Amazing family estate car

Advantages: cheap to tax, insure & fuel, comfy, loads of boot space
Disadvantages: annoying indicators, nowhere to put my spare coins

...a fairly small range of colours, flat white, flat red, then various greys, silvers, blues and greens make up the rest of the range, Ours is a lovely dark siler/blue which I think looks very attractive and executive. It hides the dirt reasonably well and has a lovely shine when clean. I think the Astra has quite a nice friendly 'face' at the front, with a wide front grille and large lights for eyes, I think it has an attractiveness that many modern cars do not. The estate is long and sleek, with nice chunky looking wheels. Inside looks a bit cheap and plastic on first encounter, but after driving the car for some time, I appreciate the plain simple inside which is easy on the eye and allows me to concentrate on the road. Our 'club' model has plenty of plastic made to look like brushed aluminum. The seats are plain black cloth with a small amount...

bneleh 27.11.2009 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of Vauxhall Astra Estate 1.7 CDTi

An estate car without work horse asthetics

Advantages: great engine, stylish estate, great spec,
Disadvantages: poor load capacity compared to competition

...I owned this car for 9 months and have managed to rack up 30,000 miles, so I believe i'm in a good position to coment on all aspects of owner ship. Design The 'sports tourer' has been designed with the 'not so sure about estate car' market in mind. The sports tourer acheives this by a gradual transition of the tail gate which granted does look good but the load capacity suffers and theres a danger of loads resting / going through the rear window! On the outside the laguna is fairly tame compared to the rest of Renaults range, I personaly think it looks great. Inside My Expression model comes with a great spec for a car of its price I wont list 'em - check out the Renult UK site for details. the interior is clean and tidy the dash has flip down panels to cover the CD player and any valuables, the centre arm rest is very...

B-atch 23.10.2004 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Renault Laguna 1.9 dCi

The Perfect Estate Car

Advantages: Spacious, Powerful, Power Steering, Sleek Bodywork,
Disadvantages: Can be costly to buy depending on model & Extras, Insurance too high for young drivers like myself :-(

...Since my father was given a Ford Focus 2.0L Ghia I must say I really enjoyed driving it when I was on the insurance, just for the sheer power and ability to accelerate at traffic lights. The car belonged to an electrical company(they paid my insurance for the car) but when my father retired he was offered the car and sadly for me, my insurance was far too expensive for the car :-(. The car itself has Air Conditioning which does a good job of keeping you cool on those hot days. Internally the car has plenty legroom and because it is an estate it also has a large storage area within the boot iself. Also located inside the car is the rather handy steering wheel controls for the Radio which saves you having to look away from the road when driving. I think the Radio in the Focus is good but it doesnt really vary much from previous...

NJFortune 09.12.2002 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Ford Focus 2.0

The Longshaw Estate, Derbyshire

Advantages: Peaceful, tranquil, Free
Disadvantages: Steep Paths that get messy during bad weather

...and sit by the River gathering my thoughts. Sometimes it is easy to forget that you are only a ten minute drive from Sheffield. Yet I tend to find that this is less popular, and consequently less crowded than many of the other places in the Peak District nearby. There are many well sign-posted trails that cut through the Estate and these are colour coded depending on their level of difficulty. A leaflet is available from the Visitors Centre. The Woodlands here are predominantly of Birch and Sessile Oak and these are one of the last remaining examples of this type of Woodland that once characterised many of the Valleys in this part of the Peak District. There is a large Pay and Display Car Park near to the Lodge but most people prefer to Park on the Grass Verges at the side of the Road, where Parking is free. There is a Tea Room...

micksheff 15.03.2007 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of National Trust Logshaw Estate, Derbyshire

My trusty Focus estate.

Advantages: Frugal, spacious, built well, handles brilliantly, looks pretty good...
Disadvantages: Not the quietest of diesels.

...Last month I got myself another car. I wanted something economic as I do a hell of a lot of mileage so I wanted a diesel. In the end I got the car I'm writing this review on: A 1999 (V) Ford Focus 1.8TDdi [AC] LX Estate. It cost me £1,600. Got 104K miles (106K now) and had had a full service history til 79K, with a cambelt change at the last service. And to be so blunt, I'm chuffed to bits with it. Anyway, so lets get down to business. - The engine. On the Focus timeline there are two types of diesel engine. The TDdi and the TDci. The latter came along later to be the diesel engine now used in new Fords, it's more powerful, slightly more economic and basically a more refined engine. Well, I couldn't afford that, so I've got the old engine instead. And when I say old, I mean it's old, you find it as far back as the Mk3 Fiestas, although...

