Heinz '57

When we come back to the UK later this month,we will be bringing 2 dogs with us. Molly a Malinoise and Brown Girl that we are convinced is a Bajan Cane Terrier, a breed of one!
We have decided that we will need an estate car and have narrowed it down to either a Honda Civic SR Tourer, a Hyundai i40 Premier tourer or a Skoda Superb Elegence estate. The trim options are for leather seats which are more forgiving of dog hair.I like the looks of the i40 and Civic but find the Superb a bit bland and after a lifetime of VAG company cars I am not their biggest fan,
Anybody have any views on the i40 or Civic? We tend to be somewhat of a backwater as far as cars are concerned down here!

unclefester

IIRC Soupdragon runs a Civic estate as their 'third' car.

i40 seems to get good reviews also.

Seat Ateca not worth a look in?

Heinz '57

Should have mentioned that we will not be buying new and at my age this new fangled leasing thingy is too complicated!

John57

I wasn't a fan of Skoda until my other half took delivery of a Skoda Superb Estate SE-L with loads of toys.

It is extremely well put together, is a lovely place to be and has absolutely shed loads of room ! The looks of the newest version are good and unlike any other Skoda's I have been in. Look at one ... you may revise your views.

unclefester

Of the three i would guess the i40 will be the cheapest, of the new Hyundais these are good and have a cracking used warranty.

Hyundai i40 Tourer 2011 - Car Review | Honest John - worth a loo ( and for the other cars too)

As above though, if you can find one cheap enough, the Superb Estate is .. ermm ... Superb. If space is your primary requirement, i'd go this way. I would avoid DSG gearboxes 2nd hand though and stick to conventional stuff unless you can get it with a decent warranty.

The other two are oversized hatchbacks by comaprison although the Civic is surprisingly big and not that far behind the Skoda on boot space, as long as you can live with the droopy front end that looks like it needs dental work.

arsie

I know we all like our own choice but when we had two dogs we ran Subaru Foresters (all wheel drive). You will find the cost of petrol/diesel high here in Blighty and there is the possibility to install LPG using the full spare wheel space under the rear floor. Also heated front seats might be nice coming from warmer climes! The only snags with the old model still widely available are (a) the gap for feet getting in and out of the rear doors is quite small and (b) some dislike the soft ride. You can get turbo models but their mpg suffers and the base 2.0 litre has power enough we found for the dogs! They get a nice high ride/view in the back of a Forester

So this on autotrader under £6,000 is my left field suggestion. Heated seats and LPG fitted 08 plate average miles.

Poor farmers' weapon of choice Bullet proof reliability tho spares a tad expensive.

Nick Graves

Leather (particularly the thin Japanese stuff) isn't very dog-claw-resistant. But it's very easy to clean.

The Honda may be expensive to purchase (you'll need Ray-Bans to look at it) but it probably does better miles per coil pack than that Nazi-occupied shite.

Heinz '57

I do wish that you would say what you mean instead of beating around the bush Nick!

soupdragon

We run a civic hatchback as our "sensible" car 😁. Don't know about the estate or the current crop of civics (Lois is a 2013), but do really like ours

arsie

@Heinz'57: low mileage Subaru Forester available from trusted source - see thread XC60