Usable hatchback with large boot for under £500 !!

khcomp    on 20 January 2017

Don't know about a classic, but I bought a 2001 Suzuki Wagon R+ three years ago with 60,000 miles on it for £330 off Ebay - huge boot, cheap tax, very economical, and has been utterly reliable, costing £60 to MOT last year and £45 the year before. Tyres are all still as good as new (it's now done 78,000 miles), I've replaced one bulb and one rear wheel brake cylinder. It uses no oil or water and costs less than £100 a year fully comp. to insure. We use it to go shopping & take our dogs around, it's so good that my wife just won't part with it until it dies!

badbusdriver    on 7 February 2017

Hi Logger, that is a tricky question!. My first query would be regarding what exactly you define as a 'classic', as i am really struggling to think of anything i would define as a classic that fits your requirements (apart from something which needs a full restoration). Even stuff from the 80's is getting pricey as folks jump on the 'classic' bandwagon, pricing their old tat accordingly!.

if you are happy to accept something which is simply getting a bit long in the tooth as a classic, there are one or two options i can suggest.

1, Skoda felicia estate. Dont laugh now, the felicia was the first 'new' car put on sale after the VW takeover and as such, was of a much higher quality than previous Skoda's. The estate has a huge boot for the size of car and can be had with either the 1.9 n/a VW diesel, or the 1.3 Skoda petrol. Neither are very powerful, but both are reliable.

2, Saab 900. I am not talking about the 'classic' old style 900, although they would definately fit your bill from a practicality point of view, decent ones are getting very thin on the ground and hence, pricey. No, i am thinking about the first of the 900's using the vauxhall floorpan. You should be able to pick up a decent enough one within your budget, they have a very large boot, and a variety of power outputs starting at about 130bhp.

3, Mitsubishi carisma. Bland and anonymous the (misnamed) carisma nevertheless offers up a huge boot, a choice of mitsubishi petrol (1.6 and 1.8 i think), or 1.9 renault sourced turbo diesel engines.

4, Skoda octavia. Early octavia's should be within budget and offered by far the biggest boot in its class (most people actually thought of it as a passat sized car when in fact it was based on the golf floorpan). Hatchback or estate with a good variety of engines to choose from.

5, My last two choices are beng lumped together as they are very similar, and given your current wheels, perhaps should be the obvious replacement. The early Renault kangoo and citroen berlingo, the car versions, as opposed to the van. Despite having rear seats and windows, they are essentially still vans, so even with rear seats in place offer the volume of a mercedes e class estate up to the window line (around 650l). But with the seats folded will give you much more capacity than either the mec or your astra van. As far as i recall, the early versions of either will have either 1.4 petrol or 1.9 n/a diesel.

Happy hunting!

Glaikit Wee Scunner {P}    on 15 November 2017

An Astra Estate is the obvious choice, being the same as the van, but with glass side windows. As for finding one at your price, the small ads in the local paper maybe? But at £500 or less you need to be careful. Repair costs can easily exceed the value of the vehicle.
As for insurance, maybe there is a specialist broker who'd would cover a commercial vehicle as a private use one? There are a lot of smart VW Transporter based day vans evidently used as leisure vehicles.

Markwebki    on 15 May 2018

There are many classic car have now big boot and cost under £500.for details please saw the site and you will find huge info - classiccars.com/ and I am also looking for such a hatchback - wc2018live.org

elekie&a/c doctor    on 20 May 2018

Why do you need a classic?what about this ? www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ford-Focus-Zetec-Estate-1-8i-20...y