Mid Life Crisis

[nopanic - neil]

HELP

I'm at that age, and family size that my needs have changed - well thats what I've been told. 

We have been out today looking at cars, - but the problem is our limitaions,

1. Has to be Auto
2. Diesel
3. Estate
4. Safe
5. NOT TO LOOSE A FORTUNE (aim to keep 5 years)


what to chose,

So far, the cars being look at  -

a) Volvo V70 or XC70
b) BWW 520 Touring

How bloody much! - Price range (because I'm a real tight GIT) abour £18K + tradein (about £5k - the PT)

Sales people - Oh Clucking Bells! What a nightmare - flipping hard work, no fun.

Any advice on what to do & choise ?

[Canada Phil]

Hi Neil,
         Way too sensible. From your title I thought you would be deciding between the Corvette or the Porsche
Phil

[Piglet]

VW Passat estate - allegedly the 4wd 2.0 tdi 4motion is good.

Skoda Octavia 1.9Tdi? 

[Paddy_NL]

I've been looking at the new Golf Estate, the 1.4 170bhp-petrol version. As my current mode of transport (that blue T5-van that was on Le Mans this year) is only due for replacement at the beginning of '09, I'm hoping VAG will have a larger engine available by that time

[wishy]

Try a Nissan Micra........mini estate car.With seats down ,will take a bbq,generator,gazebo,tent,luggage and food for LMS.

What more do you want?

Tell er'indoors economy is the best way to go ......and not to keep up with the neighbours.            Just because they own a SUV!!!

Mind you a Fiat Ducato is essential for taking out equipment for LM!!!!

Wishy

[Leftie]

You could buy 'erindorz' as Espace 'pre-owned' and a fund up for a nice little sporty job for youself.

When LM comes along, you borrow the Espace for a week.

[termietermite]

Wishy has a point.  Amazing what you can get in the bloomin' thing.  It's like the Tardis.  And the turbo diesel is mega - much more fun than you think.  More seriously, the Note on the same chassis (remarkable) is even more spacious.  Then you can buy something else for yourself with the change.

[RoverMan]

I'm in a similar situation, but for company wheels so tax effectiveness is important. I'm after a hatch, not estate but want diesel and auto.

Favourite so far is the Skoda Octavia 2.0 TDI DSG (140bhp), in L&K trim - all the toys I can think of! Hatch comes in at just over 20k for the P11D value.

Looked at Mondeo, but...... expensive to get close to the Skoda (and I don't REALLY want to drive a Ford). Also looked at Passat (too expensive) and Mazda 6 (heard horror stories about reliability).

Currently waiting for extended test drives for both Skoda and Ford, I'll report back with my thoughts!

[nopanic - neil]

Wishy has a point.  Amazing what you can get in the bloomin' thing.  It's like the Tardis.  And the turbo diesel is mega - much more fun than you think.  More seriously, the Note on the same chassis (remarkable) is even more spacious.  Then you can buy something else for yourself with the change.

I also agree, but the problem is reliability, so in our house at present is:

PT Cruiser – its going/trade in
Nissan Figaro – Her in doors motor
Discovery -   200K on the clock, needs MOT, but not auto
Herald 13/60 – My classic, which Jnr will have when he reaches a set age (not sure when)
2 x Trailers  (1 x old crap one – 1 x twin axle plant trailer)

And the GREAT Orange Nopanic Van -

And there are only 2 of us who drive,

An idea is go for a sensible car, and then later buy another old car, for hi days and holidays.

Won’t give you the full list of what I would like, but
Citroen Traction Avant  – commercial or  Familiale.
Citroen H Van
Amphicar
Facel Vega -  (one that works this time) ,
E type -  etc etc

So my ideal house would be a multi storey car park, with a house on top!

So if you go for a better car, how older do you go before problems

[termietermite]

Small doesn't equal unreliable.  And when it does cause problems, it's cheap.  The Renault diesel engine in the Micra is guaranteed for 100,000 ks, plus an additional 100,000ks for 3 more years on an extended warranty.  200,000k and 6 years ain't bad.  After 60,000 not one hiccup or fault, and nothing wrong on delivery.

Big car = big bills once the waranty runs out.  Even the bloomin' tyres cost a bomb.

Absolutely with you on the car park with a house on top - perfect.  Although a big garden and a couple of barns in France is a good alternative.

[mike(liverpool boys)]

Audi A4 estate 2.0 tdi. I am a biased Audi fan though 

[Lazy B'stard]

If you could get over the diesel bit you could buy a mint Lynx Eventeer and still have change.
 P.S. Ignore anything I suggest- I just like old shite. Mrs S needs a sensible, practical family car for around £10k, so I've just been to look at a rough old 60s Lagonda Rapide. She's not amused

[Lorry]

I had a good look at one of the Skodas 4x4s (but a V6) and was very impressed.

Go silly, try a Freelander!  What about the little Jag 4x4 estate, if we're talking English.  And common sense says Toyota or Honda, but diesels are rare

[nickliv]

VW are bringing out a golf estate.

The DSG gearbox is a gem
The diesel engine comes in a variety of potencies (We've got a 170 GT, and it's astonishing)
It gets 5 stars from euroNCAP and I expect the estate to score similarly
And you can't really match the residuals.

The present (MK5) golf apparently takes twice as long to build as a astra or a focus. The MK 6 will be re engineered to make it quicker to put together. Whether it wil have an impact on quality is unsure, but MK 5 prices will become a little more flexible.

HOWEVER the octavia is built on the same platform, and as a hatch comes with a gigantic boot, probably bigger than the boot on my old saab 9-5 estate. (And for that money you could get a diesel vRS  )

We went from the 9-5 estate to the 5 door golf hatch, and bought a roofbox for when we needed to have an 'estate' - We only really used the whole of the saabs loadcarrying when we went away, and it didn't seem to be a good idea to drag all the extra unused tin to the shops and back.

[Barry]

If you need big, go for an S-max, like the one we brought to Silverstone, they do a 2l diesel with auto now.

List prices look high but good deals available trough brokers, we got 12% of list and options last year when we got ours.

I prefer it to the Audi A6 Avant we had before, more practial and the handng for a car that size is astonishing, much better than the Audi.

If you want to know details of the brokers, PM me Niel.