Family wagon suggestions

[Gizmo]

The issues with the VW's Gearbox are all with a particular revision of their new 7 speed dsg. Most DSG boxes are fine.

Here are two wagons I would look at. To me, few used cars represent such good vaule as an Alfa 159. You can pick a decent one up for 25k. The Ford Mondeo is also a great car.

Alfa 159
Ford Mondeo

[Exar Kun]

The issues with the VW's Gearbox are all with a particular revision of their new 7 speed dsg. Most DSG boxes are fine.

Here are two wagons I would look at. To me, few used cars represent such good vaule as an Alfa 159. You can pick a decent one up for 25k. The Ford Mondeo is also a great car.

Alfa 159
Ford Mondeo

The 159 is dead sexy but it's not the most practical wagon. Tight rear leg room and a relatively small load space.

The Mondeo, on the other hand is pretty good. Great leg room and boot. Decent toys in the upper spec model. Grab a diesel or ecoboost model though as the 2.3 NA was way underpowered for the size of car.

[Santaria]

The issues with the VW's Gearbox are all with a particular revision of their new 7 speed dsg. Most DSG boxes are fine.

Here are two wagons I would look at. To me, few used cars represent such good vaule as an Alfa 159. You can pick a decent one up for 25k. The Ford Mondeo is also a great car.

Alfa 159
Ford Mondeo

To be fair, the gearbox that caused the furore was actually a manual gearbox which apparently caused the car to conk out on the freeway. DSG gearboxes had mechtronic problems which caused limp home mode which has been fixed since 2011.

On topic: I do like the Mondeo wagons. They're roughly the size of a falcon wagon, but better build in my opinion. Peppy little buggers too!

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

[Quincy]

1976 Toyota Crown Super Deluxe Wagon. . . Seats 5 with room for 2 more kiddies in the back with a rear facing dickie seat, great for the kids to moon the car behind in slow traffic, or giving them the bird. Got ours for $1800, spent about the same again to iron out the bugs, great car to drive!! More chrome than you can poke a stick at. Ashtrays all round, even in the rear for the dickie sitters, did I mention Central Locking and Power Steering!! Fucking yeah.!




Ours is blue however, much sexier than the above, especially with tinted windows. Woot...!!

[Santaria]

1976 Toyota Crown Super Deluxe Wagon. . . Seats 5 with room for 2 more kiddies in the back with a rear facing dickie seat, great for the kids to moon the car behind in slow traffic, or giving them the bird. Got ours for $1800, spent about the same again to iron out the bugs, great car to drive!! More chrome than you can poke a stick at. Ashtrays all round, even in the rear for the dickie sitters, did I mention Central Locking and Power Steering!! Fucking yeah.!




Ours is blue however, much sexier than the above, especially with tinted windows. Woot...!!

I used to have the 6cyl, 4spd version. Revved it's nut off on the highway, lol.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

[Quincy]

Ours is the 6 cylinder 4 speed, cruises on 110 like a walk in the park. The ride is as soft as a babies bottom.

[Vilante]

You do like an ugly car don't you Q-man?

[Quincy]

ohhh! ohhh!


*sniff* I will pretend I did not hear that Vil. . .

[pab]

I hope he's not talking about your other car Quince, otherwise, them's fightin words!

[Vilante]

Did I say ugly? I mean, interesting.

[Quincy]

2 against one pab, he has no chance!!

[pab]

Yeah, he's already trying to squirm out of it!

[Bauer]

girl at work has a Nissan Stagea wagon for sale. She just bought a Mini. She is the only aussie owner of the wagon apparently. Nothing like an import

[wobblysauce]

Bauer, That is for sale atm maybe.

I know a guy in NSW that has 2 Stageas a newer blue one and an older black one both wagons.

[Bauer]

yes it is for sale atm maybe.

[KNAPPO]

We bought a VE SV6 Sportswagon for our family bus about 6 months ago. No complaints so far and its a fun car to drive when no one else is in it

Fully loaded, 5 people (albeit little ones at present) its doing the job for us so far and is not too bad on juice.

Even tho the Sportswagon has a smaller luggage section to the older Commodore Wagon we are getting good use out of it. Can fit a full load of shopping in there along with the twin stroller or a twin stroller, single stroller and what ever bags we need for an outing. Yet to take it on holidays and really load it up (that will happen this coming January) but I figure a trailer might be needed when the kids get a bit older if we want to go away for an extended length of time.

All in all its a great car for our use. We didnt want to get a van or a large 4x4 but this might be on the cards when the boys get older, we will see.

[smithcorp]

Update. Thanks all for the suggestions. Have done a bit of follow-up research and got to a shortlist of:

Passat wagon
Mazda CX-9
Skoda Superb wagon
Commodore Sportwagon (V6)
Peugeot 5008

This last one is not much of a driver's car and not a vehicle I would normally consider, but its a 7-seater, with buckets of room and really well appointed at a great price - $36,990.

Next step is some test driving.

smith

[AstrO]

We bought a VE SV6 Sportswagon for our family bus about 6 months ago. No complaints so far and its a fun car to drive when no one else is in it

Should be picking up a new VF SV6 Sportswagon this week.

