Spec me a country lane commuter

Soldato
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Hi Guys,
Just moved house and now my commute is a 30 mile round trip of country lanes. At the moment i’m driving an 2001 Jeep Cherokee 4.0l which is a beautiful car but is killing me on fuel with its 18MPG.

Looking for something around £6k with a decent amount of space, fairly efficient on fuel but comfortable and mildly quick. Most importantly it needs to be able to handle the cold weather with 4x4. I’m leaning towards a 4x4 estate rather than an off-roader for the cornering ability and reliability.

My search has led me to look at Subaru Legacys such as this https://www.draytonvolvo.co.uk/used-cars/subaru-legacy-2-0-d-se-sports-tourer-5dr-bebington-201808299936755 , I was wondering if there is anything else I should consider?

Cheers
 
Caporegime
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On the road....
Audi A4 Allroads are very capable things, a mate has one (he lives up in the Peak District) and with winter tyres on it he says it’s his preferred transport in bad weather - he also has a Range Rover sport!

But for your budget (assuming the linked car is ballpark) your looking at very much higher mileage examples.

I’d certainly take a look though.
 
Soldato
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23,304
Depends how bad it gets. All the Subarus (except the BRZ) are pretty capable "off-roaders" and are permanent AWD. You can't go wrong with any of them really.
 
Last edited:
Soldato
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I think you need to be aware of wheel bearings on the Legacy if they’ve not been done as they will cost a fair bit... think it’s around £1k for them all.
 
Soldato
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I think you already picked something ideal, the Legacy would be great. My Dad has a Forester, it was great in the snow last winter too, the Legacy is certainly better looking.
 
Soldato
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We are in a similar boat, and we have a Kia Sorento for madam, and i'm looking at a "cheap" Volvo XC90 as a backup car. I think the 4WD system in the Sorento is reasonably entry level but it handles the mad snow earlier this year without drama.

Kia returns about 34 mpg on average from a 2.2 turbo diesel, but has 200bhp so is able to make progress well enough. Quite a lot of torque steer mind.

Estates are a sensible option but I have to be wary of ground clearance in adverse weather. Particularly in snow where the Evo is generally fully capable but the ground clearance is relatively low, so if snow collects in the centre of the road, i'm in for a bad time.
 
Soldato
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Subaru Outback is another, they have pretty good ground clearance. Basically a jacked up Legacy estate built for difficult conditions.
 
Soldato
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Never heard of wheel bearing issues with Legacies myself, i wouldn't have thought they were much different to the Impreza ones and they're as cheap as any other car, i've priced up £38 for a rear wheel bearing on my old impreza.

The diesel engines in the previous (4th gen) Legacy was very flawed and would break the crankshaft before 100k miles so avoid them like the plague, i believe from the 5th gen they revised the crankshaft so it's no longer an issue and should be a really good car.
 
Associate
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Leicester
My immediate thoughts when I read the title was similar to others "something Subaru", brother in law has a new outback and its a really nice place to sit and drives well.

Civic with winter tyres

That said Mr Sukebe did remind me that my Civic performed flawlessly down 30 miles of untreated backroads last year in the snow with its winter tyres. 4x4s were struggling and I was getting some pretty confused stares as I drove round them :)
 
Soldato
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Yep, the difference winter tyres make in the snow is amazing. People buy those ugly SUV things thinking they will be better and won't get stuck, but nope :D
 
Soldato
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I think you already found the perfect car for the job. I would have suggested the Forester too, but it won't be as nice as inside, as they are designed to be more rugged and utilitarian.

But I think people tend to think they need AWD/4WD when its not really necessary.
 
Soldato
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11 Aug 2012
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S.E Wales
I think you already found the perfect car for the job. I would have suggested the Forester too, but it won't be as nice as inside, as they are designed to be more rugged and utilitarian.

But I think people tend to think they need AWD/4WD when its not really necessary.

I was going to suggest a 2.5T Forester, but he mentions he's after decent mileage and not 0-60 times that would embarrass quite a lot of performance cars on the road, Dare say the interior would still look better than that Jeep he has.
 
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