What car (non 4x4) for people with big/more than one dog?

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shadowboy

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We are looking to change one of our cars as the oldest one is begining to become less economical due to age -we have a new pup arriving in 8 weeks or so and so will have two malamutes!

I currently have a Mitsubishi and a Honda and have found them to be highly reliable and easy to maintain, I dont want a 4x4 as OH will be doing approx 60 miles a day to and from work. Any brand is fine but needs to fit two big dogs in the back and be reliable.

Many thanks.
 
We had a 306 estate and fit two siberians and a malamute in the 306 had more headroom for the dogs than the 406 and the needed it the size they are, we only sold it as mileage was getting silly on it after numerous trips round the country to rallies and several to Aviemore :)
We're now looking into a van as number 4 and 5 are on the horizon so at the moment we're taking two in a mondeo hatchback or three with the back seats down.
Friends of ours have been able to travel two mals, a lab, a collie and a border in the back of a 206 with the seats down :)
 
im a dog walker/sitter and my old laguna estate with the seats down can happily take 3 or 4 large dogs and a couple of small ones or 2/3 large dogs with seats up
 
2x Labs, 1 x ESS and 1xJRT used to all fit in the rear of my Skoda Fabia Estate have lost the Labs, so now the JRT sits up front and my saddles go behind the dog grill.:rolleyes: The Octavia is even bigger.
 
I have a Vauxhall Safira. I put the two rear seats down and the3 dogs (2 collie x and 1 border Collie) all fit easily. have dog guard and tailgate guard. It is diesel and is really economical. I love it.
 
thanks for this, I shall google these options and see which we like the look of then off to the grages for some test driving over the next few weeks. :)
 
If I were to get a car (Have a 4x4) I would get either the Peugoet 406 or 306 diesel estates.

I use to help friends out who had a Taxi company and we had the above. Very reliable and nice to drive. Plenty of room for the dogs..
 
Whats your budget? What sort of performance do you want as my dream car to mix dogs and performance woukd be an RS6 with a lovely V10 :)
Im guessing that you dont want that but certainly an estate of some sort would be ideal as it would be a mixture of car/van.
I am currently looking at 5series estates, A6 estates etc as i dont thnk they are ugly.
 
What about a Citroen C5 estate? Diesel of course.

Mahoosive boot, very good value (I've just bought an 07 reg for just under 4k) and economical to run especially if you get a 1.6 which easily does 50mpg and cheaper road tax.

I know they're a bit of a marmite car but I love them and have used and abused them for the past 10 years....usually doing 25k miles pa.
 
I had a Skoda Octavia estate and the boot was enormous, it was one of the biggest and deepest we could find. Really reliable too.
 
Any estate I guess - Audi estates are very good fuel wise if you go for a diesel. My dad has had his a good few years and it rarely goes wrong. I think it's very difficult to ay really as there are tonnes of decent ones out there. I quite like the peugeots and VWs (Passat estate) and skoda may be good if budget a bit tighter. Think there's something like a 6mth waiting list for the Yeti but then that's a 4x4 and probably doesn't have as big a boot as the others BUT if you want an all in one car the Yeti may be a good choice.
 
There's non 4x4 versions of the Yeti and the back seats can be folded flat or totally removed. :)

I am totally enamoured with it and only wish I could afford one, we already have a Skoda in the household and couldn't be more pleased with the quality.
 
Our family car is a BMW 5 Series estate and Its great, it easily fitted a large childs pushchair, two terriers and a lab, with the back seats still up, its nippy, good on the motorway and comfy. Hope this helps.
 
I have a peugeot 307 diesel estate. Comfortably fits a big lab, golden retriever and over sized mini schnauzer in the boot. Plus Pixel, my partially sighted cocker spaniel seat belted on the back seat :D fuel efficient and boot lips quite low which is good for mac the lab, who is 11yrs with a double hip replacement! :D
 
I have a Ford Mondeo estate, it's good on fuel and has shed loads of boot space, my mum had it before me, she could easily get four or five Hungarian Wirehaired Vizslas and occasionally one of my JRTs in there, so two Malas shouldn't be a prob :D
 
Have been looking at a change to and with 4 dogs (2 med & 2 small) need a bit of room. Audi's rank highly esp A3 (diesel under 2l £30 road tax - v nice) A4 diesel estate (bro has one approx 55-60 miles per gal) or as someone else said VW or Skoda Estates.
 
If your sole criteria is that the vehicle should be a good dog-mobile, then I can't praise the Citroen Nemo Multispace enough.

The back seats lift out leaving a large totally flat area that we get four HPRs in. There is no carpet in the car; just plastic and rubber mats, so swilling out is easy! A bit naff, I know, but highly practical. It does 50 + mpg (diesel) and is in the £35 road tax bracket.

The sill for entry into the boot is very low, so no jumping in or out required by the dog....they just step in.

There is a full size spare tyre which is under the vehicle and is accessed from outside, so if you breakdown on the motorway with dogs in the back there's no issue about having to get into the boot.

Oh, and it has those stupid push out windows in the rear that are just the right size for an HPR to get their snout out and scent as you're going along! :D

And no, I don't work for Citroen, have shares in Citroen or owt else!! :)
 
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