What engine?

Rather than another "recommend me a car" thread, I thought I'd start with the engine.

I've always had diesel engines, usually 2 litre and usually turbocharged. Because my driving habits have been mainly motorway and a decent amount of miles per year, they suited me well. Whatever car I've had, the economy's been decent and the engine has been able to pull comfortably.

But my driving habits have recently changed fairly drastically. I've bought a business very near to where I live and my journeys are now averaging 1-2 miles at a time (2 miles to work and numerous daily appointments within the city of Portsmouth). My longest regular journey is 7 miles to my 6 a side game once a week.

I currently drive a Kia Sportage but it's going back at the end of the year and I'm looking at options. I have a toddler and I'll also have another baby by then so I still want a sizeable car for all the kit they come with. Also, because I'm busy with a new business, our holidays for the next few years are likely to be limited to driving to somewhere a few hours away with tents, bikes and other kit. It doesn't have to be an SUV although I do quite like the driving position.

My problem is that, engine-wise, I probably want a small petrol engine or an electric-hybrid, given the short journeys most of the time. But I have nowhere to plug in an electric car (terraced housing) and they seem to be prohibitively expensive anyway. But I worry that a small petrol engine in a relatively big car will struggle.

Any suggestions?

Ride the bike to work and rent a car for the weekends?

I would love to (I'd run rather than cycle), except;

- I need a car for appointments during the day (often, taking clients with me)

- we don't have a shower at the office (or space to fit one) and I wear a suit

I suppose that fuel economy isn't the most important thing to consider, as I don't really do high mileage. Are short journeys still bad for diesel engines?

I recently drove a hire Kia Ceed sport wagon 1.0 petrol from West Wales to Stranraer and back. Having ordered a Mondeo or similar my colleague and I were slightly surprised by the delivered Ceed. We both were expecting it to not be able to pull the skin off a rice pudding, but were pleasantly surprised. It drove fine, had enough power for overtaking and returned about 45 mpg. It wasn’t as lazy as my Golf R or coupe to drive, but as a mode of transport it was perfectly adequate. I looked up the Ceed and it’s got 118bhp from the 1.0 petrol, so I guess roughly equivalent to a 1.8 na engine.

I have been pleasantly surprised by the performance of the 1 litre Ford Ecoboost engine - about 125bhp and a decent slug of low-down grunt too

In something as small as a Fiesta or C-Max, its a decent little engine

That said, if your journeys are always less than a couple of miles and fuel isn't an issue, man-maths says you need a big V8.....

Short journeys are *lethal* for diesels. They never get up to temperature, and you can kill the cat in weeks. It doesn't get regenerated.

Diesel is ideal if you're like me, with a sixty mile commute, but they're no good in cities.

I'd agree with the above advice; short journeys kill diesels. I rented a Transit from Enterprise last year and it packed in. I called the AA, who told me that because most journeys in urban rental vans are so short, it knackers the DPF/regen system, which usually ends up with the vans going back to Ford.

I would definitely explore the EV/hybrid options. There are some really amazing vehicles out there that - used as they are designed to be - can get excellent real world economy figures. You don't have to get a plug-in hybrid if charging is a non-starter (as it were...)

I would recommend any of the VAG TSI petrols in any of flavour of power. 1.4 and 1.5 TSI being the most popular and most common engine with Volkswagen, Audi, Seat & Skoda.

With the significantly shorter journeys is there a reason you want a small petrol over a larger one and therefore a car that is more potent? I don’t see why a larger engine would be especially worse off than a smaller on shorter journeys.

Focus ST would fit the bill and they do an estate version. Loads of kit in the latest mk3.5. That said there’s always the mk3 RS. If you are interested I could pop round if you’d like a butchers as it’s my family car (albeit for only 1 child).

What about an Octavia vRS? The boot even in the saloon Is gargantuan.

Sticking to the original request I guess I’m saying 2.0 Turbo. Like the Coupe

How did you like the Sportage? Which engine does it have?

We have the sister car as one of our two daily/winter cars, a Tucson 1.6 T AWD. It is a good compromise between size, pace and economy, and we got a prereg. one quite cheaply a couple of years back. 30 mpg is sort of typical with mixed use and it is not embarrassed on the Autobahn. It is actually very nice to drive and rides really well (17" wheels). It even corners surprisingly well for a tall thing so you don't feel that short changed not being in something more talented.

The Mazda CX-5 is also very good.

Personally, the VAG group is history for me after the way they actively cheated their customers.

That’s a really good point actually. I’m still in the mindset of worrying about fuel economy when, actually, it won’t be a significant factor in choosing my next vehicle.

I now quite like the idea of a fast estate!

I went for the 2.0 KX4 diesel.

I’ve liked it. It’s not a car you fall in love with or get excited about but it served a purpose and did everything I’ve wanted it to (namely, be comfortable, not be expensive to run and taken a beating from a toddler).

Exactly - very competent cars that exceed expectations. My summer cars are a 2000 S-type and a 2011 XKR. However, If I could only keep the Tucson, I would be fine with that.

But a V8 estate sounds better

To anyone who’s interested, I took the advice of a couple on here and went for something exciting. It has a 2 litre petrol engine putting out 300bhp and gets to 60 in 5.2 seconds (because those things are really important when you generally didn’t get above 30mph in the city )

Anyone want to venture a guess?

300bhp and 5.2s suggests something mid-sized - Saloon sized - after all, my 310bhp SL did 60 in 5.9. And the A45 has 380-odd and does it in 4.2 or something silly. And the A35 is 300-odd and 4.7s

Nope - no idea...

Is it a Golf R Estate? Or Leon Cupra Estate? Must be a VAG 2.0TSI engine.....

Audi S3?

Whatever it is, it is the correct choice! Something BMW-ish? Golf R is a good call.

Close. Right group and engine. Went for a Seat Cupra Ateca.

Made the mistake of test driving one. A normal Ateca just wouldn’t cut it after that.

Should have tried the Skoda Superb estate in Sportline trim and you can have the TSI petrol variant which is quite rapid. Lots of space and comfort in a well made package.

I didn't even know they did a Cupra Ateca til now. Looks like a good multi purpose comfort rocket !

They had an ABT remapped Ateca Cupra on CarWow the other day. Apparently it doesn't void the warranty Available on all SEATs. Hopefully a few other manufacturers will go in this direction as it's agony having a Golf R I can't remap for an easy 70bhp...

BTW the remapped Ateca was marginally faster than the Golf R. Very impressive but I can't help but feel the Golf R estate just does everything better...

Great choice, the engine and DSG box combination is excellent.

My understanding is that ABT provide a warranty, not SEAT. I’d agree re the Golf R estate, mine’s just had its first 10k service and I’m getting more and more attached to it. I was hesitant to get one because of the lack of manual option, but the 7 speed dsg is awesome.

Trappy, how unreliable do you think the golf will be? Just remap it and be done with it

P.S I just did this to my Focus RS with a little under a year left on the warranty. Life's too short.