Which performance diesel estate?
 

I'm having to go back to performance diesel as my every day car as I'm doing 20k a year and the forester is not the most efficient.

Interested to know people's opinions on the following, and if you have any recommendations.

Main points are it most be 40+ mpg, an estate, an automatic and max 6 years old. Budget up to £15k.

Currently torn between seat Leon fr 184, skoda Octavia vrs and Mercedes c250/350.

My head says skoda is the sensible choice, my heart says go for the c350!

thoughts?

Utterly love my vRS. What a car

Audi B8 avant 3.0V6D Quattro, stage 1 map and you have a pretty quick car. Or any of that engine.

I had a Volvo V50 with all the trimmings when they first came out, was a very nice place to be... not going to set the world on fire speed wise, but was perfectly capable and more importantly for me... a little bit different to the usual Audi/ BMW tosh that you see everywhere.

Is this a company car or a private purchase?

330d or 335d the ultimate gentlemans car.

Love my 530D 52 mpg on long motoway trips, 42mpg avarage with some town and motoway if your foots not too heavy. Realy nice car to do lot of miles in.

The way the love for diesel is going your budget may come down for what you want.

My priority would be not to have a four cylinder diesel. Generally the cars I can think of that have more than four cylinders are just better in many other respects too.

20k wouldn't be enough to justify a diesel.

45mpg diesel v 30mpg petrol is only a £3 a day fuel saving. Factor in insurance, servicing and depreciation and it could be even less. Add in one unforeseen maintenance cost and it could wipe it out completely.

​​​​​​40k may be reconsider. Mind you, if you are buying another car just so save fuel costs, then you are £15k down straight away!

Private purchase. I have an Impreza in the garage so this is my every day car but it still needs enough poke to keep me interested!

I looked at the Volvo's too but the looks just don't do it for me. Performance on paper looks good though.

The BMW's again have great performance on paper, but look so dull. A neighbour has a 2 year old 335d, superb drive but just looks so bland

Yer interesting argument - i'll admit i have not run the figures completely and would consider a petrol. However, are there many sub 8s 0-60 petrol estates that will do +30 mpg? I was hoping my forester would but its no where near unfortunately. I did look at the Mini Clubman but im not sure whether the size is truely an estate size

I went out Saturday just to see some mercs, octavias and leons.
My Mrs said no to the Leon as the rear is a lot smaller than the others and to be honest the interiors were a bit tacky (and thats coming from someone with two Subarus!).
We looked at C class and E class and again the C class rear leg room was surprisingly small. The E class (E250 and E350) look great and interiors are lovely. Would be looking at higher miles (50-70k) though for my budget. The servicing at a specialist would not be as bad as i had originally thought either (£259 for major service). Still a contender although i would have to understand the real time MPG.
Although the car currently ticking all boxes is the Octavia. Loads of room, great looks and on paper great performance. A local dealer has a '15 plate with 27k on the clock for £15.5k.

So, when the Forester is sold i'll be heading out for test drives of the Octavia and probably an E250/350.

Mk7 Golf GTD estate :)

Skoda quote 42mpg for their 2013 petrol VRS, and 55mpg for the diesel equivalent. That would make the diesel just £10 a week cheaper to fuel.

I would definitely look into the numbers. 20k isn't really a lot of miles unless you are comparing a 4l V8 versus a 2.0 diesel.

Modern 2l petrol v 3.0l diesel is not going to work out much more than £1k a year in fuel. Then compare all the other costs and it could be immaterial.

I can give you the numbers if you have a few cars you want to compare.

Yes, this was another consideration, although the Passat would probably suit us better size wise. However they seem to be higher priced than the octavia/leon but based on the same DSG and engine if i'm not mistaken?

Yes that would be interesting to see, thank you. I'm doing 20k a year (pro-rata) the last 6 months, although the year before i did 15k so i think 20k a year tops on the mileage front. My commute (without including site visits) is only 30 mile round trip.
I would be interested to see how the petrol VRS compares vs diesel VRS/ 40mpg E350 / 45mpg E250 works out.

Bought the Golf new in March 2016 using Drive the Deal, manual with high spec, extended service plan and warranty for £25,500. I average 20k miles PA mainly motorway way miles to and from work circa 30m miles each way with the odd trip to other offices and site visits.

Apart from a couple of issues with the Discovery Pro head unit it has been faultless.

Checking Road Trip (MPG logging app) I average 48MPG and my monthly spend on fuel is circa £180.


Skoda use the same engine and running gear but don't have the same interior finish.

I absolutely love my C350 cdi, got it 2nd hand fully loaded with all the toys and AMG kit.

I do 38 miles each way to work and back and it is an absolute joy to drive on the motorway, doesn't even sound like a diesel with the V6, very torquey and very rapid even in Eco mode.

This car will get me points I'm sure, although I can only get 38 mpg. Also probably the best screwed together car I've ever had, destroys the 3 series in that respect imho.

Hooned a 1.6TSi Leon estate rental around a few months back, mostly motorway at 130km/h (80mph) and it averaged 42mpg; Not bad for a petrol. But performance whilst Ok wasn't exactly inspiring; would rather have the torque of a larger diesel that has the same or better MPG.


https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.sco...e027a6d08.jpeg

Skoda Octavia vRS (2013 on) 2.0 TDI 184 Estate ¦¦ 48.50 ¦¦ 44.70
Mercedes-Benz E-Class (2009 - 2016) E250 CDI BlueEfficiency ¦¦ 42.80 ¦¦ 50.66
Mercedes-Benz E-Class (2009 - 2016) E350 CDI BlueEfficiency ¦¦ 36.20 ¦¦ 59.89
Skoda Octavia vRS (2013 on) 2.0 TSI 245 Estate ¦¦ 33.00 ¦¦ 64.11

MPG as per Honest John (no real world average for Petrol VRS but Diesel VRS real world was 77% of claimed figured, so used that calc for the Petrol) followed by weekly fuel cost @20k annual (assuming Diesel currently £1.24 and petrol £1.21 national average - there will be a 3p difference anyway).

Thanks for that. 👍

If your thinking of a skoda Octavia, look into a high spec superb the interior is much nicer with same running gear.
But a skoda is probably similar interior to a Leon, not that appealing. But the superb has nice seats and more room etc.

So many minicab drivers in Octavia's plenty of which are Vrs' enough to put me off the 2nd hand market

Plenty of chavs in subaru too :lol1:, but we still have one.

If taxis have them, then it shows their reliability and economical

I just picked up a 2011 Volvo XC70 D5 - 202bhp and a shed load of torque. Really comfy on long journeys and top gear acceleration on motorways is awesome. It would take something very serious to pull away under the same conditions without dropping a cog. Handling wise, its not the best but then I've been driving an RRS for the past 5 years and that is solid. Masses of room too.

If the XC didn't float your boat (& I'm sure it wouldn't everyone's), then a V70 D5 would be next choice - 215bhp/325ft lb version and if you went for a RICA S2 tune would give you 275bhp & 395 ft/lb :D Much better handling.

If it were my choice I'd have to go for Mercedes... just for the build quality and all round Kudos... lets face it... Mercs are the daddy. :thumb:

Build quality.......Mercedes.......:wonder:

A 1989 300D for sure, anything more modern, not so much.

Interesting to hear. What MPG are you getting?

I like the look of the V60 but rear seat space looks limited. The XC70 i'm not fussed on looks wise, neither the standard V70 but the V70 R Design is nice. I would consider an R Design V70 if the right one came up.