Requirements:
* Petrol
* Reliable
* Spacious with a decent loading space if possible
* Comfortable
* Reasonable running costs

Desirable:
* Auto
* NA engine, 1.8L+

Undesirables:
* Diesel
* Tiny turbo engines, so no 1.0L eco boom fords
* Pricy repair bills for common items, i.e £400 injectors, I am looking at my previous 2.2 D4D Avensis.....
* Silly road tax bands

I have been looking at the following:
* Skoda Octavia and Superb estate - Are the 1.4TSI engines reliable? as they seem the most common in my budget. How about the DSG option?
* Mondeo - My go to after loving my old 2008 2.0L petrol, but they all seem to be turbo engines, are all of the Eco Boost engines bad?
* VAG alternatives, Passat?
* Toyota Avensis estate - We had a 2009 2.2D4D which we liked, but the engine suffered catastrophic failure at only 85k miles. Car was incredibly spacious and comfortable though, so could consider a 1.8 petrol.
* Mazda?
* Honda?

Thoughts?
Cheers!
 
Skoda Octavia is a good shout

Mazda 6 estate
Seat Leon estate for something a bit smaller
Ford Focus estate
Audi A4 estate, maybe a bit pricier for repairs
Volvo V50
Volvo V70

Honda don't have anything for this I don't think (once they stopped selling the Accord in the UK)
 
Why no diesel just out of interest? Your usage with the 50 miles on the motorway daily would put you in diesel territory.
 
BAcon said:
Hi,

My Saab 9-5 1.9tid is nearing the end of it's life and I am now looking for a replacement.

No firm budget, but I would like to keep it under £10k, happy to spend less!

Use case:
* Commuter - 50miles a day, mostly motorway
* Family car - have a 5yr old and an imminent new-born, so 2 child seats, push chair etc
* 12k ish annual mileage
* Roof box for holidays

Requirements:
* Petrol
* Reliable
* Spacious with a decent loading space if possible
* Comfortable
* Reasonable running costs

Desirable:
* Auto
* NA engine, 1.8L+

Undesirables:
* Diesel
* Tiny turbo engines, so no 1.0L eco boom fords
* Pricy repair bills for common items, i.e £400 injectors, I am looking at my previous 2.2 D4D Avensis.....
* Silly road tax bands

I have been looking at the following:
* Skoda Octavia and Superb estate - Are the 1.4TSI engines reliable? as they seem the most common in my budget. How about the DSG option?
* Mondeo - My go to after loving my old 2008 2.0L petrol, but they all seem to be turbo engines, are all of the Eco Boost engines bad?
* VAG alternatives, Passat?
* Toyota Avensis estate - We had a 2009 2.2D4D which we liked, but the engine suffered catastrophic failure at only 85k miles. Car was incredibly spacious and comfortable though, so could consider a 1.8 petrol.
* Mazda?
* Honda?

Thoughts?
Cheers!
Click to expand...
You say no small capacity turbo engines then the 1.4tsi known for it's unreliability is a car on your list.

A honda will be your best bet, there are many options, the accord estate is a great load lugger, and the vvti engines tend to be amazingly reliable.

Big Toyota's (RAV4) are quite pricey, corrola probably isn't big enough.
 
DSG gearbox, buy it if you like automatics, but I think it will be more expensive re maintenance, and if it goes wrong, it's expensive to put right. A manual would be cheaper and more reliable.
 
IC3 said:
Mazda 6 with 2.0l petrol is pretty robust, I don't think they're desirable amongst thieves anymore.
Click to expand...
Thank you I will see what I can find

radderfire said:
Skoda Octavia is a good shout

Mazda 6 estate
Seat Leon estate for something a bit smaller
Ford Focus estate
Audi A4 estate, maybe a bit pricier for repairs
Volvo V50
Volvo V70

Honda don't have anything for this I don't think (once they stopped selling the Accord in the UK)
Click to expand...
Yeh I have looked at the Leon and Golf actually, odd looking at the back but seemed reasonable. Assume Octavia class size. Will consider them.

coupe69 said:
Why no diesel just out of interest? Your usage with the 50 miles on the motorway daily would put you in diesel territory.
Click to expand...
Last few cars have been diesel and I am not a fan of the cost of diesel problems... Has reliability improved of diesel engines?

lordrobs said:
Civic Sport Tourer no good?
Click to expand...

Will take a look, I do love a Honda


sx_turbo said:
You say no small capacity turbo engines then the 1.4tsi known for it's unreliability is a car on your list.

A honda will be your best bet, there are many options, the accord estate is a great load lugger, and the vvti engines tend to be amazingly reliable.

