Estate Cars

[metalmonkey]

I'm more than liklely gonna get an estate car, then put a tow bar on the back of it.

I was thinking of getting a Ford Focus Estate, 1.8TD. Any ideas of anything else of what would be a good one to get? I want something cheap and reliable. I was thinking the estate would be better as I could get more bike gear in there ect. That above car is a group 6 so should be cheap to insure.

[dirtydog]

How much you loking to spend on a car?

Escort estate may be a bit cheaper and is more tahn capable of towing a bike, mine towed kitkats Raptor 1000 from Scotland down to mine (about 460 miles) with no troubles at all

[metalmonkey]

Was thinking £2000 at the most, if I can.

Umm an escort could be an idea, my last one served me well until some idiot crashed into it.

[Caddy2000]

peugeot 405/406

[husky03]

we use focus estates in my station and there great machines-the older ones 52-55 are the better models , the newer ones seem to lack a bit of grunt.Ours get hammered , being run almost constantly, a few have over 130000 on them and are still running ok-but i wouldn't buy an ex-police one though.

[murf]

buy my vectra :) 2.5 2000 plate, lovely and big not too thirsty 30 to the gallon, and not as bad to insure as you'd think ;)

[metalmonkey]

How much you loking to spend on a car?

Escort estate may be a bit cheaper and is more tahn capable of towing a bike, mine towed kitkats Raptor 1000 from Scotland down to mine (about 460 miles) with no troubles at all

How many miles has your done? Seen one with 100k miles, under £1000. For run about if it will last for another 50 000 miles, that would be fine.

Don't want Pergeuot they are cr**.

[stewie]

Mate of mine is selling his ford mondeo, its up here mind so its not exactly local, got 101,000 on the clock buts its going cheap I beleive.

[dawn07]

Volvo estate. Fab. My last one was 15yrs old and minted [ and would still be minted if some d*ck hadn't bumped me off the road!]

[dirtydog]

Was thinking £2000 at the most, if I can.

Umm an escort could be an idea, my last one served me well until some idiot crashed into it.

YOu could easily get a late well looked after escort estate and still have cash left over for the insurance/service etc.

My escort (of 1995 vintage ;)) was running fine and just had it's mot done when got rear ended and it was written off

How many miles has your done? Seen one with 100k miles, under £1000. For run about if it will last for another 50 000 miles, that would be fine.

Don't want Pergeuot they are cr**.

I've had 3 escorts in the past, the 1st was a 1.4 which had done about 80k miles only reason i sold it was for a bigger car.
2nd was a 1.6 which had about 110k and still going strong only sold it cos I bought a van
3rd escort was a 1.8si, cracking good engine and towed the trailer no problem. Would still have it if it hadn't been written off, that had done about 80k


best bit about escorts is there are loads about and spares are cheap

[L3nny]

Volvo 850 T5 all the way!! The only cool estate car ever.

http://photos.autoexpress.co.uk/images/front_picture_library_UK/dir_439/car_photo_219914_7.jpg

[dawn07]

Volvo 850 T5 all the way!! The only cool estate car ever.

http://photos.autoexpress.co.uk/images/front_picture_library_UK/dir_439/car_photo_219914_7.jpg
Fantastic cars!:cheers:

[dirtydog]

he said cheap!!!!

[jimmy__riddle]

theres a volvo 1.8 petrol estate near me, 1997, looks oks nick, £350! but i think it has 130,000 miles

[dawn07]

Mine was cheap, but old! [ a bit like it's owner!]

[keith_d]

I'm driving a Mondeo estate (before that I had a 1.8 four door) and they're pretty comfortable for long distances. They've been around for a while now, so there should be some cheaper ones out there.

Keith.

[appollo1]

Skoda Felicia estate for me. 1600 injection engine, cheap and cheerful and fast.

Skoda - Part of the Volkswagen group.

[metalmonkey]

To be honest I'm not that bothered about the exact car, top speed ect....

I don't commute like I used to in a car, I was at one point doing 500 miles week. So its more a run around, that will be used to travel long distance once in a while and a pull a bike.

I have a bike for fun....I would be quite happy with another escort, mine did nearly 100 000 miles, I did over 60 000 mile in it, I though it was alright, did the job it was only when it to high mileage and being nearly 15 years did it start to go really wrong.

