No more Volvo estates!

[Flat4]

Wtf is going on in the world when you can no longer buy a Volvo estate?!

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/volvo-goes-suv-only-uk-all-saloon-and-estate-cars-axed?fbclid=IwAR1ZN_kI20_1MbTi1Jv6F4rfYKcOEWT6duJiijX72EdeZXIeOocALLzNEhU

[adw1977]

Apparently everyone wants oversized blobs now. 

Remember Ford recently discontinued the Fiesta and the Focus's days are numbered so no normal saloon, hatch or estate cars from them either.

Vauxhall seem to be keeping the faith with their Corsa and Astra, though.

[EyesWeldedShut]

Does this make my 940 Estate an appreciating asset?

This Volvo move kind of matches the one that MB did recently (dropping a number of 'entry level' models) and their upcoming 'secret' new entry level EV - both companies chasing a maximised profitability in a possibly shrinking market. My guess is that whichever demographic Volvo see as buying their new cars over the next decade do not like estates - shame.
Vauxhall must reckon that the Corsa/Astra will continue to bring in the £££ else they'd bin them too - maybe they have an eye on the Focus market?

[Split_Pin]

I hate SUVs (apart from a Duster as they're relatively unpretentious) and I hate how the public seem to have no imagination and are all buying them.  I also can't understand why they are so popular. What is the advantage over an estate? 

[JJ0063]

The £400 V50 just became £4000.

[sierraman]

I think the way forward is going to be fewer but more profitable cars, maybe the profits are sufficient on a £60k EV job that it’s not worth getting into the pile ‘em high sell ‘em cheap market. 

[sierraman]

1 minute ago, Split_Pin said:

I hate SUVs (apart from a Duster as they're relatively unpretentious) and I hate how the public seem to have no imagination and are all buying them.  I also can't understand why they are so popular. What is the advantage over an estate? 

Cars have just become an appliance now though, nothing highlights this more than the VW ID, the range has a model called the ‘pro’. It’s just a device like a laptop available in a range of grey colours. You get a new one every three years, cover it in fruit stickers, drop it a few times then a nice man comes and brings you another after three years. I cannot for the life of me think why anyone gets even vaguely excited about any of this. 

[eddyramrod]

I'm just glad I was able to own and drive some proper ones.  You know: when a Volvo estate was a quality item that was powerful, strong, comfy and spacious and almost as classless as an A-series Mini.

"Old Money" filled the back with labradors and hitched horseboxes on behind.

Tradesmen and antique dealers used them as vans.

Big families used them as buses.

Lower-income groups who wanted a reliable old bin for commuting bought them because they were so hard to kill.

Banger racers are still using them.

Caravanners used them to tow their 18ft Polars.

Shiters and wild-campers used them for sleeping in.

What could be better for dogging?

There is no vehicle on the market that can do all the things a good 740 estate could do.

RIP "the sensible option."

[Crispian_J_Hotson]

Just thinking aloud and out of the box here, but the days of the photocopier salesperson pedaling his/ hers/ thems wares or taking the family to Homebase and buying some fence panels, a bag of postcrete, and two tins of paint for the kitchen, then wedging it all into the estate (passenger front seat wound fully back) are virtually gone now. It's all delivered to the door, or we can grab a van. Maybe we just don't use estates so much anymore?

I've had one  estate  touring, a Bm 318, and liked it a lot. Got all the family in it with luggage but then we do that with the Jag now. We just took more shit with us. For specifically lugging loads in a car, I'd not get an estate, I'd get another Discovery where it just does it all better- except the running bit.

I thought that after having those cars and now having 2 sedans* that I'd have issues when it come to hauling stuff but it's not really been an issue. My garden doesn't look like Jewsons anymore after clearing a job out and we haven't got a dog again.

[lisbon_road]

The door is open for the Chinese companies to fill the market for smaller more sensible cars.  We're just holding up a white flag and saying come on and take the market.  History says, if they get that end of the market, they'll soon attack the more expensive end too. 

[Dobloseven]

21 minutes ago, lisbon_road said:

The door is open for the Chinese companies to fill the market for smaller more sensible cars.  We're just holding up a white flag and saying come on and take the market.  History says, if they get that end of the market, they'll soon attack the more expensive end too. 

Volvo is a Chinese company! 

[CreepingJesus]

The humble estate has been in decline for a long time, unfortunately, it was the glut of people carriers that started it. Those of us who want a stuff carrier are...stuffed. The perfect practical A.N.Car doesn't have the cachet as a status  symbol.

[RoverFolkUs]

I think there's always been a bit of a "stigma"(?) around estates, a lot of non-car people that I talk to about a car, especially when looking for one, will say that they don't want an estate because it's too difficult to drive or park?

Personally I have to disagree, I don't know whether I am fortunate in being able to jump into anything and drive or park it but I see it a lot with customers who request a small courtesy car because they can't drive anything else. 

