A friend of mine rang today enquiring as to what large estate car could I recommend. She has no p/ex, a max budget of £3k. several years NCD and drives less than 10k miles pa.
My obvious thought was a petrol Mondeo, or save some money and get a older Mazda 626 or Legacy estate. Preferably she would like something with a little more 'prestige'!
An old A6 might fit the bill, but the cost of parts and reliability could be an issue.
Any suggestions please.
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The first thing that came into my head before even reading the thread is a Vauxhall Omega estate - loads to choose from and £3k should get her a good spec one.
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A lot of big cars are suprisingly small estates;look for ones with a vertical back window/tailgate.
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As noted in the thread on the A4: bangernomics or not, £500 will buy you a 12 year old quattro 2.8 A6 estate with a year's MOT.
Cool! If you can cope with the mpg.
And that budget will buy you 6 of them when something horrid goes wrong.
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Mazda 626 is big as it sits on a longer wheelbase than the hatch and I think has a sliding rear seat. Although Volvo 7/940s have a big load area it's not that tall because of the RWD. Citroen Xantia is a whopper; 620 litres, low floor, flat sides and fantatic self-levelling suspension. Great car though it was, mine was shockingly unreliable and the seats are awful. Citroen XM is the biggest Estate ever at 750 litres, but who would would risk one?
Left field choice; Toyota Camry - ugly as sin but has a fold up kiddy seat in the boot and what about the old Mitsubishi Sigma - once recommended by Quentin Wilson as an alternative to the Merc S-class? Rarer than the proverbial Rocking Horse droppings too.
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