[r8response]

Had a look through my brothers Series II Captiva 7 this afternoon. Not a bad bit of kit.

The thing that impressed me was they were only using 8.4L per 100 and that was with quite a decent amount of around town driving. 2.2L Diesel with all the options.

[ysu]

by the way, have you looked at a nice Nissan Stagea yet? Powaaaah! (and a good chassis!)
Japan imports
http://www.nagoyamotors.com.au/cars-for ... &ft=7&fb=0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
One friend bought from these guys and he's very happy with what he had (not a stagea) A 9yo car with 46K at the clock - and there's a 3year warranty on parts. And it looks like (Edit: I mean "as if") it was 2-3 years old, it is in tip-top condition. They've replaced all buttons & nav to English, too.

[smithcorp]

Quick update - got back from NZ and now have some time for test drives. Interesting so far, though not yet far down the list.

Drove the Pug 5008 on Saturday. Amazingly well appointed car for $37K. Sat-nav, full roof glass screen, rear park sensors, TV screens in the front headrests, little flip down airline tray tables, wide enough for the kid seats and an adult, and a 7-seater, with an enormous boot in five-seat mode. Drives okay (I have traded in my desire for 'a bit of shove' in a car to fit three kids), but the doors close with a cheap crash rather than a quality chunk.

Looked at the Skoda Superb - lovely car for the price and very roomy in the length, but big airbags on the rear seat sides means its actually tighter in the rear than the Tiguan! Pity, it reeked of quality, but it's got to come off the list, as with two baby seats in the back, even a kid isn't comfortable in the back.

Based on a recommendation, we looked at the Toyota Prius V, which is a 7-seater hybrid. Had a drive today. Apart from the complication of the hybrid in terms of push-button on-off switch, the strange gear shift mechanism and the complicated parking brake setup (a foot brake plus a push button 'park' setting), which we reckon are parent-in-law unfriendly, the car was roomy and could fit an adult plus two kid seats across the back. The drive however was so dispiriting. When you plant it, something seems to make a bit more noise, but there is no other effect. Incredibly gutless.

Having seen some advantages from going the 7-seater route, we are probably going to check out the Honda Odyssey next.

smith

[smithcorp]

Ended up getting a Peugeot 5008. Odyssey was nice, but the child seat restraints go to the ceiling above the third row of seats, so the kids in the back have straps in front of their faces. Curious design. As well, with a baby capsule in the middle seat of second row, the third row of seats can't be accessed! We went back to the Pug dealer with the capsule and checked with the 5008. Full independent movement of the side seats even with a capsule in the middle seat and even the 8 year old can fold and deploy all the seats.

So in the end, it all came down to practicality. The Pug people also gave us about $4K more for our Tiguan as a trade-in, so the changeover was a neat $20K (which was what i wanted).

I'll post some photos and more info when we pick it up - likely to be 9 August.

[Exar Kun]

Nicely done dude. Good to see you looked away from the usual default SUV options that most people go for. Did you end up with the petrol or the diesel?

[smithcorp]

Petrol EK - cheaper plus we don't like diesel's particulates.

Yes, the SUV option is the default one for sure. We weren't even in the market for a 7-seater initially, but once we started trying them out realised that the 5-seater options would be a fully occupied car, with no room for additional kids (friends, relatives). The smart 7-seaters (and there are a few now) were really versatile.

As well, lots are sub-40K and they seem to take a big leap to the 50s next. And many have simple model lines - two option levels, with the base model often well-appointed anyway - sat-nav, reversing cameras etc - and hardly any need to option up the vehicles. A good time to be in the market for a 7-seater I reckon.

[smithcorp]

A quick review on the 5008 after a week's ownership and its first wash.

I'm very satisfied with it - really well appointed for the price and flexible. Nice to drive, light steering, not much oomph under foot, but better than I was expecting. Now I'm in my fifties it doesn't seem to matter as much any more.

500801.jpg

The great thing about European cars is their design attention. Not so much the looks outside, but the clever thinking inside. First of all is the long list of standard standard features that are so useful - sat-nav, bluetooth, climate control, lots of airbags, video screens in the headrests, reversing camera etc, but there's also a bunch of clever design features, like floor bins in the second row, an underseat drawer in the driver's seat, hooks in the boot to hold shopping bags from sliding around (why don't all cars have these, along with a hook to hold your takeaway in the passenger footwell), a sunglasses case built into the driver's side grip above the window, a full-length glass roof, folding tray tables for back seat passengers (the kids love these - even on a short trip of 10 minutes to their grandparents down the road to get dropped off before school, they are armed with pencils and paper, flip down the tables and get drawing) and most of all, some real thinking about making it a practical 7-seater.

500802.jpg

The boot in 5-seater mode is huge - about 60% bigger than the Tiguan's and bigger than most 5-seater wagons we looked at.

500803.jpg

But with a few moves, the backmost seats can easily be deployed - and an 8-year old can do it - very nicely balanced.

500805.jpg

The same with putting the seat away - a pull on a single loop and click, it's down. Impressive.

500806.jpg

Continued next post!