Mourning the death of the traditional Estate car

[37114]

I was chatting with @Rich Papper on Saturday about cars for carting around exhibition layouts which prompted me to post. Something that is seemingly dying out is the humble estate car and I for one will be sad to see them go. Once traditional middle and larger sized cars all came with an estate version that carry everything from a fridge to 2 weeks of camping gear and anything in between. Now the estate seems to be coming to the end of the road as the car buying public seem to prefer SUVs which come in one bodystyle which is obviously cheaper to make and will advertise their huge volumetric space in the boot. The move to electric is hastening the demise of the humble estate as currently only MG do an Estate however having looked at one it is rather small and compared to even an Escort estate of old.

 

I got my first Estate in 2010 (Ford Mondeo) and loved the fact that it handled like a traditional car but was equally happy with taking the layout to shows, carrying half a ton of DIY waste or the family camping trip. I am on Mondeo Estate number 5 now having secured an early 2021 2.0 diesel Manual. It was the only one in the country that fitted my criteria at the time and should see me through until 2027. I need a big car to get the layout to shows so who knows what I will do then, possibly a van derived car (eg Volkswagen Caddy?) but the ones I have seen lack the refinement of a normal car. Here is my current beast having had to drive to StAustell to collect it, I back loaded with 36 bottles of "Proper Job" which barely filler a corner of the boot..

And with a layout in with room to spare..

 

 

So what has changed to cause us all to fall out of live with the estate? 

[woodenhead]

And small cars too - those little city cars are not being replaced so there are less and less models to choose from.  And the not so small Fiesta is next in line to be culled, more Puma's to replace it.

 

Don't see as many People Movers either, another very useful vehicle, our Xsara Picasso could swallow anything from Ikea.

 

It seems all anyone wants to produce these days are SUVs

[Wheatley]

Maybe people stopped buying them in sufficient numbers to make different body styles worthwhile? Estates were an alternative to a car with a boot, now everything is a hatchback so the choice becomes small hatchback or big (SUV) hatchback.

 

Car manufacturers don't normally miss an opportunity to sell the same thing 8 different ways so it must make financial sense to them. 

Edited October 31, 2022 by Wheatley

[Gilbert]

I have a very layout friendly Skoda Superb Estate - it seems to still be available from new...

ChrisH

[APOLLO]

I've never had an estate car.  I currently run a Seat Leon 1.6 petrol 4 door hatch, quite an adequate runaround / shopping car. The "family" car is a 1999 Ford 2.3 petrol Galaxy 7 seater. I bought it in 2001 when the twins were born, and it has been a superb family car / lugging machine over the years. With all rear seats removed it is huge and this feature has come in handy many times.

 

Just passed its MOT with a little welding required, but now lad and twin girls are all adults, and it's 27 mpg mean it's days are numbered. I will miss it as it is so useful, so I (hope) to eke another year or two out of her.

 

I'm occasionally thinking of what to replace it with, a medium size estate would suffice, I'm not a great fan of SUV's but some seem more practical than others. It's replacement will be a petrol though as I do mainly short journeys these days - not a good thing for todays diesels so I understand.

 

My son has just bought a 3 year old diesel BMW 3 series estate, a very nice car indeed. A bit too small for me to replace the Galaxy with though.

 

Brit15

[woodenhead]

16 minutes ago, Wheatley said:

Car manufacturers don't normally miss an opportunity to sell the same thing 8 different ways so it must make financial sense to them. 

With the explosion in BMW models I see on the road these days, clearly so.

 

In my youth it was a 3, 5, 6 or 7 series

[woodenhead]

@APOLLO Why not just get a van

[Pete the Elaner]

The size of cars has grown. Compare a modern Fiesta with a 1980 Escort. The new Fiesta is bigger.

The shape of hatchback cars has also changed. Modern hatches are closer to the shape to what estates used to be rather than how the early hatchbacks were. I am sure there are still some saloon cars available but less than there used to be & I can't think of any.

[Railpassion]

My friend has an SUV, great tank of a thing. He drives at 47mph on fuel save, annoying if you're behind him.

The interior isn't that roomy, big seats and fittings take up the space. The boot isn't as large as I thought it would be. 

I have an MPV Vauxhall and it's just as, if not more, roomy. Around £40k cheaper too.

