Family on the way, Need to 'upgrade'...

[5lab]

skoda are all made by vw - in fact the quality is supposedly slightly better - they do tend to downgrade the plastics and so on to save money - so the perception of quality is slightly less, but the actual quality is very good. the civic will be smaller than yer a3

[Butcher]

Except if you live in farming country like me where they serve a er.. purpose. How inconvenient..

No problem with that, but 90% of them never go further off-road than a gravel driveway.

[Rack]

Hmm.... looks like I can get a 1.9TDi 2003 Fabia estate for £5000, one owner FSH. That would leave me money for a motorbike! Yeeeha, I think I've cracked it.

[Howard]

Can you not get an Octavia for that money?

[Rack]

Not really. Not that new/good, and the missus would prefer a smaller car than that tbh. I do like them, but I'd have to fork out 7k for a 2003 model I like rather than 5k.

Is it me or does the golf estate just looks terrible? Especially in comparison with the "cheap brand" Fabia estate. How did they get it so wrong?

[Howard]

I think it looks much better than the Fabia estate, but that's me. They're also pretty good cars, can carry rather a lot. My friend had one for a fair while and we used it a lot

[Rack]

OK, so you were right, I had a look at the Fabia estate at a dealer and it's too small.
I also had a look at a few Volvo V40's, but they just look like something my dad would buy, almost 80's with all grey leather interiors. The V50 was nice but too expensive.

Drove an Octavia Ambience - the interior was so disappointing! and the 90bhp 1.9tdi is sluggish. The Elegance level is minimum, 110bhp, nicer interior.

After all this I have just over 1 month before B-Day, so time to buy.

I have on my list for between 7-8k:
Skoda Octavia RS 1.8T '03 50kmiles
Skoda Octavia 1.9Tdi elegance 110bhp '02 70kmiles
Audi A4 1.8T Sport '02 88kmiles
Audi 1.9Tdi 130bhp '02 82kmiles
Toyota Avensis T-Spirit 2.0 petrol '03 40kmiles

I get the feeling it's going to be either the 1.9tdi A4 or the RS Octavia. The Toyota has a larger boot and nice feel/interior.

Never got to try a Nissan Primera 2.2D, but not too worried.

[dave87]

In that list my preference would be the Avensis or the Octavia RS. Both petrols, but diesels are worth more and so only financially better if you are doing high annual mileages.

Dave

[Rack]

Well, I test drove all of them - the Elegance Octavia was as disappointing as the other Octavia's - mediocre interior, poor road noise, but still a good drive. I don't want to bash them too much, but after driving a top-spec Audi for a year the Octavia "Elegance" spec wasn't what I expected.

The A4 Avant 1.8T Sport was an auto with the tiptronic (or whatever) gearbox and was a joy to drive - plus it was an 03 plate, not an 02 as I wrote above.

Same with the Octavia RS Sport (tho only 5-speed manual) great ride, better condition interior, lower miles, not as classy but perhaps a tad more sporty - but in the end the dealer with the A4 offered a better trade deal on our A3 quattro 1.9tdi, and both me and the missus were more impressed by the audi in both ride and general appeal/looks, though I have to say it was a close call and was mainly influenced by the cash part of it.

If anyone is interested in the Octavia VRS 1.8T Estate, it was an awesome car in perfect condition, a great drive with a great boot and only £8000 with a years warranty and service, for us it basically came down to not having to fork out as much cash for it.

[Rack]

I just saw this add, check out the spelling mistakes and general dodgyness:

2002 AUDI A4 AVANT 1.8T Sport 5dr Avant
Price: £6,500
Manual, 52,000 miles, Black.Long Tax end MOT.Good condition,clean inside end outside.18 allow weals,new tyres.New time belt.Lost service history,im the second owner. £6,500

Bargain or super-dodgy?

[Howard]

It's been pimped Those weals [sic] aren't standard, and neither are those window tints by the look of it... Hmm

[Russ]

leon cupra r has 5 doors... not an estate, but who cares

[Butcher]

"Lost" service history is a bit dodgy TBH.