I will always choose a Combi (Estate).

Never had any such issues with mine ... first I've heard about that.

Me neither. I purposely watched it yesterday as it was well covered with water. As I lifted the hatch the water went forward off it into the top gulley then ran down the side gulleys and onto the rear bumper. I think it helps to not lift the hatch too quickly.

As for which one to buy, isn't it horses for courses, as usual?

Edited 30 December, 201015 yr by ednmra

Surely most people are in the market for an estate and the competition is middle sized estate cars from other makes rather than the hatch?

I never even considered the hatch. I didn't see the estate back end as an optional extra that was in competition with leather upholstery or whatever for my hard earned.

If you're in the market for a mid sized estate I think the Octy VRS is almost unique as you just can't get a performance estate variant (no pun intended) of the Golf, Focus etc.

And If you similarly spec the slower Megane GT estate or Astra SRi the bottom line is in the region of £25K.

Edited 30 December, 201015 yr by juan27