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Best estate cars 2022
Estates make great family cars if you’re looking for something spacious and stylish. Plenty come with a very wide range of engines, including economical hybrids and rip-roaring performance models. If this sounds like the kind of car for you but you don’t know where to start choosing one, our experts have got the all you need to know about the best estate cars.
1. Skoda Superb Estate
The Skoda Superb is a fantastic estate car that’s enormously practical, cheap to run and very well built. There’s room in both the front and back seats for tall adults to get comfortable and the 660-litre boot is bigger than almost any other estate car on sale. As such, it won our Practicality award in our 2019 Car of the Year awards.
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2. BMW 3 Series Touring
The BMW 3 Series Touring has always been the fun option if you’re looking for a practical family estate, but now it’s also one of the most high-tech models out there. The boot is bigger than you’ll find in the likes of the Mercedes C-Class or Volvo V60 but you do have to pay for some desireable features.
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3. Volvo V60
The Volvo V60 is a spacious estate car with a lovely luxurious interior. The boot is large and practical too – there’s no lip to lift things over. The infotainment system is not the most intuative to use though.
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4. Audi A6 Avant
The Audi A6 Avant is a very practical, very high-tech estate car that comes with a futuristic cabin. There’s absolutely bucket loads of space in both the front and back. The boot is big enough to cope easily with a set of golf clubs and the like but a Mercedes E-Class Estate or BMW 5 Series Touring’s boot is a bit bigger.
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5. Skoda Octavia Estate
The Skoda Octavia Estate car isn’t the biggest estate car on sale, but it’s certainly one of the most practical. It’ll happily carry five adults, as well as an impressive amount of luggage in its spacious 610-litre boot. The cabin is well built and comes with lots of practical storage compartments. The only downside is that it just isn’t very exciting.
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6. Ford Focus Estate
The Ford Focus Estate is the estate car you’ll want if you love driving. Sure, the interior quality could be better and its boot isn’t the biggest, but it should be big enough for most duties.
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7. Toyota Corolla Touring Sports
Want an estate car but don’t like the idea of a diesel? You should take a look at the Toyota Corolla Touring Sports. It comes with a choice of two hybrid setups, so it should prove cheap to run. Boot space is OK, but if out-and-out space is your most important factor alternatives are bigger.
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8. Mercedes E-class Estate
The main benefits of the E-Class Estate are its luxurious, spacious interior and its enormous boot. With its back seats folded down you can get virtually the whole kitchen in there, never mind the kitchen sink. It’s rear seats aren’t the most spacious however.
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9. VW Passat Estate
The VW Passat is comfortable, quiet and spacious estate car. The interior is made from high-quality materials that are well put together. It might not be the most exciting estate to look at but the boot is big and practical.
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10. VW Golf Estate
Everything that’s great about the Golf – excellent build quality, lots of standard kit and good to drive – but with a bigger boot. The VW Golf Estate doesn’t have many compromises – except perhaps that the similar Octavia estate is a bit cheaper.
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Best small estate cars
If you want a big boot, but not a huge car that’ll be a pain to park, a small estate could be the answer. Here, our experts have assembled a list of the best small estates currently on sale.
1. Skoda Fabia Estate
Skoda’s Fabia estate is smaller than a VW Golf but has a bigger boot. On top of that, its interior is durable and practical, and the car’s controls are light. The cheap-to-run, punchy 90hp diesel’s perfect for when the car’s weighed down with a heavy load.
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2. Dacia Logan MCV
The Dacia Logan’s costs half the price of alternatives, so you might feel less precious about using it for messy job – like trips to the dump – that estates are ideal for. It’s not hard to see where the cash’s been saved, though – the Dacia feels cheap and has a basic specification.
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3. Skoda Scala
The Scala is a five-door family car that replaces Skoda’s old Rapid, but improves quality inside as well as space and tech. However, it remains very keenly priced. It’s not great fun to drive but it does have a practical boot.
