Recommend me a decent rural car!

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PercyMum

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The Discovery has broken down on me for the last time. I've just about got used to being wet all the time but last night the headlights died and this morning the electric windows all got stuck down. It's in for an MOT and service today then I'm going to get rid soonest.

So I need to start looking at a new car. Needs to be large enough to fit 2 dogs in and able to take at least 3 bales of shavings (obviously not at the same time!!). I don't need to tow anymore so doesn't need to be a 4x4 but does need to be fairly fuel efficient.

Finally, have a tiny budget of £5k. Not bothered if it's an older model just needs to be reliable, warm and dry!!

Any ideas? I thought about a Passat estate but since I've only had Landrovers I have no idea about what else is a horse-friendly motor!

Thanks.
 
The key to rural motoring is to buy whatever's cheap that will do the job. Put away half your money, buy a high-mileage shed that takes your fancy, and then you won't worry about scraping it against the hedgerows, and covering it in wet dog / hay.

Big estates are good, and do get one with a tow bar. You might not think you're going to be towing, but you will.
 
I have an Audi A3 and that fits 3 bales of straw in with the seats down. I got a 57 plate for £8k but I bet you could get a 55/06 plate for around £5k, its cheap on deisel, dont know what it would be like for yourself on insurance but for me being 23 its about £800, which is cheaper than my old renault clio. And its a nice car to have.
 
Oh and also with the german engineering the car *touch wood* has never had anything wrong with it and has just flown through its MOT.
 
What about a Saab diesel estate?

We used to have one before OH upgraded to a Volvo. They are lovely, solid built and economical cars that you won't have worry about in bad weather.

You can get a decent model fairly cheaply as it's a discontinued make (a real shame IMO) and you can still get plenty of cheap parts (vauxhall bought them) so upkeep and servicing won't be a worry. I have a new shape freelander but the boot of the Saab was actually a little bigger.

I may get shot down but worth a look at what you can get for 5k
 
Have a look at Skoda Octavia estates. Reasonable price, good mpg, plenty of space, good for high mileage, very reliable.
 
What about a Ford Focus? Will do the shavings with ease, and I guess the dogs too unless they are St. Bernards or Wolfhounds!

I never thought I would have one, but tried it and they are FANTASTIC to drive. 1.8 diesel does a real 40mpg+ driven hard(ish) in hilly country, very reliable and cheap to fix when they do go wrong.

I would go for a 56 or 57, say about £3,000 and keep balance as a contingency fund. You never when they will knack something.

One tip - change to winter tyres in winter - they make all the difference, will cruise through snow which you think would fox a 4x4.
 
A plug here for a Ford Mondeo diesel estate. Lots to choose from second hand. Our 56 plate 2litre TDI does 50 mpg ish routinely. Go for one with traction control (that applies to any make of car) for good getaways on muddy roads (and unfortunately our base Mondeo doesn't have it). Everything will have ABS, I should think, as that's another must on slippery roads.

Can get 7 bales of shavings in with back seats folded down.
 
In the last few years I have had the following as company cars, all estates and all of which would do the job.

SAAB 95. Comfy, quiet, but a bit fancy as it had leather interior. Lots of space though. I used to get around 50mpg from the 2.0l diesel.

Peugeot 306 SW. This was a great little car, 105,000 trouble free miles, loads of carrying space and cheap to service at the local garage. 60mpg from the 16l diesel.

Skoda Octavia. This is my current drive and it's great. Lots of room, typical 60mpg plus from a 1.6 diesel.

My son had a Focus for a few years, it was pretty tired when he got it, but had been used for dogs and horse feed for a while. It was not that good on fuel, but then I suspect he has a bit of a lead foot! At around 150,000 it started making expensive noises, so the scrap man took it. That said it cost him £750 and he had nearly two years of thrashing it down country lanes to work and back.
 
I actually love my Clio!! If you don't need to tow, I'd recommend… mine is a 2010 1.18 with inbuilt sat-nav, bought it with 18k miles on it in 2012 and it was 5k. Has done over 100k miles with me since I bought it, with winter tyres it actually skims across the top of the deep snow we get her win NE Scotland, and was impressively the only car at Blair this year not to get towed to the back of the tradestands by a tractor as it just flew over the mud.

