Diesel Wagon - Budget or Cheap

LThe mikky on 07/06/2019 - 22:27
Last edited 08/06/2019 - 14:00

Hi,

I am looking for a cheap diesel wagon, don’t want an SUV. But do want one with decent boot space, and must have is drivers leg room, wanting to get rid of my 2011 Hyundai i30 CW wagon, have been hating long drives as my legs cramp / get sore.

I know how to look up cheap cars on the usual websites, which I have already done. hoping for opinions on owners of diesel wagons to know thoughts from actual drivers about what they do and don’t like.

Also I don’t really care about resale as I do 40 to 50 thousand kms / year. So in 5-7 years the car will not be worth much, but I will have made my mechanic a nice sum of money.

As I do lots of KM’s fuel consumption is a high factor for me, don’t want to waste a lot of money on fuel.

Want the wagon as I have a child, and want boot space for all the usual family stuff.

I pretty much do 95% highway driving to and from work everyday and day trips even further on weekend, and a 2-4 trips from orange Nsw to Brisbane every year.

Appreciate anyone willing to offer their opinion.

Cheers

Edit:

Cheers to all for their suggestions, to be honest my budget really changes depending on what I want to do really, but hoping to spend between 10k - 20k. But could go up to 30k depending if I decide for something newer, I like the newer models, but then I'm like meh, I don't want to spend that much lol. I hate spending money. Especially on such a high return investment as a car :p

I have thought about the following

Mondeos
I40
Commodore diesel wagon. (Crazy thought I know)
Skoda supreme / octavia.
Mazda 6. ( but used one's seem to have really high k`s for the price.)

Happy to hear other suggestions as well.

Cheers

Automotive Car

Comments

  • mubd1234 on 11/06/2019 - 09:05

    How about a VW Golf Station Wagon? I currently own a '14 model and it hasn't skipped a beat so far. Great handling thing, too.

    Skoda Octavia wagon is also good (it's the same car under the exterior panelling, really…).

  • biozet on 11/06/2019 - 10:39

    Peugeot 307 wagon extremely fuel efficient

  • dheywood on 11/06/2019 - 14:12

    Do not get a Mondeo, expensive as balls for anything that needs fixing.

    Out of the ones listed in the OP, I'd go for the Hyundai or Skoda personally.

  • geosta on 11/06/2019 - 14:24

    I was in pretty much exactly the same place about 6 months ago, although my driving is mostly from North Coast to Sydney, not West to Sydney. After looking around for ages I just couldn't find a diesel wagon I was happy with in terms of quality, price and ongoing maintenance costs.

    I ended up going for a petrol Mazda6 Wagon (amusingly enough purchased from a dealer in Orange). And I've been very impressed. Seats are comfy, plenty of length if you need it (I don't, but my business partner (6'2") does and he has no issues. Drive is pretty "sporty", which is nice on the freeway and around Sydney but might be an issue on your roads out west.

    One of the big advantages I've found with the Mazda over the Europeans (Skoda was the other main contender) is that there are plenty of third-party accessories available for the Mazda, whereas all the accessories I wanted were pretty much only available from the dealerships (so at least 50% markup). The accessories I got were: roof racks, bootliner, rear lip protector, front stone deflector and headlight protectors. Saved a few hundred dollars with the non-factory items.

    Other big advantage was that my family mechanic has no problems working on a Mazda, whereas he always complains when I take our VW in for a service.

    I'm currently averaging 7.6L/100kms in mixed driving which would be 50/50 between freeway and around town.

    Hope some of that helps.

  • banana365 on 11/06/2019 - 15:01
    +1

    Not sure how common they are over here, but I used to have a Passat wagon that was amazing. Yes, I know there's all that emissions shenanigans that they (and others) were caught out on, but their diesel vehicles are actually very good. I used to load them up with camping, cycling and kayaking gear and drive up into the mountains with no problems. I'd probably have done about 30-40,000km each year. Miss that car.

  • imnotgoingtopayrrp on 11/06/2019 - 18:49

    Can't go past a low km 159 2.4 JTD manual in silver. Now, where to find one is the question……

  • Mitch889 on 11/06/2019 - 19:43

    i40 Tourer CRDi is a great choice. Very comfortable, safe, plenty of space and incredibly good on fuel (sub-5L/100km on a motorway drive in my experience). Big fuel tank means ages between fill ups too.

    Plenty of 2016 and 2017 models around which will still be under the factory 5 year warranty too.

  • mousie on 11/06/2019 - 20:36
    +1

    Passat or Jetta wagon if you can find an ex lease one. But need a full service history and a good vw specialist for servicing great cars.

  • [Deactivated] on 19/06/2019 - 10:38

    Check out the Volvo V60 or other volvo's, past 2005 (look at early-mid 10's) they've got some nice interiors with relatively simple mechanics compared to their latest offerings, for how nice they are inside usually with a decent amount of power on their D5 engine they're up for fairly bargain prices.

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