 

Edited October 31, 2022 by Railpassion

[Mark Saunders]

7 minutes ago, woodenhead said:

@APOLLO Why not just get a van

Do you mean a van or a van derived from a car as it affects your speed on duel carriageways and A roads! Especially North Yorkshire where the lower speeds are enforced.

[Stubby47]

https://www.carwow.co.uk/estate-cars

 

And that list excludes the Volvo V90.

[spamcan61]

36 minutes ago, woodenhead said:

And small cars too - those little city cars are not being replaced so there are less and less models to choose from.  And the not so small Fiesta is next in line to be culled, more Puma's to replace it.

 

Don't see as many People Movers either, another very useful vehicle, our Xsara Picasso could swallow anything from Ikea.

 

It seems all anyone wants to produce these days are SUVs

Agreed, it's bonkers. Was only thinking this morning the MPV has pretty much died out, apart from SEAT maybe. SWMBO had 3 Zafira As over a 10 year period (only 1 caught fire ...) and they were flippin excellent vehicles. Instead folks buy SUVs which are bigger, heavier, thirstier and have less internal space <shrugs>. Still, gives the manufacturers somewhere to stick the batteries I guess.

 

When my 07 plate Avensis hatchback wears out I'd like to replace it with a same model estate, but methinks they'll be rare by then so might well go for a Skoda Superb estate.

[Dunsignalling]

20 minutes ago, APOLLO said:

I've never had an estate car.  I currently run a Seat Leon 1.6 petrol 4 door hatch, quite an adequate runaround / shopping car. The "family" car is a 1999 Ford 2.3 petrol Galaxy 7 seater. I bought it in 2001 when the twins were born, and it has been a superb family car / lugging machine over the years. With all rear seats removed it is huge and this feature has come in handy many times.

 

Just passed its MOT with a little welding required, but now lad and twin girls are all adults, and it's 27 mpg mean it's days are numbered. I will miss it as it is so useful, so I (hope) to eke another year or two out of her.

 

I'm occasionally thinking of what to replace it with, a medium size estate would suffice, I'm not a great fan of SUV's but some seem more practical than others. It's replacement will be a petrol though as I do mainly short journeys these days - not a good thing for todays diesels so I understand.

 

My son has just bought a 3 year old diesel BMW 3 series estate, a very nice car indeed. A bit too small for me to replace the Galaxy with though.

 

Brit15

Check out a Skoda Superb estate, might do the job if you don't need the height.  Pretty bullet proof and plenty to choose from in most parts of the country, though most are diesels so it might take a while to find exactly what you want.

 

John

[woodenhead]

9 minutes ago, Railpassion said:

My friend has an SUV, great tank of a thing. He drives at 47mph on fuel save, annoying if you're behind him.

The interior isn't that roomy, big seats and fittings take up the space. The boot isn't as large as I thought it would be. 

I have an MPV Vauxhall and it's just as, if not more, roomy. Around £40k cheaper too.

 

Exactly our experience when we encountered a Kia Sportage, lovely big seats like sofas, but the bootspace was pitiful.  Bought another MPV albeit a smaller one with a rocket fuel turbo diesel that would pin me back 50-70.

 

Now I have a simple Focus 1.0 which is enough unless I want to go to the tip....

 

Mrs W wants me to get a van so we can go camping, I am sort of warming to the idea as I only need a car to go to the shops and odd trips to exhibitions.  Her car is a Yaris and is about to be replaced with a new Hybrid one, a much more sensible approach to electric vehicles if you ask me.

[micklner]

I had a Skoda Octavia Estate , ok ish car just boring and noisy inside.

 

I now have a VW Tiguan SUV  petrol version, does 40 to 45mpg around town 55 to 60 on a run, and better safer vision and more room inside.  Estates are a dying breed sorry.

[woodenhead]

15 minutes ago, Pete the Elaner said:

The size of cars has grown. Compare a modern Fiesta with a 1980 Escort. The new Fiesta is bigger.

The shape of hatchback cars has also changed. Modern hatches are closer to the shape to what estates used to be rather than how the early hatchbacks were. I am sure there are still some saloon cars available but less than there used to be & I can't think of any.

It's a pity roads (especially the single track country ones) haven't grown appreciably with the size of vehicles that inhabit them.  And there there is parking the things.....

 

You'd think smaller efficient vehicles would be the future, but the manufacturers want one size global vehicles so they get built to the size of countries with much younger road networks where the roads are very wide not little European countries and we end up with school runs that look like a scene out of Clear and Present Danger with the SUV convoys

[Hroth]

3 minutes ago, woodenhead said:

It's a pity roads (especially the single track country ones) haven't grown appreciably with the size of vehicles that inhabit them.  And there there is parking the things.....

