Mourning the death of the traditional Estate car

[Martino]

I was thinking that I’d never had an estate car (other than a succession of ‘Classic’ Range Rovers, which didn’t fit into any normal category) but then realized that I’d had a Lancia HPE 2000ie. Lancia billed this as a high performance estate.  Well…..     ‘twas a bit small for a real estate but with the seats folded and the opening tailgate it could hold a sizable mobile discotheque in the early ‘80s.  Went well too, except it often cut out going round roundabouts.  Found to be a somewhat short wire in the ignition system that was stretched under load if the engine leaned one way and the car tried to lean the other.   Otherwise a fun device. 

 

Photos:  Lancia HPE and a Rangie trying to be all things.

[Dorsetmike]

OVer the years I had 3 Ford estates, a 100E Escort (the original 1959 1172 side valve~) a Mk 2 Dortina and a Mk 4 Cortina back in the days when one had to cope with kids and camping gear. Also had sa few saloons, mostly Fords - dad worked for the local ~Ford main dealer.

Now those reasons are long gone, over the last 20 years or so it's been Mazdas, a Demio and now on my 3rd Mazda 2 - the original 2002-2007 version which is an estate as far as I'm concerned,(some might call it a hatchback), but I think it's more of an estate. It has plenty of room for my rollator - walking aid - mobility tends to be a bit limited  once past 85!

 

[daryll]

On 31/10/2022 at 17:05, woodenhead said:

@APOLLO actually the Skoda Superb estate does look rather tasty and it will be reliable.

 

Reckon I could put a couple of bikes in the back of one of those....

 

Maybe, maybe

I have  , in the past put 2 mountain bikes and 2 guys in the Octavia , a wee bit cramped but doable , 

[Bulleidboy100]

This was not your normal estate car - Mk 3 Ford Cortina 2000E, but rebadged as a 3000E. I had it fitted with an Essex 3-litre V6 mated to a 5-speed box, Bilstein Gas shockers, uprated springs all round, tubular exhaust manifolds, single exhaust pipe. Bought new in 1975 and converted by Superspeed (the Young brothers) of Ilford. Boy did it go.

 

Edited November 3, 2022 by Bulleidboy100

[melmerby]

15 hours ago, Chris M said:

Way back, this was a great load lugger. Useful for camping holidays too.

A while back had had one on loan whilst my car was being repaired.

Horrible car but loads of space, you could get 6' 6" doors in easily!

Another time I was given a Merc (E230?) while my car was being fixed, less room than the body size suggests and it scraped it's underside coming off my drive, no other car has ever done that.

 

As has been mentioned manufacturers seem to be giving you two choices; Big SUV or Small SUV.

I hate SUVs, should've been strangled at birth by legislation.

[SRman]

I have long liked the convenience of an estate car ("wagon" here in Australia, short for station wagon).

My first was a 1979 Ford Falcon XD wagon, in a rather unfashionable burnt orange colour, which was worth $1000 off the sale price. I owned that for 21 years and loved the ability to hurl anything into the back, With the seats folded, I could comfortable sleep stretched out in the back (I am over 6' in the old measure). I don't have a scanned photo for the Falcon.

I followed that with a fairly high-mileage 1994 Holden Commodore wagon (bought in 2002), and kept that for eight years, before getting a brand new Mitsubishi Lancer Sportback (i.e. a hatchback). That was a lot smaller than the Ford and Holden that preceded it, so not as convenient or as capacious but still handier than a saloon. I kept the Lancer for nine very reliable years.

 

My current car is an SUV. I'm not really a fan of SUVs, but I am getting increasingly arthritic and was having difficulties getting in or out of the Lancer, so had to get something a little taller. I settled on a Honda CR-V, also bought brand new, and that is really another wagon, just on stilts. I am happy with this one for now and intend keeping it for at least 10 years, maybe more.

 

[big jim]

2 hours ago, Ron Ron Ron said:

 

 

 

The Mokka is based on the Corsa, a small so called "supermini". It's no wonder the load space is modest.

Would you fancy trying to put your "full size fridge freezer" in a Corsa? 

 

 

 

.

