James Ruppert
Having spent a weekend with one of those good old-fashioned estate cars, I think it may well be the most practical and economical vehicle format known to humanity. I was borrowing a cheap old Volvo 850, but there’s no need to rely on a scruffy one like that. There are some surprisingly modern and good-value options.
Steering away from the gazillion-mile ones for the moment, all you need for the family is £2999 and a Vauxhall Insignia 2.0 CDTi Ecoflex Exclusiv Sports Tourer can be yours. This is a 2010 example with 80,000 miles and a full service history. The great thing about these is that, on average, you will get over 50mpg. Three owners seem to have looked after this one and it is a fair price. The £255 annual tax is almost affordable as well.
If the Vauxhall brand is too ordinaire, my recent experience of the Mercedes C-Class has been most encouraging. That’s why I looked again at a 78,000-mile, 2009 estate with another unfeasibly long model name. It’s a C180K BlueEfficiency Sport with an automatic gearbox, up for £6400. This will approach 40mpg, quietly and very comfortably. I would recommend one without hesitation and this car has a year’s comprehensive cover.
Peugeot has always made great estates and the 407 SW contains a massive amount of movable space. It’s always best to find a well-cared-for example to avoid unexpected breakdowns and I think I’ve found one. It’s a one-owner, 2010 2.0 HDi Sport with 40,000 miles and a good roster of equipment that includes a panoramic sunroof. But the most impressive feature is the comprehensive service history. Price? It’s just £3300.
There are some proper oddities around and the revived Fiat Tipo is one of them, despite being little more than a hatchback, but these are great value. Another one-owner example, this 2017 Tipo is a 1.6 Multijet in Lounge spec showing 80,000 miles. Low running costs are a speciality, with 76mpg officially and zero road tax. So the £5900 asking price seems very reasonable. In fact, that would allow me to make a very silly back-up estate purchase.
How about a Vauxhall Omega with the 2.6i V6 engine in Elite specification? Not least as they are pretty much extinct – and that’s because it might just about return 24mpg while costing £415 to tax. But £1200 for thi