My only concern with buying an older one for £800 for example, is that it may cost more to run as thing go wrong with it. Would it be an issue to have an escort estate with 100 000 on the clock? I know that by paying for older car, I run into the ground. I did with my past two cars, I have only ever had 2 cars through! Both Fords and they dd there job well, and took the abuse I gave them.

Oh I have 7 years no cliams on car insurance, so i hoping it will be cheap to insure.

[metalangel]

Got a Skoda Octavia Estate atm, excellent car, if you get the 110bhp Elegance TDI it's pleasingly nippy.

Failing that, a Volvo will do well.

Unless you wanna look cool, in which case Honda Aerodeck:

http://www.roadrecord.co.uk/images/f/jyHmwN0J/Image992197a8-6945-4eec-84ef-b572f8b55f32.jpg

[the_lone_wolf]

you'd be surprised what you can fit in the boot of a ford focus hatch...

[jimmy__riddle]

ford scorpio 2.9v6, good for towing and motorway cruising.

[fenjer]

a month ago and you could have had our BMW 320 d Tourer for that cash...lol

I miss my BMW. :(

[Mike2165]

How many miles has your done? Seen one with 100k miles, under £1000. For run about if it will last for another 50 000 miles, that would be fine.

Don't want Pergeuot they are cr**.

Should last more than that...my Focus has done 178,000 and still going

[dirtydog]

ford scorpio 2.9v6, good for towing and motorway cruising.


Not going to be that cheap to run though is it, my galaxy has the 2.3 engine and is a right gas guzzler! It only does about 19mpg around town!

[Razor]

I once put a whole Sv650 in the back of a toyota starlet, who needs an estate car?

[mattSV]

Volvo 850 T5 all the way!! The only cool estate car ever.

http://photos.autoexpress.co.uk/images/front_picture_library_UK/dir_439/car_photo_219914_7.jpg


Ahem:-

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/155/424188642_2380f62520.jpg

Paid £2800 18 months ago so it was (sort of) cheap - only get 20-25mpg though :rolleyes:

Those T5s are damn nice though - I was at Thruxton years ago for their first BTCC race, mental as anything :D

[L3nny]

Ahem:-

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/155/424188642_2380f62520.jpg

Paid £2800 18 months ago so it was (sort of) cheap - only get 20-25mpg though :rolleyes:

Those T5s are damn nice though - I was at Thruxton years ago for their first BTCC race, mental as anything :D

Sorry to throw the discussion way off topic but Scoobys are not cool, they may be fast, excellent to drive and brilliant cars and I would love to own one but they are often driven by baseball capped pikeys or Subaru jacket wearing rally geeks. Sorry.

[Razor]

you can't drive a scooby or an audi and not look like a c0ck...

[jimmy__riddle]

Not going to be that cheap to run though is it, my galaxy has the 2.3 engine and is a right gas guzzler! It only does about 19mpg around town!

depends what sort of driving you're doing and whether you wanna drive a cancer factory or proper fuel ;)

[mattSV]

you can't drive a scooby or an audi and not look like a c0ck...

I look like a c0ck anyway :p

[dirtydog]

depends what sort of driving you're doing and whether you wanna drive a cancer factory or proper fuel ;)

The figure I quoted is from the owners handbook, I'm far too lazy to actually work it out myself. It also reckons about 33mpg for motorway driving. I probably get a bit less than that as I do tend to rag it a bit :rolleyes:

cancer factory or proper fuel eh????? :confused:

[jimmy__riddle]

The figure I quoted is from the owners handbook, I'm far too lazy to actually work it out myself. It also reckons about 33mpg for motorway driving. I probably get a bit less than that as I do tend to rag it a bit :rolleyes:

cancer factory or proper fuel eh????? :confused:

diesel or petrol

[dirtydog]

mines the 2.3 petrol

[jimmy__riddle]

mines the 2.3 petrol

sorry, i should have removed the quote stuff, i was referring to the cancer factory-petrol bit.

Cancer factory = diesel

[the_lone_wolf]

Cancer factory = diesel

spose you'd be happy putting petrol on your cornflakes then?:rolleyes:

Fact #1 - A good towing car needs plenty of torque

Fact #2 - Diesel engines make more substantially more torque than their equivelent petrol engines

Quod erat demonstrandum

[jimmy__riddle]

spose you'd be happy putting petrol on your cornflakes then?:rolleyes:

Fact #1 - A good towing car needs plenty of torque

Fact #2 - Diesel engines make more substantially more torque than their equivelent petrol engines

Quod erat demonstrandum


i dont deny diesel engines make more torque etc, never have. but if you're only towing bikes you dont need loads of torque.

just commenting on the fact that diesel exhaust is not something very pleasant.

