£7k, Estate or similar for bikes and surfboard

[Patrick1964]

A family member (24) is looking to replace his old MX-5 with something a little larger to accommodate his hobbies of cycling and surfing.
He’ll do about 6-7000 miles a year, with a few longer (3 hour) drives in there but mainly local runs. He’d prefer to be able to carry his road bike inside but is happy with surfboards on the roof.
My suggestion is a petrol Octavia VRs Estate, but I’m sure there are other options - preferably ones that are generally reliable, not too thirsty and a bit sporty to drive. Over to you?

Edited by Patrick1964 on Tuesday 26th December 11:42

[stevemcs]

Mondeo Estate, the boot is wider than that of the Octavia. However neither are sporty.

[ZX10R NIN]

As above the Mondeo Estate is the pick it's a better steer than the VRS as well as being roomier:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202312255...

Previous gen VXR Insignia:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202312174...

Last gen 1.5T Insignia:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202309182...

2.0 Mazda6 Sport Nav:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202307109...

I have to say when it comes to putting the bikes in the vehicle, an MPV may be a better fit.

Mazda5:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202312054...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202310263...

1.6T S Max Titanium:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202312134...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202312235...

[stevemcs]

One other thing with the Mondeo, you can put the seats flat, not every estate alows you to do that,

[Johnny Longstaff]

If you believe the hype as soon as you mention surfing everyone knows the answer is a VW Transporter (yaaaaawwwn) but I think it depends on what else they want to get in the car with the bike - take the wheels off and it will go in a fiesta with the back seats down, but there will only be room for one passenger and not much luggage. Roof bars will take the surfboard(s) easy on most cars and you can stick the bike up there too, so it's more about the rest of the things you want to take on the trips and how much space you need most of the time. The easy option from a load carrying perspective is an estate and if you drop the back seats in a focus estate (adding estate was the edit) you can chuck the bike in without taking a wheel off (well you could in a mark one). With roof bars and/or a tow bar mounted bike rack this would be manageable in a relatively small car which might be a better option if the rest of the driving is around town. So to go back to the beginning it depends....

Edited by Johnny Longstaff on Tuesday 26th December 23:51

[nobrakes]

He’ll get tired of bikes inside for sure. If not, best get a van type thing.

[daqinggregg]

Would a Skoda Octavia VRS hatchback do the job, the boot is fairly large.

[Roger Irrelevant]

nobrakes said:

He’ll get tired of bikes inside for sure. If not, best get a van type thing.

Why? So far as I can tell the requirement is to carry one road bike, which is a doddle in just about any hatchback let alone estate. I can confirm it can be done quite easily in a mk2 Yaris as I did just that for years! Get an estate that you can fold the front seat down in (e.g. V70), and a surfboard should go inside too. Yes you can carry stuff easier in a van but a) in this case they don't need to carry that much stuff, and b) any of the estates mentioned will seem like a Rolls compared to the sort of van you can get for £7k.