Choice between a Seat Altea Stylance, Skoda Octavia Ambiente or Toyota Avensis Colour Collection? New company car is due, and i've got approx £14500 to work with. Has to be diesel and 4 or 5 doors.
Forget the Seat, its not exactly a motorway cruiser, and you won't be too comfortable doing hundreds of thousands of miles in a small MPV.
Get either the Octavia or the Avensis. Hard to say which. The Avensis is obviously larger and more...respectable, however you can't really say that it outclasses a new Octavia at pretty much anything. The Octavia is such a good car and you simply can't go wrong with one.
BUT, the Avensis is more comfortable, slightly better at crusing on the motorway or burning rubber in the city as the 2.0 d4d has 10 horses more than the 1.9 tdi. I definitely think I'd be more comfy in the toyo. Its a really good medium size car. If it were Octavia (compact) vs. Laguna, 407, C5...other medium sized cars that aren't as annoyingly good as the avensis, then i'd go for the Skoda as an over all winner...but in this case..
well, i've just finished a week in a Altea demonstrator and am (mostly) impressed, but not entirely convinced... It just doesn't feel quite "right", and the steering seems quite devoid of feedback for what is meant to be a sports version of drivers car. On the whole, i did like it, and particularly like the fact that it's something a bit different from the norm. Im changing from a focus, (saloon, 1.8tddi tractor/taxi engine - i know, no comments needed), which even in that guise is fun to drive - so much so that i look forward to my 35 mile commute to work every morning (mostly back roads - so much fun to be had). Wobbletastic, any particular reason you reckon them to be rubbish? The only real fault with this one was that the front windscreen demister didn't, at all, i had to carry a shammy with me a all times... geez am going to miss my heated windscreen.
On the whole, i did like it, and particularly like the fact that it's something a bit different from the norm.
I had misfortune to be given an Altea as a hire car for a while... I too noticed that the fan for demisting the windscreen only worked on the highest setting. Not only that but as you say the steering wheel felt completely unconnected to the wheels, the pedals were too light especially the clutch, the seats were dreadful, the interior and exterior plastic would have been shameful even on a child’s toy and on top of that it looked like a deformed van and had strange wipers that hinge from the corners of the windscreen like a bus. Ohh yes it was a diesel too so things couldn’t have been any worse.
The looks have grown on me over the week, but i worry i'll get bored just as quickly. For all it's mpv pretensions, i don't see that it does anything better than the focus saloon. I agree about the pedals, especially the tractor style accelerator - what's that about? The seats looked like they should have been great, but i never did find a comfy position, where i felt that i was in, rather than on the car. I never felt comfortable with the visibility either, thick pillars and tiny (stylish?) mirrors didn't fill me with confidence. Come to think of it, maybe's i didn't actually like it that much after all. Ta for helping me focus my thoughts on this. Looks like i'm swinging back to the Octavia again, for this week at least. Look out for my next thread - Skoda Octavia - boring silver or crazy sprint yellow ;-)
Have you considered a used Honda Accord saloon 2.2 diesel? You may get one to fit your budget. It would be worth a test drive to compare a proper diesel engine against the VAG tractors.