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4. Mini Clubman
The Mini Clubman is a small estate car where style takes precedence over load lugging ability. It’s as stylish, highly personalisable and as fun to drive as any other Mini, while having a boot that’ll carry more than a few bags of shopping.
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5. Honda Jazz
Okay, so the Honda Jazz isn’t an estate per se, but it is small and very practical. Its boot is big and the flexible back seats lie flat and also fold up to carry tall items – such as plants or even an upright bicycle. The Honda’ Jazz is reliable, cheap to run and surprisingly good to drive.
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Estate cars with the biggest boots
Sometimes size does matter. If you regularly carry a lot of stuff, sometimes only a big estate car will do. And so here our experts list the best estate cars with the biggest boots.
1. Mercedes E-class Estate
The Mercedes E-Class Estate has a luxurious interior, stylish looks and a huge boot. It has 670 litres with the rear seats in place. And you can fold the rear seats flat by using the buttons located just inside the load space, extending the total room on offer to a huge 1,820 litres.
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2. Skoda Superb Estate
If you’re after a smart looking, premium estate that’s surprisingly cheap to buy, look no further than the Skoda Superb Estate. In terms of boot space, there is a large 660-litre area behind the rear seats and, by pulling some levers, you can expand this to 1,950 litres.
3. VW Passat Estate
The Volkswagen Passat Estate has smart looks and a high quality interior. The wide, square boot opening reveals a large 650-litre boot with tie-downs and hooks enhancing practicality. Fold the rear seats and this area increases to 1,780 litres – more than most buyers could fill.
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4. Honda Civic Tourer
You might be surprised to discover that Honda’s Civic Tourer has such a large boot – 642 litres. If you fold the rear seats flat, this space expands to 1,668 litres, but Honda’s famed ‘magic seats’ feature bases that flip up cinema-style, meaning you can carry taller objects in the rear, too.
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5. Skoda Octavia Estate
Skoda’s Octavia Estate is a great option if you don’t quite need the space offered in the larger Superb. The Octavia’s boot offers 610 litres of space with the rear seats up, expanding to 1,740 litres if you fold them down. The boot floor is completely flat, so transporting large, bulky furniture should be a breeze, plus there’s some handy hooks and a false floor to hide your valuables under.
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Estate cars with the best MPG
Estate cars are a great choice for families not only because they can hold lots of luggage but they can also be cheaper to run than an equivalent SUV. In fact, no SUV with 4x4 can match the fuel economy of the cars listed below. Here’s a selection of the estate cars with best MPG chosen by our car experts.
1. Ford Focus Estate
The Ford Focus Estate equipped with the 1.5-litre EcoBlue diesel engine is impressively fuel efficient with 79mpg claimed fuel economy! It’s cheap to run but also great to drive and its high-tech cabin is spacious even if the boot isn’t the biggest you’ll find in a car like this.
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2. Renault Megane Sports Tourer
The Renault Megane Sports Tourer, unlike the Focus Estate, is more about ride comfort so it’s super relaxing on a long motorway journey. Fitted with the 1.5-litre dCi diesel engine, the Megane Sports Tourer has 76mpg claimed fuel economy. Inside, it’s not so well built as a Focus Estate and the portrait infotainment takes some getting used to.
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3. Vauxhall Astra Sports Tourer
The Vauxhall Astra Sports Tourer is well equipped, nice to drive, has a decent-sized boot and has versions that are good for around 65mpg too.
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4. Audi A4 Avant
The Audi A4 Avant is not only a good estate, but it’s a great car full stop. It combines a huge array of abilities and, when fitted with the 2.0-litre TDI Ultra engine, it can average a claimed 71mpg. Inside, the A4 Avant has a breathtaking interior, great passenger space and a practical boot with all sorts of nets and tethering points.
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5. Toyota Auris Touring Sport
The Toyota Auris Touring Sports is the only non-diesel car here. It uses a 1.8-litre petrol engine aided by an electric motor to average a claimed 66mpg. The Auris Touring Sports has a restrained interior design but the boot is one of the biggest among similarly priced alternatives, making it a great choice if you don’t like diesels but want a cheap-to-run estate car.
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