Best Station Wagon for Dirtbagging?

Trying to figure out what the best station wagon for climbing trips would be? I´d rather not have a van for a number of reasons (would use the car for other purposes as well, want to blend in when sleeping in urban areas, concerned about fuel economy, etc), and trucks are also out for a number of reasons (very expensive and uncommon where I am at the moment (Switzerland)).
The criteria are:

Reasonable clearance

Back seats fold completely flat (for sleeping)

Long (I´m 6.4 and don´t wan´t to have to fold in half when sleeping in the back)

Fuel efficient (something Japanese maybe?)

Cheap (something from the nineties perhaps)

Reliable and cheap to repair

ABS, anti-skid and airbags are a bonus for the winter skiing, but not necessary.

Any suggestions?

Check out the Ford Focus wagons. If you can find a 2.3L with a manual it will give you plenty of power to move around.

The rear seats fold flat and you can remove the bench seat part with two bolts. That should give you enough room to lie flat head to toe in the back. The car is rather tall so you should be able to sit up right in the back.

I was getting 30 mpg on the highway and around 25 in the city with my 2004 wagon. I did a road trip with two bikes and a 12' kayak on the roof and it still got 25 mpg.

I would expect to find a good wagon in the 3-5k range. I think they made the wagon from 2001 through 2006?

The ground clearance isn't like a Subaru but it is good enough. With chains my Focus did really well on steep snow covered roads.

Are you looking to buy in Europe? I would think there would be diesel / manual / wagons everywhere?

Thanks for the tip! I´ll have to look into that one, although it was slightly more than I had planned on spending. Yeah, I´ll be buying it in Switzerland, and there are indeed lots of that type of car around. Diesel is very expensive though, so I´ll probably stick to a normal one. Subarus seem popular (All wheel drive would be great for the winter here) but I can´t have one since I´m too tall. Owned a Subaru Legacy once, and it was a pain to sleep in (seats didn´t fold completely). Volvo 240 and 740 seem to get a lot of praise for being roomy and reliable, but I have a feeling they use up a lot of gas.

Family truckster.

Not a wagon, but the Honda Element is a nice camper/car.
Seats fold out of the way or can be removed easily, waterproof interior
(you can hose out the mud you track in), decent gas mileage. . .

There's a reason there are so many, cheap Volvo wagons for sale.... they are well known to have serious transmission problems. Anything over 75k miles is subject to a new transmission. Keep that in mind, that alone will run you $4000. Maybe it's still a good deal if you get the car for free :)

The free one, else you taint dirt bagging.

Your a teacher, not a dirt bag, although you might be a dirty teacher, I don't' know.

You should grapple someone for their keys, that's what a real dirt bag would do.

Hopefully the used car market in Europe is better than the USA right now. Prices here are comically inflated on anything that has a reputation for being reliable (Honda, Toyota, Subaru). I got so frustrated searching for a used Tacoma that I gave up and bought a new one - at least if I decide to sell it I won't be out that much money.

I'm not too knowledgeable on the European market but there are a lot of small vans and trucks that aren't available here - usually offered with a diesel for great fuel economy. The Fiat Strada, a car based pickup truck, comes to mind, but there are many others. Think outside the usual American offerings...

Cocoapuffs 1000 wrote:Hopefully the used car market in Europe is better than the USA right now. Prices here are comically inflated on anything that has a reputation for being reliable (Honda, Toyota, Subaru).

Yeah, this was my experience too when looking for an outback. It's ridonculous. Especially in the front range it seems. Luckily my work commute doesn't necessarily require a car, so I had enough time to be patient and ended up finding one for a fair deal after a few months of emotionally painful hunting.

I would second the suspicion concerning Volvos. I have never driven one, but considered getting one until a couple mechanic friends of mine cautioned me about how expensive they are to maintain as they age. Essentially, the parts (although very high quality, intricate, and efficient when new), wear out pretty fast compared to Japanese models and are much more costly to replace or repair.

On the other hand, Japanese cars like Hondas, Toyotas, and Subarus are designed with cheaper yet perhaps longer lasting parts, making them perform less impressively out of the box than German or Scandinavian makes, but easier and cheaper to maintain/replace parts overtime, and therefore tend to last much longer with minimal maintenance costs.

Or something like that. I'm not a car person. Would much rather ride a bicycle.

Jon Zucco wrote:Would much rather ride a bicycle.

True dirtbags sleep on bikes.

Per Andersson wrote:concerned about fuel economy, etc),

Looks like you want the Prius V then. It gets 50 MPG easy, but is large enough to sleep in. It does not, however, have any off road capabilities. You can only choose one. You wont find a vehicle that can tear it up off road and still gets good fuel economy (at least not by the Prius' standard).

Per Andersson wrote:Diesel is very expensive though, so I´ll probably stick to a normal one.

Diesel also has 37MJ/L where as E10 gas only has 33 MJ/L, so depending on the price difference, it can actually be less expensive than gasoline. That's why I drive a Jetta TDI. While diesel is about $0.30 per gal in many areas, my car also gets 40MPG which is fairly unheard of for non-hybrids in the USA, and it's largely because it uses diesel.

20 kN wrote: Diesel also has 37MJ/L where as E10 gas only has 33 MJ/L, so depending on the price difference, it can actually be less expensive than gasoline. That's why I drive a Jetta TDI. While diesel is about $0.30 per gal in many areas, my car also gets 40MPG which is fairly unheard of for non-hybrids in the USA, and it's largely because it uses diesel.

I love my 03 TDI Wagon... 48.8 mpg on the last trip to the Red...puts the range of the car at 800 miles :)

Eliot Augusto wrote: True dirtbags sleep on bikes.

too trublue

^^^^^

Assume you are speaking of Volvos, as they were mentioned above... So I assume it's coincidence that at any given time there are at least half a dozen Volvo wagons on CL on the front range alone that need a new trans? Or that the Volvo shop always has 2 or 3 in for repair? Maybe you've just had 3 of the good ones that made it to the states, maybe you take exceptional care of your vehicles. Either way, yours is not the experience of many, many, bedraggled Volvo wagon owners...

Volvos do have transmission problems....they are all automatics :)

I had two volvos, liked them both. The station wagon had a long flat back for sleeping, got 25mpg, and had no major problems until hitting a deer. Both made well over 200k miles.
youtube.com/watch?v=JJ0nkSt…

youtube.com/watch?v=tKOVF1q…

Volvos are the best. nuff said.

Ben, not sure what models the T6 transmission you referenced were in, but all the afflicted wagons around here are new (er) post 2000 XC70 or something like that. I am not a Volvo guy, never even had a wagon, I just notice through observation it's a pattern, at least here. And have heard a bunch of people talk about them. I myself get to the crags in a Cummins Diesel, which I got for work but it makes a sweet road trip rig with 4 wheel drive, high clearance, tons of room, and with some experimenting gets me 25 mpg highway (loaded, on roadtrips) and burns several different types of fuel. I can and do, do all the work on it myself and the Cummins motor is ultra reliable. Mine has 300,000, my dad's has 485,000 and my grandpa's has over a million! Go with what you know, right? No matter what you drive, if you can maintain it yourself and do it well, it will treat you well in return.

And oh yeah, I actually am familiar with the Scientific Method as I have a degree in Physics ;)