Estate car recommendations

[Wellington17]

Hi all,

I’m looking for recommendations for an estate car to replace a small hatchback, but not sure on makes and models!

We’re looking for something that’s most importantly reliable, but also efficient and not going to cost a bomb to run on fuel, tax etc.

Budget is 12k max and would like something that is likely to last us a good few years.

Suggestions?

@ForestDad thanks for the links! We really need the large boot size of a estate as we have a big dog plus pushchair so the Ford isn’t going to work! Do like the look of the Mazda though

Lots of love for Astra estates - will certainly have a look at those as there’s lots of newish lowish mileage ones in our budget.

Saab 9-3 or 9-5. It's amazing what you can get into them. Flat lip on the boot as well which is great for heaving prams/pushchairs in and out. Parts are readily available.

I've had quite a few cars over the years as DH gets good deals through work. The best car I've had was definitely the Skoda Octavia. It was high mileage but solid as a tank and did 1000s of miles up and down the country 100% reliably. I replaced it with a VW Touran and really regretted it. I now have an Audi A6 which is slightly bigger than the Octavia and faster but needs more maintenance too.

Are you hoping for any more babies after this OP? If so, it might be worth looking at the few cars that can take 3 car seats.

One thing to check when buying any used diesel these days is that the oil changes have been done on time with the correct oil. If not can cause premature turbo issues.
Also if you rarely do longer journeys don't get a diesel because the dpf will never get hot enough to clean itself.
One bad thing about my Mazda is the dpf cleaning cycle, takes about 10 mins during which time mpg drops to 25-30. To do this the computer puts more fuel into the engine to raise the exhaust gas temp and clean the dpf. You have no control when it does this. If you stop the car during the cycle any excess diesel goes in to the oil system. If the oil system is too high the turbo gets damaged. I expect this is similar in most turbodiesels. I had to replace a turbo in a Passat (terrible purchase decision).
It's not something that's actually caused an issue because I do enough longer journeys in mine. Also when servicing you don't want the garage to fill the oil to the top, they don't leak and the level will rise over the year to the next service. The oil needs the be fully synthetic, correct spec.

DH has a Ford Mondeo estate as a company car. He drives 40,000+ miles pa. Very comfortable to drive, loads of room in the back and huge boot. I think the pre-2016 model has a bit longer boot. Overall boot size about the same between models.