 

Didn’t realise it was corsa sized,certainly doesn’t feel like it,  funnily enough I’ve got a new corsa hire car at the moment and that will just about get my hybrid type bike in with a wheel removed but the front seat has to be right forward and tilted forward too so it’s unusable, as I say had the seats in the mokka been able to have been fully reclined and the headrest be removed the fridge would have fitted in

 

 

[Dunsignalling]

7 hours ago, big jim said:

Didn’t realise it was corsa sized,certainly doesn’t feel like it,  funnily enough I’ve got a new corsa hire car at the moment and that will just about get my hybrid type bike in with a wheel removed but the front seat has to be right forward and tilted forward too so it’s unusable, as I say had the seats in the mokka been able to have been fully reclined and the headrest be removed the fridge would have fitted in

 

 

Main issue with small SUVs is the lack of length in the loadbed. My Yeti, with the rear seats removed is only around 60" (hard to measure exactly as they are in place at present). I reckon it's an inch or two shy of that available in my previous, slightly smaller car, a Peugeot 207SW estate. However, the rear seats in the latter couldn't be folded dead flat which rather limited its capacity. Because of the extra height, I'd rate the Yeti almost equal with the seats folded and rather more usable once they are out. 

 

As for handling, I drive the Yeti like a hot hatch and have never encountered the slightest hint of instability. Admittedly it's a top-of-the-range CR170 with the Quattro transmission and lesser (Fwd only) variants on skinnier tyres may not be so forgiving, though they are presumably not purchased with the same expectations.

 

John

Edited November 2, 2022 by Dunsignalling

[Enterprisingwestern]

 

To confuse the unwary I've noticed more and more reliance on the cubic capacity being stated by manufacturers nowadays, a useless figure if ever there was one.

 

Mike.

 

 

[MrTea]

Hello chaps. Fellow Estate car fan here. 
 

We graduated to a VW Passat estate from my Citroen Saxo VTR in 2008/9 when we needed a ‘sensible’ family car and haven’t looked back. 
 

Since then I’ve had a BMW 3 Series Touring and earlier this year I swapped to a 2019 Passat again. 
 

Loads of space for the kids stuff and camping gear and I dare say it would come in useful for transporting bits of layouts (although that isn’t why I bought it - honest!). 
 

Ian

[The Lurker]

My first car was a Nissan (Datsun) Sunny 1.5 GLE. It had been the family car before my Dad was given a company car; he couldn't drive so that became my Mum's car and I got this instead.

 

 

 

 

Not my photograph - but it was my actual car. I found it by chance some time back on the net when looking for images of that type of car. Someone took a photo of it in Cambridge one day. 

It was scrapped when I finished with it

Edited November 2, 2022 by The Lurker

[Rich Papper]

A bit late to the party here, but useful to have some suggestions - thanks. The conversation started when I saw the photo of Rob's layout in the back of his car and I realised that in planning my next layout I had started by measuring the boot of a car that is already 9 years old. I have a Hyundai i30 estate (they call it a 'tourer'). Got when babies arrived and needed something a double pushchair could be put in easily. Love it. Bought at one year old, had a seven year warranty, but never had the slightest problem. Slightly weirdly, liked it so much when we came to need a second new one, we bought another i30 tourer. My sister (who lives next door) started admiring, and then she bought an i30 tourer. So now we have three in a row - more than some garages! Problem is they've already stopped making them.

So question is what next? I reckon I can get quite a few years out of it yet, but don't want to just finish a layout that I then can't fit in a car. Strongly dislike SUVs - very poor use of space internally and whatever you power them with the extra bulk and weight are two fingers up to the environment since they use more resources to build and you can't fit as much in them anyway.

Rich

[Rich Papper]

PS I seem to remember looking at the Dacia Logan when we were due first child, but my wife found a review that said it was like driving around in a Travelodge bedroom and wouldn't let me test drive it!

[simontaylor484]

I have a Volvo XC60 plenty of room in the back especially with seats down. I have to have an SUV due to arthritis in both knees.

 

I did have a Renault Laguna Sports Tourer (estate). The roof angled back towards the tailgate reducing headroom.

My brother has a Peugeot Bipper van he uses to go to work in and carries his fishing tackle about in 

[Dunsignalling]

Not really estate cars, but one sees quite a few layouts being unloaded from Citroen Berlingos or the Peugeot equivalent. Also, the VW Touran looks like it might be useful depending how the seats can be configured/removed.