Ant309 27.04.2009 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Ford Focus Estate 1.8 TDCi Duratorq

Estate of art

Advantages: Practical, stylish, good quality and it has that badge
Disadvantages: The dire service

...I am going to be frank. I am not old enough quite old enough to drive. Despite this I love cars from the Alfa to the Volvo. For years I have had a huge - and often disturbing - amount of car knowledge. I know many things apart from being able to drive. Which is why when my Dad has to change hsi car every few years he is harassed by me so I can get him the best possible car. In 1999 my Dad was in-line for a new car and yours truely was the first to get involved. Now my Dad doesn't really like cars but he bares with it. Being part of a company my Dad was to get a company car and so we got a list of cars we could have. As his job involved ferrying things around the country he needed a big car - prefrably an estate. Soon I was delving into the brochures, trying to find the best car for my Dads needs. The list consisted...

Solex 03.11.2001 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Volkswagen Passat Estate 1.6

An 'estate car' of a notebook

Advantages: Everything you would want is built in
Disadvantages: Large footprint, not light in weight

...IBM is to notebook computers what Volvo is to cars; well built, safe, surprisingly sporty, but rather expensive. As part of my new job, my trusty thinkpad 240x (see my other review) was replaced by an altogether more substantially built T20. There are two design concepts behind notebook computers; small and lightweight sub-A4 ultraportables, where the design is pared down to the absolute essentials, and ?size of a cow? desktop PC replacements. The T20 falls very definitely into the second category. Rather than list the manufacturer?s specifications (you can get those of the IBM site!) I?ll concentrate on the ?usability? of the machine. The first impressions is of a large format notebook (300mm by 250mm x 35mm) which is very, very black! ? open it up, and you find a 360mm colour screen ? this gives a sharp image, if a little...

dobieg 06.09.2003 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of ThinkPad T20

Lovely estate agents

Advantages: Sold my house at asking price
Disadvantages: I don't receive service like that everyday

...Moving house is said to be one of the three most stressful things you can do,(besides bereavement and divorce). The last thing you want or need from your estate agents then is bad service, incompetence or inability to do the job. Fortunately for me, I got none of these. The estate agents we chose to sell our flat a few months ago I could not praise highly enough. Why did we choose Connells? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ With a little baby, we had been thinking of selling and moving for a while, so when we were in estate agents asking for house particulars, we were interested to see how they reacted to us and potential buyers, so we had an idea what they would be saying about our property behind our backs! I am sad to say that some estate agents really do live up to the dreadful reputation. I had comments such as "ooh, you don...

nancymac 31.08.2003 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Connell Estate Agents

Underrated Estate car

Advantages: Well designed estate car, reliable
Disadvantages: No longer made

...In my time I have had 2 Renault 21 Savannas, firstly a 5-seater and following that a 7-seater. The first thing you have to say is the 7-seater was an extraordinarily good design and unlike many estates with 7 seats had three forward facing rows of seats. It achieved this without compromising comfort, access or storage space. That it?s replacement the Laguna estate cannot do this is indeed a retrograde step. The 21 Savanna was available with a range of engines but both the cars I had had the 1.7litre engine. The car was relatively light so unladen with just the driver or with one passenger the performance was adequate but hardly sparkling. When more heavily laden or when towing the performance tailed off sharply. The Savanna was quite long to accommodate the extra line of seats but overall the car handled well. Handling was...

polydeuces 12.11.2000 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Renault R21 Savanna

A Worthy Estate car

Advantages: reliable spacious, good performance
Disadvantages: build quality could be a little better

...I now have experience of three Peugeot 406s , two have been saloons and now I have a 2.0litre Hdi estate. In total I have probably done around 100,000 miles in the 406 models. After two petrol models I now have a diesel with the 110 bhp common-rail diesel engine. The 406 has always been an attractive well-proportioned car and recent changes to the lights front and rear have given it a more aggressive posture. It is a comfortable car with seats neither too firm nor too soft and an adjustable steering column to help get the right driving position and importantly for the best view of the instruments. The interior trim is of a satisfactory standard and well equipped including passengers air-bag as well as a drivers air-bag. I have a minor criticism in that the body does not resist knocks and creases well so after a year the car looks...

polydeuces 23.11.2000 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Peugeot 406 2.0