Help me choose a new wagon for the family (and me)

Forums › Transport (cars, bikes and boats) › Help me choose a new wagon for the family (and me)

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25 posts

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#1246364 25-Feb-2015 13:16

I know, but I was just speaking from experience that its not as bad as you think it will be, its more down to how you drive than anything, and its not hard to keep the revs under 2500 with that much torque.

networkn

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#1246372 25-Feb-2015 13:28

For anyone interested, I am selling my 2011 BMW 335i Touring M-Sport Wagon done 35K at the moment :)

PM me if (Genuinely) Interested.

Disrespective

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#1250295 3-Mar-2015 14:26

Alright! The MPS is sold and we now have a chunk of cash ready to spend... I'm still leaning towards the Subaru and VW options but now my pseudo-wife (we aren't married but have a kid and it feels weird calling her my girlfriend) is telling me she might want an SUV, think Volvo XC90 type size... Buying a car has never been so difficult!

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#1250299 3-Mar-2015 14:30

Those XC90's are nice. The new Outback is nice. The 335i Touring I have for sale is nice :-) (But too small compared to the other two).

davidcole

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#1250305 3-Mar-2015 14:34

networkn: Those XC90's are nice. The new Outback is nice. The 335i Touring I have for sale is nice :-) (But too small compared to the other two).

Wasn't keen on the outback...tried one of those when a legacy was not available. Felt a little high to me. Drove well though. And the cabin (compared to a euro) felt more plasticy.

Had all the toys, and was brand new on the flip side.

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Handsomedan

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#1250310 3-Mar-2015 14:44

Disrespective: Alright! The MPS is sold and we now have a chunk of cash ready to spend... I'm still leaning towards the Subaru and VW options but now my pseudo-wife (we aren't married but have a kid and it feels weird calling her my girlfriend) is telling me she might want an SUV, think Volvo XC90 type size... Buying a car has never been so difficult!

You could pick up a well-priced V6 TDi VW Touareg if that's the way you want to go.

Personally, I love the Volvo wagons and AWD's but they are all imported from Japan at lower prices, therefore have the japanese writing on the in-car comnputer readouts etc...dealers are the only way to re-proramme in English and they are generally charging around $1000 to do so...just so you can read the fuel economy and radio station details etc.

Like others have said (and I have owned a number of Euro cars) - they don't all cost a fortune to service and repair, despite the loud voices that state they will...shop around (or join an online club) for a good Euro mechanic and you can pay considerably less for your servicing and repairs than you did with your Mazda, if you're lucky.

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Camden

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#1250388 3-Mar-2015 15:57

Both my ex Japan Volvos, XC70 and V50 wagons had the dash readouts in English when bought from the importing dealer. However the XC70 radio could not be changed to NZ frequencies and had a band expander fitted locally by the dealer included in the cost of the car and Archibalds charged me $200 to change the V50 radio to NZ frequencies. My current drive, the V6 Passat wagon had a Japan only radio but it was easy to remove it as it was double din in size and $400 dollars put a Sony touch screen DVD/CD/Radio and reversing camera in it also paid for by the dealer I bought it from.
Interesting was that VW Christchurch found the original build sheets for the car in Germany and also the complete service history of the car in Japan when they put the chassis numbers in their computer.All the dash board readouts were in English when I bought the car.
One thought about a SUV type car. If you intend to keep it a while, cost out a new set of tyres for it before you buy it. The cost of them can be eye watering in some makes and sizes.

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#1250657 3-Mar-2015 23:47

Suggest you just get yourself a hire car and change it every week until you decide, as it sounds like you might be at it for a long time otherwise.

Not as flippant as it sounds, whenever weve hired a car its always strongly informed our opinions on ever want8ng to own one.

kiwirock

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#1250664 4-Mar-2015 02:46

jonathan18:
heylinb4nz:

- Stagea GTR :)

May be fast but OP said he was after a car that doesn't look like a spaceship! IMO Stageas have an aesthetic that only their mother could possibly love. In fact, I can't think when I last saw a Nissan that I thought was attractive.

