£1.5k, estate, cruiser = ?

[Big News]

Ok, so in the next couple of months I'm looking at swapping my Focus for an estate (I find I'm lugging a lot of music equipment around at the moment!), that's a natural cruiser (I spend a lot of my life on the M1 and M25 - cruise control please!) and importantly not a BMW, or something with an engine bigger than 2.5l (aged 18, insurance purposes!)

Diesel, slushbox, whatever - it doesn't need to be PH, just a reliable, cheap load-lugger and cruiser.

Help?

[Bill]

Omega seems like the obvious choice. Unless you can find a 2.8 Granada (Get a hearse for extra Rock points )

[Stuey145]

Alfa 156 s/w

[Reedy156]

Omega V6 Estate - Huge and well specced
Subaru Legacy Estate (2.0/2.5) - 4WD for the winter
Alfa 156 Sportwagon (2.0TS/JTD/2.5) - Good looking, but load area smaller than saloon with load cover in place!
How about a Vitara LWB/Cherokee etc?....

[mnkiboy]

Saab 9-5, VX Omega, Volvo V70. All big estates that can be had with low-ish powered engines at this price range, and I imagine cruise control was available.

[Bill]

mnkiboy said:

can be had with low-ish powered engines

This being PH I read it as minimum 2.5l

[Muncle Trogg]

Bill said:

Omega seems like the obvious choice. Unless you can find a 2.8 Granada (Get a hearse for extra Rock points )

I agree. Had an Omega (2.2i CDX) for a year and it effortlessly ate up the motorway miles. Was sad to see it go in the end but it was just getting too expensive to run for my circumstances at the time.

I bought it for £1395 and sold it on for £1100 after doing 40,000 miles so you shouldn't lose too much money on one either.

Edited to add that the boot is huge and it's like a van when the seats are down.

[Big News]

Bill said:

This being PH I read it as minimum 2.5l

Ah yes sorry, clunky syntax in the OP!

[devnull]

Mercedes W202 C240. Just turned 189k. Effortless cruiser! Worth pennies.

[spaceship]

Saab 9-5.

I spent about £1k more than your figure on my Aero auto estate with all the toys but it has low miles and is a 51-plate.

I actually know of a particularly nice one with all the expensive bits already changed for about £1350 with 135k on the clock.

[Squabbler]

http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/sales/2579526.htm

I'm not biased at all

[Waugh-terfall]

Peugeot 406 2.0HDi Audi A4 Avant/VW Passat 1.9TDI or a Citroen Xantia 1.9 TurboD, personally I'd take the 406

[fluffnik]

Mercedes W124 - huge loadspace, waftastic in the extreme.

[Big News]

fluffnik said:

Mercedes W124 - huge loadspace, waftastic in the extreme.

That's the plan at the moment!

[Stu R]

fluffnik said:

Mercedes W124 - huge loadspace, waftastic in the extreme.

No better car for the job

[fluffnik]

Big News said:

fluffnik said:

Mercedes W124 - huge loadspace, waftastic in the extreme.

That's the plan at the moment!

It is a most excellent plan!

I took a fairly well laden E220 to the Alps and it was (mostly) great. The 4-speed auto has a huuuuuuge void between 2nd and 3rd where the gear you'd use most in the mountains would live and top is a little low for fast Motorway cruising...

That's as bad as it gets.

Check all the suspension rubbers, front ball-joints and for structural integrity.

[samuelellis]

What about a Mondeo estate if you are happy with your current focus?

[Doofus]

Volvo 850/V70. I've had one of these and a Mercedes E220 and an E320. The E320 cost me a lot more than £1500 though.

All lovely, all did the job, Volvo cost a fraction of the Mercs to run.

[ZesPak]

Another vote for 156, cheap as chips, great looking and by far the nicest place to be in within your budget.

[Mr E]

Stuey145 said:

Alfa 156 s/w

Not particularly big