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Ah yes an estate would be a lot cheaper with that budget. Beware of buying French estate diesels when they fall to that price level. It may be worth getting it checked out before you buy as the parts can be very expensive. At least if you buy Ford ar Vauxhall, the parts are readily available as so many companies do pattern parts and every mechanic on the planet can do all the basic repairs and maintenance. The only area the "kerbside" mechanic struggles with, is Electronic Diagnostics, but even a lot of the smaller non franchise garages have the equipment now, so you can save on the very costly main dealer prices!

Thanks Chalky - I'll have a look at some Vauxhall Astras on eBay. To be honest I have only so far looked at volvo estates but I was told these a heavy on the juice.

A VW Passat sounds appealing Steve - my dad used to work for VW and always rated them but my faith took a knock when we bought the polo from hell - the first time it rained it had a foot of water in the footwell. Dad still got it working though but I didnt dare let him drive it home to his house - 180 miles away - mum would have killed me.

Some good advise there.

I've had a Passat from new for almost 3 years and it's been great, I have done 98,000 miles in it so far and it's had no problems.  I've got the 130 bhp diesel and it's quick where it matters but if you're careful you can get 60mpg on a run (50mpg if you're not so careful).

I would go for another VW but I have been seduced by the Honda FR-V and it's funky 3 seats across design.  I popped in to a dealer this afternoon and folded all the back seats into the floor and folded the middle front seat.... I can lie down inside! It's going to add another dimension to my corporate camping...

Steve 

Price to one side, we have a picasso, and a trailer.

We ended up needing more space with three kids and have also bought a roof box, so a different option may be to consider a roofbox on a car slightly under budget as most estate turbo diesels are usually high mileage ex fleet, or low miles good nick hold their value so well,  as good ones are like rocking horse poop.

Roof box and bars a few hundred, but once bought can change from car to car..!

happy hunting. 

I have a Volvo V40 estate, great cars, plenty of room in the back, even without dropping the back seats. Diesel was a must for us too when buying.

But......

2.5K aint gonna get you a nearly new, althought it would get you a decent enough estate but you would need to compensate on the age and milage, as mentioned above.

We got our Volvo, a 52 plate on E Bay from a very good seller, checked him out before buying off The Bay (you always hear the stories - but this guy was first class)

Why not doing a search on The Bay for what you are looking for.....

All great advice in these Forums, a total goldmine of info, I love UKCS.. (I broke my hand recently so I seem to be on here all day!!)

Chalky_47 said: Me thinks you are forgetting the good ladys budget of £2500! Now I have been in the motor retail industry for nearly 20 years & I have yet to see a 130 bhp VW Passat estate for that sort of money

No, what I meant was that I have personally put 100,000 miles on a diesel Passat without any problems and as such I would recommend a 1.9 VW diesel.  Older Passats are cheaper (obviously) and I would expect them to be a good buy based on my experience of a newer one (of course, it could be that older ones were rubbish, I'll bow down to your superior knowledge if this is the case)

Steve

Hi Karen it might be worth checkin out  one of Uncle Henry Fords,Mondeo's, Hatch or estate. There are plenty around and used prices always seem reasonable as so many of them in use as company cars.

My brother has had quite afew of them through work and never had any probs what so, ever his current one is new shape 05 plate and he's allready nocked up over 40'000 in it without a problem, my other halfs dad had an mk1 diesel mondeo and that thing got filled with petrol, never serviced on time even missed the odd service, you could say totally abused and it just kept going, the only time it broke down was when the clutch cable snapped. I'm sure though some one some where will have had one and nowt but trouble with it though. Still they are cheep to run and parts are aplenty.

Nige

hi i know you wanted an estate but we have a people carrier the Toyota Previa and its great. There is great boot space (not like most ppl carriers which have little or no boot space) and the back seats fold down to make an even bigger boot space plus you still have the middle row of seats for the kids.

We wouldnt be without ours but the only downside is it like its juice!

Spudz - looks interesting. Have you got one yourself?

Karen