New car opinions

Hi guys so the other half wants me to change the d2 for something “less agricultural and cheaper to run” I said iv always liked the l322 RR she says yea nice but heavy on juice as she wants to visit places every weekend get the 6month old baby out seeing places once covid chills out, her view was a 2010-13 merc C class estate, nice enough but has anyone any experience with boot space on them? With having all the baby gear to go on holiday with need good boot. We live down a steep hill which the Landy goes up fine in snow, merc would get winter tyres but is that enough in snow? Rear drive etc. So any options are welcome as I do like the c class but love the range rovers, just like my d2. Cheers guys.

Nb: budget is around £4-6000 so 2003-5 td6 RR or 110,000 miles + 2010 > c class

The rear wheeldrive mercs/bmws are terrible in the snow, even damp manhole covers are enough to activate the traction when pulling away swiftly from junctions.
All the modern estate cars are a joke in the rear, bmw/audi/merc the rear door slopes to far forward and cuts off a huge amount of load space, if you look at the saloon verions you can see they have simply tacked a roof on the boot area, slanted it forwards for good looks and thats it, remember the old volvo estate cars? now they were proper estate cars, vertical rear door = huge boot space.
Audi avant/allroad in quattro spec with the 3.0tdi engine is a decent machine, grips like anything, must be post 2008, avoid the 2.0 tdi and any petrol versions.

Range rover boot not huge, D3/4 boots on the other hand are frigging enormous.
But rr and disco will never be cheap to run.

Skoda yeti decent machine, available in 4x4, sensible prices, was a recent thread in anything goes section all about them.

One of 19 yeti 4x4 on ebay for under 6k nice looking motor as well, https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2013-Sko...019523?hash=item366d8a61c3:g:arAAAOSwdtxfn9Gb

I ran a Merc Estate for years and it got a lot of use when our child was born. Yes its will carry everything in great comfort, no it will not work in snow. Now I drive a Series camper which has a sink and toilet, very very handy in lockdown. Carry everything, hose clean inside and out, is it comfy and quiet? No we wear ear defenders...
A good compromise? Scoda Yeti or one of the Volvo's. Both are tough, wipe clean and work. Left field? Subaru Forester.

VW Amarok is very car like and not far off £10k now. They arent too bad to run.

Not too keen on vw amarok just not keen on pick ups as they have a big load area but small if you get me eg carry 3m conduit without pipe tube is tricky where D2 or estate they just push through into front. D3/4. Look nice but seem to have more issues and poor engines compared to a l322 3.0 diesel, though they do have the load space.
I do like Volvo v60s and 70s the 60 though is small, drove a insignia estate before and same issue, look big boot but then you realise half the boot is the wrap around door so is crap for moving beds etc. Are mercs Realy that bad in winter with winter tyres? Skoda yeti is certainly different showed one to other half and her reply was “looks like a box” so don’t think she’s too keen.

Within the price range and spec needed there are only two cars to do the job, a Subaru Forester or a Subaru Outback. I can really, really recommend the Forester XT. They're near unstoppable in the snow with winter tyres. Plus, unlike the Haldex type cars...and Land Rovers...Foresters simply do not fail/breakdown.

eta: the front seats are also one of the most comfortable known to man

Few people I know have mentioned Subaru but some said Realy reliable others said run a mile for head gasket issues and the boxer diesel had issues?

rich28uk said:

Few people I know have mentioned Subaru but some said Realy reliable others said run a mile for head gasket issues and the boxer diesel had issues?

Click to expand...

All the boxer engines seem to suffer from head gaskets, apparently boxer diesels are a terrible engine.
Bloke at work reckons they are thirsty buggers as well.

Yes the mercs really are that bad in the snow, we live on a hill c class with winter tyres no go unless you had a run up, and even then it was touch and go, every land rover I have ever owned just drove up it with no issues.
Such an issue the c class ran winter tyres all year round, even ran a couple of bags of gravel in the boot to try and help with traction.

Due to snow I had to abondon my e class on the m20 and walk 5 miles home, the car would not move due to snow, and that was on the flat!

Merc estates are fantastic engineering and estates are very out of fashion so values have tanked. May be worth looking for a 4-Matic - its a very clever 4wd set up and cost an absolute packet new, just make sure it works!
Did a quick search and almost no estates with 4matic for sale, I suspect few sold. They used to sell for less than those without as people were scared of the repair bills, did find this:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MERCEDES...407410?hash=item2d19bdf3b2:g:zaEAAOSwZrxfgtHt
Over 200k but my Merc was running great at 225k when i sold it.

Had another look this morning I’m still leaning towards full fat Range Rover or if estate, Volvo V60/70, prefer v60s looks but more v70s in budget and more practical.

I drove a Volvo estate for many years, was very impressed by it. I think there is still a bit of the commercial vehicle culture to Volvo. Everything was slightly stronger then on other cars and all the service points were very accessible. I can't speak for the recent models but on the older one where you might find 4 small inaccessible bolts holding something on a Merc, the Volvo would have one large one that was easy to get to.

CR-V. Problem solved

lynall said:

All the boxer engines seem to suffer from head gaskets, apparently boxer diesels are a terrible engine.
Bloke at work reckons they are thirsty buggers as well.

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Agree re diesel units, but the only time heads gaskets go are when engines are 1. not looked after, and 2. when they're messed around with by the technically inept inverted baseball cap wearers with their aftermarket add-on blow up bits...and there are many of these out there. The trick with Subaru's is to buy one that's completely standard, non-modified and with impeccable service history. They can be found and with first rate suppliers like ICP Durham, they're incredibly low cost to run...if a little thirsty around town, I average 27-28mpg in my FXT.

How about a Freelander 2. Cheaper to run than FFRR, and much cheaper to maintain, but with almost as much space as the D2.

Had a 2009 fl2 before, nice to drive, was relatively reliable apart from the splines failing and making it two wheel drive only, in terms of space I found it quite small, ok on my own but some jobs I went to it was Realy full think now with baby we could struggle. But yea they are nice if I could manage I would consider one again as day to day it was good on fuel.

Neighbour got a Kia Sportage that's been pretty good. Quite a nice motor. They've got two young girls and can get all their stuff in plus luggage etc

VW passat - biggest boot for the size of car. Regularly around 60MPG. When things do break you've got a fair chance of repairing it yourself.

I had a c class on 62 plate. I didn’t last a year. Lovely gearbox but a 4 pot diesel in a merc just didn’t pair. I swapped it for a 3.0v6 Quattro a5 which rang rings around it