Best car for the great outdoors

[stutho]

(AND ANYTHING ELSE)

Ok Ok I know the best car is no car at all... However!

My wife and I share a car - or to put it another way my wife has a car that I am allowed to borrow occasional    We have two kids (6 & 4) and we do a lot of outdoor type stuff, both professionally and as a hobby. We have a lot of kit.  We are looking for a new or preferably slightly used car or van  than can carry us and the kit and 4 bikes on the back and occasionally a couple of 15 foot Canadian canoes on the roof... you get the idea. 

However there is one problem both my wife and I are deeply uninterested in cars and haven't got the first clue  what we should be looking at!  We live in a rural area and my wife's job sometimes involve driving along farm tracks - not exactly off-road but lots of mud and potholes!  We don't care at all about the style of the car  / van but it must be reliable (esp as we only have the one car).
 
Total cost of ownership is more important to us than the initial price we currently do about 14,000 miles a year but this may increase up to 18,000 miles per a year in the next few years.  Our current car we have owned from new. Is is now 10 years old and 160,000 miles on the clock and is too small for our current needs.

So has anyone got any good suggestions.  I do have a few ideas myself but I will hold back for others to comment first.   

Thanks

Stuart     

[bobs]

A VW Passat estate TDI, will last you for ever and give you little trouble.

Bob

[julk]

I did something very similar with an Escort van (fitted a rear seat for the kids when they arrived), it lasted over 10 years.

Once we moved to a car we realised how useful rear windows were for the passengers!

[expr]

Bobs, Stuart, we had a vw bora which i think was very similar to the passat and have to say that the engineering that had gone in to the car was great. It had done over 120.000 miles and the engine was still running great. Only due to an offer from the father in law for his 3 year old car did we sell it. The trouble with most cars now is even with the best will in the world it is quite difficult to keep up to date with tools etc to be able to maintain them.

As you may have read from my previous posts I enjoy working on cars for a hobby and have only recently just got rid of my 20 yr old Honda and purchased a Honda crv from the stealership!!!

Dave.

[expr]

Stuart, just out of interest what type of outdoor type stuff do you do!

[rualexander]

Subaru Legacy estate would be worth considering if you want a car rather than a 'typical 4x4' or van derived vehicle. They are not so common over here but are very popular in New Zealand where most folk are into the outdoors and there are a lot of gravel roads etc.

[bobs]

Bobs, Stuart, we had a vw bora which i think was very similar to the passat and have to say that the engineering that had gone in to the car was great. It had done over 120.000 miles and the engine was still running great. Only due to an offer from the father in law for his 3 year old car did we sell it. The trouble with most cars now is even with the best will in the world it is quite difficult to keep up to date with tools etc to be able to maintain them.

I have a Bora 130PD TDI  done 105,000 no problems what so ever get it serviced once a year by my very good local VW dealer.
Previous car a Passat 110 TDI   sold it at 126,00 still had origional brakes and exhaust.
Only had VWs  apart for a Citron 2CV which is another story.

[expr]

Did the 2 cv only have three cylinders, i remember the dolly.

[Han]

VW Transporter Van. 2.5tdi. I've got an ex AA one. 38mpg, cheap spares, seats 5 ( 4 with shoulder belts, one lap belt ) Has back windows so folk in the back can see out. Loads of room for bikes and kayaks etc. I can even get my 52inch Ordinary in the back. Fab van.

[stutho]

Stuart, just out of interest what type of outdoor type stuff do you do!

I am a registered ML (mountain leader) and a Scout leader.  Most weekends  I tend  to be either walking / climbing up a mountain somewhere  or doing some kind of bushcraft or camping.  I am also a scuba diver qualified in mixed gas and Technical diving.  

My wife runs her own company providing Educational field trips to schools (these field trips are mainly ecology based)  she is also a qualified  Forest School Teacher and is currently in the process of obtaining her ML.  Dawn is also qualified in Technical diving and is a  Beaver Scout leader.

To add to all that we also like to go canoeing and  believe it or not we also go cycling a fair bit!  A few weekends back we were off near the forest of dean cycling with the kids - we had SIX bikes with us (1 RST , 1RT, 2 Islabike Trailerbikes and 2 Islabike children bicycles all on or in the one car plus clothing for 4 days and some food!  The car was very full!

[bobs]

Did the 2 CV only have three cylinders, i remember the dolly.

No it had 2 cylinders 602cc and a 4 1/2 gallon fuel tank.

[expr]

Stuart sorry for going off topic, I realise we should be talking about the "car". I can't tell you how much I enjoyed going through cubs and scouts it was a great part of growing up. We use to do canoeing in scouts etc, i never did like the upside down part.

As for the bushcraft part you make me jealous I love all that sort of stuff my son age 8 and I love going to delamere forest very near where we live in Cheshire doing all sorts of things. He is now a cub and its great to see him growing up doing what I use to do.

My parents when we were kids took us camping most weekends and can remember going to the forest of dean. We started off in what was no more than a small canvas play tent and then moved up to a trailer tent, from that we joined the caravan club and my dad bought a caravan, GREAT TIMES.

Just last year we went up snowdon my 6th time,we went up with scouts and have gone up at various times since, just last year I have to say was the best time ever with regards to the weather it was mid way through the build of the new granite stone cafe as-well. This time there was a bit of a twist though, I had said to my wife Michelle that I wanted to make bacon butties at the top as a treat, and sure enough after reaching the top I made them, I cant tell you how many people gave us THE LOOK, saying how much they could just eat one, I could have made a fortune !!!


Link for view at top of snowdon.          http://i705.photobucket.com/albums/ww53/daveshell/IMG_1177.jpg



Her is a link to view snowdon from the local web cam .    http://www.fhc.co.uk/cams.htm

[expr]

No it had 2 cylinders 602cc and a 4 1/2 gallon fuel tank.

Sorry Bobs I should have realised, the answer I'm guessing is in the model 2cv. I bet that was good on fuel then! I havent seen a 2cv for a while now.

[rualexander]

Sorry Bobs I should have realised, the answer I'm guessing is in the model 2cv. I bet that was good on fuel then! I havent seen a 2cv for a while now.

Saw these on a recent tour in Germany, note the green one has a Landrover body attached!

[expr]

Thanks for the pics rualexander, yes I can see the landrover back. It's been a while since iv'e seen one.

Dave.