 

You'd think smaller efficient vehicles would be the future, but the manufacturers want one size global vehicles so they get built to the size of countries with much younger road networks where the roads are very wide not little European countries and we end up with school runs that look like a scene out of Clear and Present Danger with the SUV convoys

 

Back to the loading gauge problem again!

 

Its not just road width, its also the size of parking bays in multi-story car parks and supermarkets...

 

[Mike_Walker]

Whilst at my local supermarket at the weekend I spotted a Tesla SUV that has upward opening gull-wing doors.  No problem in an open air car park but I did wonder what would happen in a multi-storey some of which have quite restricted headroom and would those doors hit an adjacent vehicle whilst opening in a "standard" parking space?

[Rich_F]

55 minutes ago, Pete the Elaner said:

The size of cars has grown. Compare a modern Fiesta with a 1980 Escort. The new Fiesta is bigger.

The shape of hatchback cars has also changed. Modern hatches are closer to the shape to what estates used to be rather than how the early hatchbacks were. I am sure there are still some saloon cars available but less than there used to be & I can't think of any.

 

I have a Vauxhall Viva from 2018. It's the baby Vauxhall with a 1.0L engine. Make no mistakes it's a small car by 2018 standards. 

 

I was behind a Vauxhall Astra from 2003 & my car was the same size, if not slightly wider. The Astra was the mid range family hatchback/saloon of the late 90s/early 00s, so it shows how much even "city" cars have ballooned!

Edited October 31, 2022 by Weeny Works

[spamcan61]

20 minutes ago, Mike_Walker said:

Whilst at my local supermarket at the weekend I spotted a Tesla SUV that has upward opening gull-wing doors.  No problem in an open air car park but I did wonder what would happen in a multi-storey some of which have quite restricted headroom and would those doors hit an adjacent vehicle whilst opening in a "standard" parking space?

Seems them in action here, for example:-

 

 

[Colin_McLeod]

I have a Toyota Rav4 currently but I do miss my Volvo estate, or "the truck" as it was known. My long list of estate cars include a Marina and three Volvos over the years.

[Hroth]

3 minutes ago, Weeny Works said:

I was behind a Vauxhall Astra from 2003 & my car was the same size, if not slightly wider. The Astra was the mid range family hatchback/saloon of the late 90s/early 00s, so it shows how much even "city" cars have ballooned!

 

Perhaps its because the passengers have "ballooned" too.

 

Best illustrated when travelling on a vintage bus, watching people trying to share a typical seat for two...

[Nick C]

1 hour ago, Wheatley said:

Estates were an alternative to a car with a boot, now everything is a hatchback so the choice becomes small hatchback or big (SUV) hatchback.

 

1 hour ago, Pete the Elaner said:

The shape of hatchback cars has also changed. Modern hatches are closer to the shape to what estates used to be rather than how the early hatchbacks were.

 

The thing is, it's not just about the shape - one of the big things abut a proper estate is that, wheras hatchbacks tend to have a step where the tailgate meets the bumper, estates have a totally flat load area - which makes a big difference if you're trying to get something heavy or awkwardly shaped (be it a stack of layout baseboards or a sack of soil for the garden...) in or out. While most SUVs seem to have the flat entrance as well, they're quite a bit higher, so you've got to lift the heavy thing further...

 

The MG5 has a big step, so to me it's a glorified hatchback, not an estate...

[daryll]

I drive a Skoda Octavia estate , I cannot fault it  , mind you I am a taxi driver , but I agree with the with of parking spaces , in Heathrow and Gatwick  , if you have a Big SUV in a parking space it can be a bit tight for me , I would say that at Petersfield station taxi rank , over 70% of the taxis are Skoda`s , well lets face it they are all Volkswagen`s with different badges on them

[Hroth]

I had a Skoda Octavia hatchback a good while ago, a nice comfy car with "almost" the capacity of the equivalent estate version, apart from the hatch lip and slope of the hatch door! I'm currently driving a Yeti, which I'm very pleased with with respect to capacity, though the loading lip is on the high side. Subsequent Skoda SUVs have changed shape somewhat and not for the better!

 

Octavia estates are still available, currently in PEHV* form.

 

* I think I got that the right way round...