 

John

Edited November 2, 2022 by Dunsignalling

[Titan]

Well, I always look for a vehicle that is capable of doing everything I want. Not yet found anything it can't do. It is unexpectedly quick too.

[TheSignalEngineer]

On 31/10/2022 at 17:05, woodenhead said:

@APOLLO actually the Skoda Superb estate does look rather tasty and it will be reliable.

 

Reckon I could put a couple of bikes in the back of one of those....

 

Maybe, maybe

I've been running a Skoda Octavia Estate for 10 years now. I can get road bikes in without taking anything off. Our mountain bikes go in with the front wheel out. 

For camping trips taking out both wheels I can get in both bikes, a large tent and all of the camping gear plus several days of food supplies.

After my parents died I moved two china cabinets to our house in it.

Previously I had a Picasso which I think was slightly wider inside and the back seats folded down better.

[Night Train]

This rather special estate car will be up for auction soon.

 

 

https://www.historics.co.uk/buying/auctions/2022-11-26/cars/ref-115-2009-jaguar-x-type-estate-ex-hm-queen-elizabeth-ii-jg/

Edited November 2, 2022 by Night Train

[Ron Ron Ron]

4 hours ago, simontaylor484 said:

I have a Volvo XC60 plenty of room in the back especially with seats down.....

 

We have one of those as well. The current mk2 model, not the original.

Loads of room for both passengers and luggage and other loads.

Not as roomy for carrying things as our previous XC90, which was massive inside and would easily beat any estate car on the market for load carrying.

 

4 hours ago, Rich Papper said:

.....Strongly dislike SUVs - very poor use of space internally....

......and you can't fit as much in them anyway.

 

 

I suspect you may have been looking at the wrong cars?

A lot of the more popular, affordable and smaller SUV's are based on or similar inside to Fiesta/Corsa/Polo sized cars, or larger Focus/Golf/Astra hatchbacks.

There are plenty of other SUV's that are very roomy inside and have more accommodation than many saloon and estate cars.

 

 

.

[Ron Ron Ron]

The MG 5 was mentioned earlier.

The original has now been replaced by a facelifted and improved model.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.

 

[cornelius]

29 minutes ago, Ron Ron Ron said:

There are plenty of other SUV's that are very roomy inside and have more accommodation than many saloon and estate cars.

 

I went from a Ford S-Max to a Skoda Kodiaq via a Focus estate - fair enough the Focus is a smaller size category than the others but it was nowhere near as practical, especially in the size of the tailgate opening. The Kodiaq is vast inside - swallowed a fairly large 3 seater sofa whole when we needed to get rid of it, and this week I've discovered it will fit 7 fully loaded Royal Mail mailbags full of Victory locos without needing to put the seats down :D

 

Edited November 2, 2022 by cornelius

[Nick C]

12 hours ago, Ron Ron Ron said:

The MG 5 was mentioned earlier.

The original has now been replaced by a facelifted and improved model.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.

 

Which isn't an estate - it's got a load bed about as flat as the Pennines: (Autoexpress, https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/mg/mg5/359126/new-mg5-ev-2022-review-pictures)

[spamcan61]

My favourite estate car was my Carlton 3.0 CDX estate, my 'executive bread van' as I called it, huge flat load space and good motorway cruiser. Unfortunately I drove it into the back of a Heineken lorry (particularly galling for a real ale drinker) and that was the end of that!

[Ron Ron Ron]

33 minutes ago, Nick C said:

Which isn't an estate - it's got a load bed about as flat as the Pennines..................

 

Agreed.

That's pretty poor.

A deep looking loading lip, plus rear seats not folding anywhere near flat.

 

Still, it's very good VFM as an EV and the refresh makes it look less gaudy and dated, both on the outside and interior.

 

.

[woodenhead]

18 hours ago, Titan said:

Well, I always look for a vehicle that is capable of doing everything I want. Not yet found anything it can't do. It is unexpectedly quick too.

It might fit in, but it looks to me that getting the thing in or out has all the makings of a traditional Laurel and Hardy handymen scene.

 

It must weigh a ton.

Edited November 3, 2022 by woodenhead