Yeah. If the M35 AR-X Four wouldn't be so bad if it didn't look like the interior of a car from Dubai (light tan bordering yellow everywhere).

If I bought Euro I'd go Volvo cross country but the Audi's certainly have the aesthetics down to a fine art.

I wonder how much the suspension is on the Audi is though to have replaced?

A mate had a middle of the line Mercedes but the shocks cost over a grand US for one front one because of some fancy technology. It makes me weary of suspension servicing in some Euro cars.

100,000k's even with a good service record hmmmm. I wouldn't buy older than 85,000k's again. 150,000k's and you're starting to get noisy valves, dics/pads, clutch, noisy pulley's and power steering pump bearings etc.... then water pump and cambelt (if it has one) by 180,000K's. Then shocks and wheel bearings etc... by 200,000.

85,000k's tops is worth the extra bit more to give you that nice run to 150,000. The only major's being cambelt replacement if it has one. A set of pads, regular oil(s) changes and you've got a pretty good 65,000k's reasonably trouble free. Providing a good set of rubber when you buy.

But if I bought again I'd go Subaru H6 in a wagon or 2.5L dual-range 5 speed in a Forester (I think the LL. Bean has leather seats) for price, fun and practicality.

Mark

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#1250854 4-Mar-2015 11:02

I bought a new family bus the other week, Mitsubishi Delica D:5, huuuuuuggggggeeeeee machine, 4WD, 6 speed paddle shift, 12 speakers, front and back air-con, super comfy, and has power openening everything so you can pull up and the school and basically eject the kids out the door at the press of a button t :-)

It's not going to be the cheapest thing on the road to run but I needed the seats and something my wife can drive easily.

Disrespective

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#1251814 5-Mar-2015 17:00

For what it matters we're very seriously looking at a 2010 Volvo V70 with a bunch of bells and whistles. Seems like a really nice car but is in Auckland so will be going off an inspection report. Will see how we go.

Disrespective

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#1257770 13-Mar-2015 11:26

Well, rightly or wrongly, we have bought a 2011 Volvo V70 T6 wagon. It's done 97k's so it's by no means a spring chicken but I got the guy to give the transmission a service and all the usual inspection stuff done so i'm happy. Will be picking it up tomorrow morning and the wife can't wait. We've been surviving with the 2 door '91 Toyota Starlet but getting a toddler in and out is a nightmare.

I was sold on it due to the extra features/spec package to be honest. The AWD T6 (300hp) motor also seems to be a solid performer. We didn't actually drive a model with this engine so it will be interesting to compare it.

It was under budget, too which is nice.

Happy to give a bit of a review once we have in hand if anyone is interested but for the time being all I want to do is listen to some music in a car that has more than one working speaker...

Disrespective

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Uber Geek

#1261416 18-Mar-2015 09:28

A quick final note to those who might be interested in one of these wagons.

The 2011 year motor in the T6 is plenty powerful, about 300bhp. It’s not that far off the Mazda MPS (260bhp) in performance really. Maybe only a second slower to 100kph (7ish vs 6ish). There is no noticeable turbo lag that hits you in the back, like the MPS had, and because the V70 has an auto gearbox it’s a little slower to get the power down whether stationary or rolling.

The steering definitely has less feel than some other cars we have driven in this range. There are settings which can change the amount of force required to use the steering wheel which can help, or hinder, depending on the situation. Using the lighter steering option did make it feel strange to drive, but the southerly wind buffeting us might have been affecting this. Regardless, it does feel light on the road which is surprising given it’s nearly 2T weight.

The extra features are nice too, but not all that necessary. The blind spot information system (BLIS) can be irritating at times as there are lights that flash if something is deemed to be in my blind spot. So far everything it has picked up I can see in my mirrors anyway. The park assist on this car is only on the rear and doesn’t have the optional front sensors or reversing camera. Rear sensors are all we really need, but front might have been useful. Other features like lane assist and adaptive cruise control are somewhat handy I guess. Need to go for a big drive to really tell. There is a light on top of the dash which can illuminate if the car considers me too close to the car in front. Until I realised that I can increase or decrease the distance it considers too close, this was frustrating.

