A few months ago someone told me to be sensible so I sold my vRS and bought a Land Rover. Hmm, yeah I'm not sure what I was thinking either! 

 

Anyway, as the time has gone on I have missed my old car more and more and keep finding myself looking at the classifieds. I think it is inevitable that I'll end up with another MKII vRS. My question therefore is this; I have been thinking of getting an estate and I'm concerned that whilst I will make gains in practicality; I will loose out in outright driving performance. The stereotype is that the estate won't handle as well and will be a bit more wallow'y. Also, it'll have 17" Zeniths rather than 18" as per the hatch I think?

 

I am sure there are people out there who have tried, or owned, both so if you could spare your views that would be very generous. 

 

Cheers. 

My Pre-FL estate has 18" Zenith's.

 

Dont forget the VRS estate has different rear suspensions to the standard estate. I'm pretty happy with the handling, for me it rides better on 18's than previous Saab 93 and V70 did on 17's.

 

The only thing I think the estate might be worse for is noise from the rear compared to the hatch.

TBH i think if you were to drive them back to back you'd be very hard pressed to tell the difference. The estate is absolutely not wallowy

Had 2 FL Hatches and now have a FL Combi.

I cannot find any difference between hatch and combi in handling.

I would say it is a good bit noisier in the cabin though.

Yes - this is what I wanted to hear. Woo. More room for the dog and car parts in a combi  

and it looks better  :think:

hahaha

 

I dunno. I like both, and as an estate its very pretty, but it doesn't look quite as sporty I don't think personally. 

 

Shall keep looking in the classifieds. 

My Facelift 2011 on 18in Zeniths as standard had the best handling of any car I've owned.

Yes very slightly noisier from the rear space but not by much

Get the estate you won't drown when you open the boot lid in the rain, I wish I had.

Estate, estate estate estate.........

My FL has 18's and is fine handling, as above though can be a bit noisy depending on road surface (its on factory fit Conti 2's) but not so that you can't live with it.

Much better than the old Peugeot 405 I had in the 90's, that was well 'floaty', a typical soft French car.

 

Personally I like the shape of the estate better now than the hatch, even though I didn't set out to buy an estate. 

No regrets.

 

Get one!

I've just traded my hatch for an estate - what a difference! The estate is amazing, feels so much more planted and handling is so much better in comparison (imo)

 

Also as said you don't get a shower when opening the boot, and you won't have the spoiler lacquer peeling issue

I've had a pre FL mk2 hatch and an FL estate. Latter pretty much goes around corners like the hatch (though neither are sports cars) but is more practical, looks better to my eyes, and attracts less attention. Remap it and you've got a real stealth Q car.

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