Estates with ground clearance: XC70 or...
Discussion
I'm moving house soon and the access to the new place is a deeply rutted Forestry Commission track. My current E91 with M-Sport suspension is just too low really, so I'm considering a change.
I like estates and budget is somewhat elastic. Under £10k would be nice but close to £20k isn't out of the question. This is new territory for me as the most I've ever spent on a car is £4500, but the used market has changed a lot since then.
Essential:
- Decent ride height
- Heated seats that are properly comfortable (+ heated steering wheel would be amazing, but that's rare)
- Engine that isn't hateful even if it's a diesel
- Not needy. I seem to be forever replacing sensors and things on my BMW and at 18 years old there are always little niggly things going wrong.
Nice to have:
- AWD but I really don't need it
- Decent power, 200bhp+ ideally
- Manual if it suits the car
- 35mpg+
- Not stupid tax. Currently paying £415/year and not loving it
- No massive bork potential (so not the PH answer of a FFRR)
I'm leaning more towards something mid-sized, i.e. not quite as big as an A6/Superb. Also, after swearing I'd never have another diesel, I suspect I may not have a choice here as the petrol options are extremely limited and most are very thirsty and/or high tax. It'll get a decent run once or twice a week so not too worried about DPF issues.
Current thinking...
Octavia Scout: probably best value, manual option, should be decent to drive (I've hired a standard Octavia in the past), suspect I won't find the seats comfy for long distance. AWD versions of the Golf and Leon offer similar but seem less appealing or worse value.
Audi A4 Allroad: handsome if a bit dour, debatable if it offers much over the Skoda but interior presumably nicer. Not sure about the seats? 3.0TDI is intriguing.
Subaru Outback: petrols too thirsty / high tax to justify performance, diesels not well-liked, unlovely CVT, frumpy unless you get the newest shape which is £££.
Volvo XC70: everyone raves about the seats, D5 seems like a good all-rounder on paper, prices are amazingly high still, overlapping with the much newer V90 Cross Country. Most are autos but probably suits the car tbf.
The Volvo is currently top of my list, but they're pretty spendy if you want something newer or lower miles. I'm also conscious it'll be a lot less of a driver's car than my BMW, but I think I'm ok with that as I'm a boring dad now.
Have I missed any good alternatives?
I like estates and budget is somewhat elastic. Under £10k would be nice but close to £20k isn't out of the question. This is new territory for me as the most I've ever spent on a car is £4500, but the used market has changed a lot since then.
Essential:
- Decent ride height
- Heated seats that are properly comfortable (+ heated steering wheel would be amazing, but that's rare)
- Engine that isn't hateful even if it's a diesel
- Not needy. I seem to be forever replacing sensors and things on my BMW and at 18 years old there are always little niggly things going wrong.
Nice to have:
- AWD but I really don't need it
- Decent power, 200bhp+ ideally
- Manual if it suits the car
- 35mpg+
- Not stupid tax. Currently paying £415/year and not loving it
- No massive bork potential (so not the PH answer of a FFRR)
I'm leaning more towards something mid-sized, i.e. not quite as big as an A6/Superb. Also, after swearing I'd never have another diesel, I suspect I may not have a choice here as the petrol options are extremely limited and most are very thirsty and/or high tax. It'll get a decent run once or twice a week so not too worried about DPF issues.
Current thinking...
Octavia Scout: probably best value, manual option, should be decent to drive (I've hired a standard Octavia in the past), suspect I won't find the seats comfy for long distance. AWD versions of the Golf and Leon offer similar but seem less appealing or worse value.
Audi A4 Allroad: handsome if a bit dour, debatable if it offers much over the Skoda but interior presumably nicer. Not sure about the seats? 3.0TDI is intriguing.
Subaru Outback: petrols too thirsty / high tax to justify performance, diesels not well-liked, unlovely CVT, frumpy unless you get the newest shape which is £££.