Boot is big enough for two dogs if not huge ones, and with back seat down it carries three bales of shavings, one big chaff bale and three bags of feed with some room for the little extra purchases like bandages and boots… and bumpy farm tracks are no problem for it, unlike my Mum's Mini which ha recently needed a new exhaust despite doing not even a fraction of the farm tracks my Clio does.

I don't know the mpg, but it costs me £60 to fill up once a week and I drive minimum 45 miles a day. It also costs me £30 to drive to Glasgow and back from here (about 260 miles round trip). So not bad.
 
Gosh NeilM - I was thinking it was a long time since you'd been around and wondering where you were! Glad to see we're in agreement on our choice of Skoda Octavia.
 
Subaru Forester. Nice chunky cobby sort of car, no nonsense "leg at each corner" feel to it but handles nicely, canters on nicely on good roads and surprisingly light in hand especially on corners. Is reasonably economical on longer journeys, I've got the petrol version but apparently the diesal gives very competitive mileage.

Plenty of room in the boot: if you fold down the rear seats you'll almost be able to fit the horse in there LOL.

And you've got the 4WD if you need it........... very reassuring.
 
jemima*askin said:
Gosh NeilM - I was thinking it was a long time since you'd been around and wondering where you were! Glad to see we're in agreement on our choice of Skoda Octavia.
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I had 14 months of hire cars (long story) and had several Octavia's during that time, when the new company car list came out, I went straight for the Octavia estate. It's the posh one with sat-nav and leather, but as I spend so much time on / near / travelling to / from building sites, it looks more like a vets cars, as it's usually covered in ..erm, countryside debris.

Not been on here for a fair while.

I've not stopped riding, just got a bit fed up with 'which pink jacket / diamante brow band should I buy?' type posts and then kinda fell out of the habit.
 
Round here the vets drive them. We have a bit of a competition going to see whose will last the longest. Mine is the worst treated as it's not only living on a building site but being used as a builder's van / tow vehicle part of the time.
 
I'll second the Forester! Got one myself - has handled everything I have thrown at and in it, tows a Rice trailer with no issues, will do 'cough' the legal limit on motorways, then when you get home you can drop into 'Low' box, pull out the Nissan Terrano that's stuck in the field, hook up the chain harrows and spin round the paddock....

Great car, mega expensive when new, depreciate like a rock - couple of grand buys you a cracking older low mileage one now....

Downside - bit heavy on fuel, 25 MPG ish but then again my Iveco Daily works truck isn't much better!



MiJodsR2BlinkinTite said:
Subaru Forester. Nice chunky cobby sort of car, no nonsense "leg at each corner" feel to it but handles nicely, canters on nicely on good roads and surprisingly light in hand especially on corners. Is reasonably economical on longer journeys, I've got the petrol version but apparently the diesal gives very competitive mileage.

Plenty of room in the boot: if you fold down the rear seats you'll almost be able to fit the horse in there LOL.

And you've got the 4WD if you need it........... very reassuring.
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I've just part exed a 10 year old Shogun Sport for £1500.

We worked it hard, but it still looked new inside and never gave us a day's trouble. Had a new clutch a few years ago, but bar that, just needed servicing. Passed MOT various times.

Someone going to an auction near Plymouth will have had an awful lot of car for their money.
 
Echo Bravo said:
I love my Discovery Td5 :)
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I loved mine too - until it started costing me stupid amounts of money and I don't tow or go off-road anymore. And I just long to not get wet in the car every time it rains. Sigh.

The nail in the coffin was when it was cheaper for me to take the lorry and 2 horses to a venue and when OH did the same journey, the Discovery used more fuel than the lorry!!
 
I love my toyota rav4... It does 45 mpg it's diesel but not noisy, with back seats down I fit in 6 feed bags and 4 shavings, the dog, and me and the son in front... It's good in the snow and ice, and I've drove up snow covered mountain lane to sort horses out in winter, with 6 full water cans in the back and two bales of hay!! Mine is a 57 plate, and has sailed through all services, it's having new tyres next week after 55 k miles...
 
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