What fairly recent estate?

[Tmrtom]

My dad is on the hunt for second hand estate - key requirements are not much more than 5 years old, sub 30000 miles, reliable - and ideally a decent steer - he does enjoy driving but values reliability and usability over performance.

Needs to be a C or D segment car, doesn’t need anything huge like an E class.

Open to petrol, hybrid or diesel as long as it’s decent economy and reliable - doesn’t do mega miles but does enough long journeys regularly to clear any dpfs etc. He has also said he doesn’t want a small engine in this size of car - no 1.0 to 1.2 litres in a car of this size.

What would you recommend that best meets this brief? He likes some of the vag estates but the engines are a minefield by the look of it - some with good reps and some with terrible and I’m not sure which is which!

Budget is about 15k.

Thanks for any advice.

[Nickp82]

Mazda 6 estate 2.0 petrol as an opening suggestion. Straightforward and very reliable four cylinder engine , quite nice to drive , good spec as standard.

[jdoubleu]

That is a fairly restrictive criteria set so not too many options come up on an auto trader search!

Ford focus or late MK3 SEAT Leon seem comparably good value.

Something like this seems well kitted out for example http://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/2024020662... and that 2 litre diesel is well used in anything VAG.

[7 5 7]

Insignia estate, petrol or diesel?

Lots here, under £15k, under 30/40,000 miles, pretty new 2018/19 plates too - alot of car for the money...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-search?advertisin...

Even more available if you want a big hatchback, and not the estate...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-search?advertisin...

Edited by 7 5 7 on Tuesday 20th February 22:33

[66HFM]

The answer is always a Skoda Octavia VRS!

Alternatively I'd buy a Seat Leon ST FR or a Volvo V60

[Tmrtom]

Thanks everyone - think he’s interested in the Octavia now. What engine would people most recommend?

[macron]

I'd say the Leon has more for your money, there is one (!) At 15k on AT with the MHEV, which gets a v good write up.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/2024011856...

[dhutch]

66HFM said:

The answer is always a Skoda Octavia ... ....or a Volvo V60

This is where we ended up.

Gen 3 Octavia is fine, just avoid the 1.5 TSI, Gen 4 DSG 2.0 TDi was a nice enough car.

Ended up with a V60 II , momentum plus, not a CC or an r-design. Very happy.

[Aletank]

dhutch said:

This is where we ended up.

Gen 3 Octavia is fine, just avoid the 1.5 TSI, .

What is wrong with the 1.5 TSI ? I thought it was a good engine ?

[Jonny_]

He'd have to either up the budget a bit or relax the mileage requirement to 45k, but it's worth looking at a Corolla estate. They're all hybrids, thus economical and ultra reliable, and even the oldest (2019) cars still have up to 5 years warranty remaining as long as the servicing is kept up.

[bennno]

Tmrtom said:

Thanks everyone - think he’s interested in the Octavia now. What engine would people most recommend?

1.2 with dsg box

[Tmrtom]

Cheers everyone. Funnily enough I’d recommended the Corolla estate but he’d discounted it due to price even though he liked the look of it. I’ll mention that to him about upping the mileage a bit (don’t think there’s much scope to up the budget) to see if he could get into one of those. Must admit, still a bit confused re the VAG engines from the comments above - is the 1.5tsi good or not? Think a 1.2 would be a bit small in Octavia sized car.

[Tmrtom]

Also, anyone got any experience of the Kia Proceed / Optima? They seem decent value to me in his budget.

[dhutch]

Aletank said:

What is wrong with the 1.5 TSI ? I thought it was a good engine ?

To be fair, its ok. But suffered with kanagroo'ing for a good while, and while it was mainly reported in the manuals, I often wonder if its one of the reasons the MIL dsg variant is sometime a bit random with its shifts. Certainly it is very keen to kick down at the lightest of opertunities, which the TDi appears to do less.