What Car? Not-a-TDI-Sportwagen Edition

The last day of my Nissan Leaf's lease is October 11. The E28 is roadworthy, and was a semi-functional road-trip car for the last few months of the Leaf's reign, but it is not my SO's idea of the One Solid Household Car, nor do I blame her.

We were really down to a quick test drive to make sure we liked the new '16 Sportwagen at least as much as the '13 we test drove when we got the Leaf, and start emailing dealers for a good price. It was really decided.

And then, this whole TDI emissions scandal. So... If I ever had concerns about a VW being a possibly-dodgy purchase (there have been... issues, y'know), this shakes up the snow globe all over again.

So... What station wagon has great driving manners, gets close to 50mpg on the highway (diesel's actually cheaper than gas here, too, much of the time), looks awesome... Oh, wait. Dang.

Things that spring to mind include (with varying degrees of nausea), Impreza, Focus, C-Max, Mini 4-door... I'd look at Volvos, since they actually make a nice wagon, but since they're pushing $10k more than a Sportwagen... Ook. I wish Mazda would bring the 6 wagon. A common thread you can see here is that these are mostly hatches, not wagons. We got by okay in the WRX, but were looking forward to having more room.

Transit Connect? Crap mileage...

Why does the Mazda 5 get such lousy mileage?

Fiat 500L?

There really isn't an obvious competitor to the TDI Sportwagen, or even the Sportwagen in general, is there? Although the mileage isn't as good, I wonder about doing the non-TDI one. Still left wondering what the kerfuffle will do to VW in general...

Does it really have to be a wagon. A used CTS Wagon would fit the bit, so would accord cross-tour, gas but with a mileage penalty. The TSX wagon can be had cheap used as well and they are great cars.

Prius V. Is in my eyes a jetta sportwagen competitor. It lacks the sport part, but the wagon part works well.

Where do you live? In the US none of the cars you mentioned will get close to 50 mpg.

Buy a gas car that gets 30mpg and costs $5k less than a sportwagon, and call it even.....

Focus 1.0 might come close on mileage.

hotchocolate wrote: Prius V. Is in my eyes a jetta sportwagen competitor. It lacks the sport part, but the wagon part works well.

This is pretty much it.

I bet there will be SMOKING deals on TDIs in the near future. Even if the reflash drops MPGs, I bet some heavy discounts will easily compensate.
Just sayin

If there is a reflash, that may mean you coucould source a junkyard non flashed ecu and be back to dirty but good mpg.

JohnRW1621 wrote: If there is a reflash, that may mean you coucould source a junkyard non flashed ecu and be back to dirty but good mpg.

Maybe I need to start hoarding junkyard ecu's for fun & profit...

CX-3

There are some interesting ideas there... I'd thought of the TSX, not realizing they'd stopped making it (I don't follow Acura very closely), but hadn't looked into how long ago, or what the used market's like. I think a CTS would just make me sad it wasn't a CTS-V, but that's out of the question

Enyar, perzackly. That's why I said "Oh, wait. Dang." There really isn't an obvious competitor. As folks have pointed out, the Prius V comes close on numbers, just not on driving experience, appearance, etc...

The 2016 Volt also crossed my mind, but I did manage to find one test-drive account which noted that the outward visibility continues to be awful, and after living with the Leaf for two years, I'm never having another vehicle whose A-pillars can blot out an entire winding road anytime you're turning left...

wearymicrobe, it doesn't have to be a wagon, but it pretty much needs to be at least a hatch. We have a dog, and the rear of the Leaf is awkwardly shaped, so most of the time we have this weird dog-hammock thing slung all over the back seats for her. I'd like to go back to having four seats and a designated dog/cargo area.

Maybe we'll just drive the E28 long enough to see how the whole VW things shakes out with EPA cert, proposed fixes, warranties, etc... Heck, I just had a non-repairable flat so it'll be on a fresh pair of Yokohamas on the rear tomorrow afternoon.

Plug in Kia Soul?

The Soul is a tidy-looking little box, but my SO rented one once and said it had about the worst visibility trying to head-check for lane changes of anything she'd ever driven.

Of course, I'm swimming upstream in terms of cars increasingly resembling Jagdpanzers in the window department.

I need to look more into the CX-3.

Just sayin'.

Ok, ok, it's the new Mazda 3 5-door.

I'd be a fool not to look into them, I guess. I like Mazdas in principle. I think the new 3 has a proportion problem that'll make people forget the term "Clown Shoe" used to refer to a BMW M Coupe...

I'm in the same market. Looking for a really fun hatch/wagon that is reliable, has good mpg and fun to drive. I'm trying to keep my budget under $17k. I love the new Mazda 3, but a lightly used loaded model (I want some nice touches) is well over my budget. So honestly, I haven't found anything that will fit the bill exactly. You're going to have to compromise somewhere. Fiesta ST is very interesting to me, but I have concerns about long term reliability of a direct injected turbo motor.

Waking up this morning I'm thinking GTI or golf plug in. With the world of hurt VW is in I'd expect some deals.

Wagon, good mpg, fun to drive. Pick two (if a used TDI is off the table)

I personally have the same conundrum when my LEAF comes off lease next year. I hate the vision problems it creates too, but I haven't driven a new car yet that didn't have a similar A-Pillar.

Solution so far is I bought a very nice Volvo 740 wagon. Great visibility, fun to drive in a way, gets ~25 mpg mixed. That's as good as my Mazda5 was, but the buy-in is next to nothing. Used Mazda5s are very cheap now, however. I'm thinking of driving it daily and getting a "fun" used car in a year instead of buying/leasing new.

Just buy the VW you want, and never go back to the dealer. They can't reprogram it if it's not there.

I would second or third the Mazda 3, my wife is currently leasing one. It gets 36-37MPG on the highway 30mpg on the street. She has only gotten oil changes, no issues with the car has leased it for over a year. Also I am able to fit in it at 6'2", often I am two tall with cars that have sunroofs. Technologically it is modern.

I was in a similar situation 5 months ago. I was in a TDI Jetta and trying to find basically what you were looking for, though maybe something a little bit smaller. The CX-5, Mazda 3 hatch, Ford Focus hatch and Elantra GT hatch all made it to my list. Ended up with a 2.0 Focus hatch and I love it. If you're going new, the smaller turbo motor that comes in the focus sounds like a perfect fit.

Yea, Mazda 3 hatch with skyactive. It's shaped like a wagon, I was looking at it yesterday and was thinking oh my gosh.. this is a wagon. My girlfriends 2013 gets like 40mpg on the highway and we loaded up a bed in it yesterday. Wonderful car and it was cheap..

If only Mazda would quit screwing around and bring us both the wagon and diesel variants of the new 6.

Gearheadotaku wrote: Just buy the VW you want, and never go back to the dealer. They can't reprogram it if it's not there.

While this is true, if he wanted a new one, that's not happening anytime soon. There's currently a stop sale on all TDI's right now. A used one with some mods and a tune would be the way I would go if a TDI is the right car.

The 2012-13 Mazda 3 Skyactiv cars are not a bad choice, but the newer 2014+ ones are a little nicer. And you don't have to deal with the half-baked Ford parts that like to fail early and often, like the motor mounts.