Big Toyota's (RAV4) are quite pricey, corrola probably isn't big enough.
Click to expand...

Agree, it is a small turbo engine, but they are the most common engine choice available, with everyone recommending the Octvaia on here I wanted to keep it a consideration. My reasoning generally is that I don't ideally want a small stressed engine with a turbo, I want something that is going to be happy going up and down a motorway. Also want a reasonable amount of grunt if I can.

Wil check when they discontinued the accord, see what I can find. I agree a Honda would be great.


radderfire said:
Maybe a little on the small side, but Honda reliability so worth considering if not too small.
Click to expand...

Thanks

radderfire said:
DSG gearbox, buy it if you like automatics, but I think it will be more expensive re maintenance, and if it goes wrong, it's expensive to put right. A manual would be cheaper and more reliable.
Click to expand...
Understood, thanks
 
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BAcon said:
Last few cars have been diesel and I am not a fan of the cost of diesel problems... Has reliability improved of diesel engines?
Click to expand...
I'll be honest, I've had many many diesels over the years (15+), both company cars and private and maybe I've been lucky, but I've never had a major issue. I think if you can get yourself a well maintained example you should be fine. In your situation I'd be looking at the 150bhp 2.0 TDi B8 VW passat estate or a Skoda Superb with the same engine. They're incredibly reliable and frugal, with many doing moon miles. If you look for one that's registered pre April 2017 they shouldn't come with Adblue (the 190BHP models do) you'll also only pay £35 tax a year on the manual.
 
Passta or Superb Estates are huge. Should be a good choice. I have a Golf Estate which is also a great size to be fair.

Not sure how easy it will be to get a NA engine though. Most are probably turbocharged units.

DSG boxes are decent enough, so long as they have been well serviced.
 
sx_turbo said:
You say no small capacity turbo engines then the 1.4tsi known for it's unreliability is a car on your list.
Click to expand...

I know the old twincharged 1.4TSI was awful in the reliability stakes but I don't think the newer turbo only 1.4TSI is particularly unreliable.
 
Kenai said:
I know the old twincharged 1.4TSI was awful in the reliability stakes but I don't think the newer turbo only 1.4TSI is particularly unreliable.
Click to expand...
There is a known fault with the fuel rails. Basically they are under torqued which results in vibration and eventually one of the bolts snapping. When that happens you jet wash your engine bay with fuel... Which is fun.

Luckily my one went on my drive just after starting the engine.

Other than that I think they are fundamentally pretty reliable.
 
I know i wouldn't touch anything that said 1.4 and TSI on it with all the first hand horror stores i've had from people i work with..

But then again i wouldn't touch anything from the whole VW group either.
 
sovietspybob said:
But then again i wouldn't touch anything from the whole VW group either.
Click to expand...
To be honest, I'm probably in that camp now as much as I liked the Leon overall. I can also say the same for Vauxhall after 6 months with my current company car. Software bugs and crap build quality are the order of the day there. Must be that German quality we always hear about as they moved production over there from Elesmere Port for the current model Astra :(

I always advise other people to go Jap but my company car budgets and/or requirements never quite align with being able to follow that advise myself :(
 
lordrobs said:
To be honest, I'm probably in that camp now as much as I liked the Leon overall. I can also say the same for Vauxhall after 6 months with my current company car. Software bugs and crap build quality are the order of the day there. Must be that German quality we always hear about as they moved production over there from Elesmere Port for the current model Astra :(

I always advise other people to go Jap but my company car budgets and/or requirements never quite align with being able to follow that advise myself :(
Click to expand...
Agree,

I would avoid Kia and Hyundai also, they might have big warranty but build quality is awful.

Really want a lexus next, maybe a Volvo, what puts me off the lexus is their lack of power in models
 
ive just gone from a leon mk3 tdi for a daily to a superb 280 4x4 cost me 13k with 63k on clock absolute awesome barge comfy soaks up everything not too unreasonable to run either
 
Really appreciate all of your replies, still struggling to find anything that stands out to me, everything seems overpriced for what they are, but I will keep looking.

edit: I do like the Honda Accord, but most are diesels, despite my no diesel rule, should they be worth considering? Any models better than others, i.e 2.2?
Thanks
 
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I have the Leon estate, withe the 1.4tsi, not the older twin charger one. It has the eco stuff where it drops to 2 cylinders though.
Had it for 4 years now and not a single issue, it's comfy, quiet, plenty of room for my family of 4 plus a dog.
I'd imagine Skodas equivalent is just as nice if not nicer.
 
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