[the_lone_wolf]

just commenting on the fact that diesel exhaust is not something very pleasant.and?...

you also wouldn't want to have your petrol car emissions pumped back into the cabin now would you?

try to avoid deepthroating the exhaust pipe while the engine's running and i'm sure you'll be fine with either:rolleyes:

as for towing bikes, 2x 200kg bikes on a 150kg trailer is getting on for half the weight of the towing vehicle, i'd still take the car that doesn't have to have the nuts ragged off it to get any useful torque out of the motor, having towed bike trailers and having owned petrol and diesel versions of the same car i know which is the better choice...

[fizzwheel]

OK alternative thought...

2.7 TDi Ford Maverick 122bhp plenty of torque, its like a van in the back with all the seats down, Road tax was £185 when I renewed it last month for 12 months. Insured third party fire and theft for £180 ish...

Yes it ugly, but I reckon it'd make a better tow vehicle than some of the cars suggested in this thread and it cost us £700.. theres plenty on ebay / auto trader, its a bit heavy of juice 30mpg ish though...

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e344/fizzwheel/DSC_0010-1.jpg

[jimmy__riddle]

and?...

you also wouldn't want to have your petrol car emissions pumped back into the cabin now would you?

try to avoid deepthroating the exhaust pipe while the engine's running and i'm sure you'll be fine with either:rolleyes:

as for towing bikes, 2x 200kg bikes on a 150kg trailer is getting on for half the weight of the towing vehicle, i'd still take the car that doesn't have to have the nuts ragged off it to get any useful torque out of the motor, having towed bike trailers and having owned petrol and diesel versions of the same car i know which is the better choice...

well, i run LPG anyway, so theres not too much comng out the back of mine anyway!

dont worry im not planning on relying on petrol as a source of clean air, but diesel is much worse than petrol.


back on topic, +1 with fizzwheel, there are loads of cheap 4x4's around, you can get discos for £800.

[Mgaffz]

I believe vauxhall omegas make canny towing cars the diesel engines are from BMW and most omegas have massive spec loads of toys and are cheap as chips as nobody wants big motors at the min. I have had a few the V6 petrol ones are great to drive but carp mpg. Estates are simply huge you may not need to bother with the tow bar lol

mick

[dirtydog]

the thing with 4x4s are they generally have big engines and will there for use more fuel than say a 1.8 focus/escort and the OP wants something cheap to run that can tow a bike. An escort/focus is plenty enough to tow a bike on a trailer, my escort did about 460 miles with kitkats raptor on a trailer with no trouble at all

[metalmonkey]

try to avoid deepthroating the exhaust pipe while the engine's running and i'm sure you'll be fine with either:rolleyes:



Dude you made laugh some much when I saw that, nearly spat red wine everywhere (reminds me of a film I got involved in)

Thanks for input guys, that awesome, didn't expect to get five pages:cool:

I'm thinking something like escort might be the way ahead, I can run it into the ground then. I more than likely gonna be working in the city, though I'm trying to work in my neighourhood. Seems a waste to have 2k or more of car sat outside. I can commute on my bike, or by pubic transit.

The only concern is that will it work when I need it to? I just need somethng that is gonna be reilable and start on the first turn of the key. Looks aren't important here.

I need a run about, followed by something to haul a bike about. Why an estate? I think that would be big enough to get all my gear in. I prefer hatches to saloon cars as well. If I had loads of money I would have a Type R, but thats not gonna happen.

Ok so lets assume an Escort estate. How much should I pay for desil one? What the max kind of mileage I should for? What sucks about them? What do I need to be aware of? I know the fuseboxes on escorts can blow, they rust. Anything else? How often should they be serviced, when is the cam blet change? How much are four tyres?

I'll start looking for something then....

[fizzwheel]

the thing with 4x4s are they generally have big engines and will there for use more fuel than say a 1.8 focus/escort and the OP wants something cheap to run that can tow a bike. An escort/focus is plenty enough to tow a bike on a trailer, my escort did about 460 miles with kitkats raptor on a trailer with no trouble at all

I know, was just pointing out alternatives thats all. Mind you I reckon you'd squeeze a bike in the back of the Maverick its huge inside :D so no need for a trailer....