Volvo XC70: everyone raves about the seats, D5 seems like a good all-rounder on paper, prices are amazingly high still, overlapping with the much newer V90 Cross Country. Most are autos but probably suits the car tbf.
The Volvo is currently top of my list, but they're pretty spendy if you want something newer or lower miles. I'm also conscious it'll be a lot less of a driver's car than my BMW, but I think I'm ok with that as I'm a boring dad now.
Have I missed any good alternatives?
XC70 would be top of my list.
They take their mileage well so don't be concerned with 100k miles plus.
Not much more than £10k will get you a good example which will last you years.
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202406190...
They take their mileage well so don't be concerned with 100k miles plus.
Not much more than £10k will get you a good example which will last you years.
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202406190...
MajorMantra said:
Octavia Scout: probably best value, manual option, should be decent to drive (I've hired a standard Octavia in the past), suspect I won't find the seats comfy for long distance. AWD versions of the Golf and Leon offer similar but seem less appealing or worse value.
I have a Golf Alltrack which is the VW version of the Octavia Scout (VW were offering bigger discounts than Skoda at the time). I find the seats comfy for several hours at a go. It's been entirely reliable; I have the 180ps AWD diesel and it averages about 44mpg (I do rather more shorter trips than I'd planned). Decent sized boot, quick enough for me for a family car, and with the winter pack you get heated seats and windscreen.Sat nav takes too many presses to get to enter a post code (tap new destination, then city, then post code, then ABC), and if you're really quick after starting up it doesn't always route the first time, but always does the second. Give it another 20 seconds after initialising and it works perfectly. That's probably the worst thing I can think of about the car. The Scout is definitely worth a look unless you need the extra size of the Volvo.
I think there was a Superb Scout for a while, or there's the Passat Alltrack if you want more space than the Golf.
6pi said:
GreatGranny said:
What's that?
Don't recognise it from the side profile.
Citroën C5XDon't recognise it from the side profile.
So it's only the 1.2 3 pot petrol and only two on Autotrader for <20k unless you go for a Cat S.
The Shine has heated wheel but not seats hence need Shine Plus.
194mm ground clearance if that helps. Depends on the forestry tracks. 210mm for eg Volvo XC70
FiF said:
ZiggyNiva said:
Leftfield - Insignia country tourer. 10K will get you one with all the bells and whistles
Didn't know they existed. Only ever seen Sports Tourer version.Impressed despite diesel which wouldn't do me these days, too many short journeys.
We've got a D5 XC70 at the moment that has done about 80k miles in our care (from 60 to 140k), and I'd get exactly the same again even with the current prices that are being asked. I had an old Outback previously and when I was looking to replace that at the end of 2019 I would have got another more modern one but came to exactly the same conclusions as you - the petrols are thirsty with not great performance and the diesels were a bit suspect. I looked at an Octavia Scout too but thought they seemed a bit brittle compared to the Volvo - no empirical evidence whatsoever for that just the impression I got. The ground clearance isn't that great either. The XC70 isn't the greatest car ever but it's a very solid all-rounder that (if my experience is anything to go by), can take a lot of abuse in its stride.
I had a 2016 Octavia Scout 184bhp for 3 1/2 years and I found the seats to be pretty comfortable. The car itself was great too, not needing anything other than tyres and servicing during the 45,000 miles I had it (from new). My only complaint was with the performance of the standard halogen lights, but that was improved during the first winter by fitting a pair of Osram Nightbreaker bulbs.
6pi said:
Left field alternative:
In PHEV 225 it mets your criteria... if you're OK with a car fully focused on comfort.
That is left field! I had to look it up as it didn't ring any bells. I don't hate it, but as another poster pointed out, the higher performance model isn't in budget. Also, PHEV isn't going to be ideal as the new property doesn't lend itself to having a charger. It's not out of a question, but certainly not something I'll be getting in the near future. In PHEV 225 it mets your criteria... if you're OK with a car fully focused on comfort.
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