Which Estate Car or SUV do you have and are you pleased with it?

[mrspink27]

Ok so my dh bought a dog of a car in march, a range rover which eats petrol quicker than we can fill it up (amongst other things!) it was a dream of his to own one but its a bit of a nightmare really!
previously we had a vw passat estate which was quite nice.

he has a week off work to find a replacement car!!!
have been looking at a mercedes ml or c or e class estate or maybe an audi a6 estate

anyone any experience of these ?

what do you have and what do you think of it?

what should we consider?
we're both finally fed up

Are you getting the TVs and sat nav and the telephone in steering wheel etc?

which colour are you getting?

I like the blue

The other cars we looked at were the

XC90; lovely car, a little noisier than the disco and not a natural everyday tow car. Leather as standard and a fair bit cheaper than the disco equiv.

XC70; lovely car (with lovely drivers)but rear seats face backwards and our family is prone to car sickness

Audi Allroad; a little dated now but I liked it

I fear you are all richer than me. Which is for you, but for me. But I have an S-reg Volvo V70 2.5 which I love very much. So that's all right then.

RT- Yes, sat nav, phone, tv and sunroof (dh insisted on that one!)in black.
Anteater- THe discovery in incredibly quiet, especially for a diesel engine. It just didn't drive as I expected and the third row seats were quite narrow, and the boot wasn't particularly large for the price of it. That is if you don't want to use it as a proper 4x4. Because if you do, I guess it's perfect, it has amazing offroad capabilities!

BTW, I really flike the allroad as well.

I have a Jaguar X type estate.....very nice.....highly recommend and a very nippy drive, doesn't feel like an estate at all and boot is big!

Frogs, ours is only R-reg..and has a big dent in one wing..

mrspink - i have a C220CDI which has been fantastic. Its due for change in march 06 and will be going for either a C270cdi or an E320CDI depending on availability of ex demo's/nearly news. try honestjohn's website from the Telegraph for up to date reviews honestjohn
DH liked the XC90 - i call it a volvo on stilts and it fails the schoolgate test for me. We also looked at the VW Touraeg, but was far too tank like and dh got booed out of the work car park.
Looked at the JagXtype and rejected it for some reason i can't remember.
The Saab estate is also worth considering- fantastic A/c. Unlike the merc, which is my only complaint. Ours has only cost us servicing and tyres in nearly 5 years. Highly recommended. hth

what is the schoolgatetest?

And why did it fail?

It failed the test because i see the lanes around my local village school choked with SUV's, Merc M classes, Range Rovers,X5's etc, all "driven"/parked badly by women. Would feel silly picking kids up from school in it as it feels too conspicous/huge. The kids liked the height of it, and i liked the driving position on the road, but felt a bit of a footballers wife!

Oh I see...

I need the height in it for my parents so that is why we are hiring one for week holiday

There aren't any at DS school although 1 bloke drives an american thing that is sooooo wide it looks really silly {he looks like an aged record producer-poser guy and so it is very funny to see him trying to park this truck thing}

Another boy occaisionally gets dropped off in his dad's JCB which is also very funny seeing him drive this {very well btw} and dropping the little boy off to school.

PMSL at JCB!
There is some plonker locally who has bought a Humvee. I hope its not catching - couldn't cope with one of those coming towards me down the lanes to school,

is this what you mean?

I think it may be the same thing

It has blackened windows and is VERY VERY WIDE

The JCB is soooooo funny cos some parents park very badly and then when that comes along they just have to move when they have parked on Double yellow lines or the HATCHCHED GRID

and of course the JCB will be running on RED diesel (~30p/L)

Ok so the choice has come down to .....

a toyota avensis estate 04 with very high spec, but petrol auto, and so it does 30/35 miles to the gallon (has seat back dvd and everything!) 2 years left on warranty. mileage is about 37k high for its age

or

a v40 volvo estate 03 which is a diesel manual, still reasonable spec, warranty till march 06 but MUCH more fuel efficient, 45/50 miles per gallon, mileage is 30k

what do you think we should choose!!!

Is the Avensis an ordinary estate or Verso?

If it's ordinary I'd go for the Volvo - if Avensis I would probably have to toss for it. (But a diesel Volvo should last about 25 years!)

What size engine does the V40 have? I know there was a problem with the saloon equivalent (the older S40) being underpowered. We have just bought an 04 S40 - the new model - because we had read that the underpowering problem has been solved. Just in case, we got a 2.4 litre engine and it has very good acceleration. You might want to check this and/or think about getting a V70 estate instead. Our other car is a 1995 850 estate (the predecessor of the V70), 2.5 litre engine, and it's also got good acceleration.

Now I remember that we did look into V40s and read that they were a underpowered, too.

AFAIK the volvo V40 would not be a good choice if you want space

a V40 is the smaller version of V70

So look for a V70 if you want space.

I have not really looked at V40 but have had a curtersy S40 and it was very cramped compared to V70

So space = V70 or 850 estate or XC70

but don't really know V40

Love my Volvo V70 T5 (very fast ), however for economy should probably have bought D5. Our first Volvo and I am completely hooked, would definitely buy another one.

Sorry, should have added, don't buy a V40 if you want some space, definitely go for V70 (we looked at V40 first, soon realised that with only 1 x ds plus dog we needed a V70).

just bought a BMW Touring (estate). love it, love it, love it!!!

Forgot to add that FIL has a Kia Sorento which is cavernous inside yet apparently hauls their bungalow-sized caravan like a roller skate, using only a sniff of diesel. Its also a proper 4x4 and goes well off road, well muddy caravan sites on the side of enormous hills anyway.
Our neighbours have the smaller sporty Kia 4x4 and they seem quite smug about it so they must like it.
Apparently the good thing about Kias is that they come with heaps of stuff as standard that other manufacturers have as optional extras (sat nav, air con, dvd etc), and they're really cheap. And they are now holding their value much more than they did a couple of years ago.
Sorry this is so late - you've probably tested and paid for your new car by now anyway.