The turning circle isn’t exactly small, but most station wagons aren’t so I can’t really complain there. The MPS was pretty terrible in any case.

The luggage space is plenty. We’re both very happy with that but again, we’ve come from a ’91 starlet to a ’10 MPS to a station wagon. There was always going to be a gulf of difference in storage.

The rear seat entertainment system is region locked to region 1 so somewhat useless. We cannot change this from what I can see online either. Perhaps someone at a Volvo dealership can but there is mention of needing a new DVD player… I think i’ll just rip any movies as region 1 DVD’s. The DVD player for our system is also in the center console so takes up about half the available space. For that reason alone i’m tempted to remove the DVD player from there and put it somewhere else. We’ll see. The other annoyance here is that by having the RSE system the USB port had to be moved from the main console storage compartment to the front one near the cup holders. So now I can’t have an iPod plugged into the USB charging and in the Aux connection without a large cable coming out of one compartment and into the other.

There is a TV tuner which doesn’t seem to work at all. It can pick up the channels and even show a guide but when trying to view any of them it just pops up a screen saying ‘scrambled’. I’ll try again in an area with even better coverage to see if it’s a reception issue but the manual states it’s an Mpeg-2 based tuner and I think freeview here is Mpeg-4. Apparently there is an adaptor card I could buy which would fix this but no amount of googling has found me one. I need to investigate this more.

The space for rear facing child car seats is OK. Our seat is one of the smallest we could find but it still takes up a lot of space. At least a passenger can sit in the front and not have their knees touching the dash, but it’s not like someone 6’6” could slide in smoothly up front.

The last small note, which I think is good, but my pseudo-wife thinks is a pain. In the Volvo the rain sensing wipers are a software switch which resets to off when the car is turned off. Just gotta remember to press the switch when it rains, which isn’t tough, because it’s raining.

surfisup1000

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#1261422 18-Mar-2015 09:39

surfisup1000:
scuwp:
Had no major trouble with my Territory, nearly 11 years old now, goes like a train...nothing stops it. Regularly see these 300K+ on the clock. They are after all just a Falcon with a larger body. The niggly bits and pieces let them down, just a lack of refinement when it comes to assembly, a trait of all Aussie assembled cars (soon to be a distant memory).

I have the opposite experience with my territory.

I bought it new in 2006, has been driven normally, no prangs or anything . Serviced according to fords requirements.Does about 15k per year so normal km.

Just about every year I must spend $1000 in unanticipated costs just to keep it on the road. A bush or ball joint is often needing replacing. The gear linkage cable just broke last week (requiring tow) which cost $800 to fix (I always use ford dealer which is prob a mistake). The starter motor failed a while ago, requiring tow . The seatbelt needed replacing @ $300 cost . The rear liftback window stopped opening. The rear electric windows sometimes work, sometimes not. There is a new water leak which developed recently as the 3rd row seatbelts get wet when raining.

And, the ball joints have probably been replaced 6 times. At one point after ford doing something, the car developed a knocking noise going around corners which ford said was not their fault. But, mysteriously it disappeared the next time they did some suspension work.

The wiper stalk failed, $700 to replace. i think there is something else wrong too, as a few weeks back the ETC light came on and the car was idling very roughly. It went away when restarting the car so hope it was a one-off ignition issue.

oh yes, and the remote control fails every 2 or 3 years. they are not cheap either, although we buy from trademe rather than ford now.

Our other car, has had no unanticipated problems since we owned the ford.

Anyway , decided it is time to buy a new car so will consider options . One thing is disappointing, is that new car prices did not seem to fall much with the high kiwi dollar.

Since I posted this, the gear linkage cable between the gearchange lever and gearbox snapped. $700 to fix.

And, just the other day the rear tailgate door fell off. The door hinge just snapped and caused quite a bang from the gas strut expanding out. Not sure how much this is going to cost. I looked at the door hinge and they just used really thin metal and it just tore from repeated flexing from opening and closing.

I googled these things and seem reasonably common.

DO NOT BUY A FORD TERRITORY!!!

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#1261429 18-Mar-2015 09:48

*gulp!

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