This probably translates to the demand of SUVs, a similar footprint to a mid sized car but just more bloated. 

I think the public just like the status of a big, tall, bloated car, but not a long one!

I don't perceive the difficulty of parking a car because of how big it is, all you have to do is judge as you turn, it doesn't matter what you're driving but it just seems to come naturally? 

A lot of the time a customer will swing by to ask for some advice, and the only practical way is to reverse it off the forecourt onto the road. But no, they'll try to do an 11 point turn and fail, get stuck and ask someone to reverse it out for them. 

I think that's why estates are becoming unpopular, a lot of people just don't feel like they can't drive them 🤷 - a bloated SUV with what feels like a CCTV camera setup with screens inside to monitor all your blind spots is a lot better for people who can't drive for shit. 

My brain is instinctively trained to ignore reversing and blind spot cameras, I just can't use them, looking around just seems more natural 

But money talks, and manufacturers will follow the demand of what the public love. Unfortunately people have got comfy with really shit looking cars because all the assistance features on them allow even the most incapable of drivers to drive them 

[Crispian_J_Hotson]

Good point and highlights the need* for parking assist.

[New POD]

If enough customers wanted one they'd build one. 

Look at the versions of an astra J you could buy. 

Estate.

Cascade (convertible)

GTC

5 door hatch

Saloon (I assume somewhere in the world they had one) 

Pickup (ditto) 

Now you'd buy a Grandland I think. 

 

[Split_Pin]

My dad had big gold 240 estate F93 SSF. Some folk on here will probably just sniff at it, but the 2 litre injection company car special engine it had was great. It was unstoppable and had that same gruff Volvo note. As we found out, it would literally crush anything smaller that got in its path.  Black cord upholstery, PAS and a huge boot, it was a great car. To an 8 year old, it seemed that even the big headlights were 17 feet off the ground.

I guess the D segment has been in decline for years, no matter how good the cars were. If you want a big saloon or estate, all you're really left with now is a BMW, Mercedes or an Audi. Even those manufacturers have a parallel line in SUVs covering most market sectors.

Volvo have done well to move out of that weird middle ground that used to exist between Ford/Vauxhall and BMW/Mercedes. Occupied by Rover, Saab and Audi to an extent and into a lifestyle extension. I guess this move finally puts them with all the rest now.

[Rocket88]

At least 75% of the cars I’ve owned have been estates……

[RayMK]

I share the dislike of SUVs and similarly blobbed up crossovers.  Hatchbacks and estates are much easier to thread through towns and generally handle much better too. There's still the MG5, an EV estate.  We've only had one Volvo estate, a petrol auto V70.  It was very competent, practical and roomy, had the turning circle of an ocean liner and absolutely no character - until its electronic bits started playing up and we disliked its emerging (expensive) persona.  I can remember the days when saloons were the popular choice of the masses and I objected to hatchbacks because their proportions were a bit ungainly.  Estates looked nicer if you HAD to have the luggage capacity of a van, but of course hatchbacks became the dominant market before the SUV revolution squeezed them out (literally).  It's a pity the Volvo estates are no more, but markets evolve.  

[Blunderguts]

Been riding around in Volvo estates with the aerodynamics of bulldozers since 1985. Wouldn't ever consider an SUV. Ugly, expensive to run and stuffed with unnecessary electronic crap that WILL go wrong.

[w00dy]

It's such a nonsense that everyone is buying SUVs now we're all trying to be greener. It doesn't matter which way you slice, they are less efficient and therfore use more resources than an equivalent estate and yet no-one seems to be pushing that point at all. 

Volvo might not be making estates any more, but you could buy a Polestar and a set of lowering springs to get pretty close

[Spiny Norman]

The idea of a Volvo estate being hard to park/manoeuvre is ridiculous. Try reverse parking a 240/940/850 wagon and then do the same in a 2 foot shorter last gen Fiesta without parking sensors and see which one makes you sweat.  And if it all goes tits-up? Well....Volvo bumpers.


I've  given up trying to be interested in cars, well new ones at least. We're going to be fed nothing  but a constant stream of near identical 3 ton EV SUVs in the future and I can't work up a single spark of enthusiasm for them.

[inconsistant]

If estate cars are difficult to park it’s only because all the other cars are too big. 

[eddyramrod]

@Spiny Norman: absolutely!  A Volvo estate* has a lovely big (and crucially) vertical back window, which is the end of the car.  Anyone who can't back that into a space really shouldn't be driving.

*I mean the proper brick types obviously, not the silly little V40 stuff that's just recycled Mitsubishis!

[artdjones]

With the CO² /global warming concerns plus the expense of fuel, I can't understand the pushing of vehicles with huge frontal area. 

Also to stop SUVs rolling onto their door handles, they tend to have thick anti roll bars and harder springs, making them less pleasant to drive.

[DSdriver]

Van hire companies must be rubbing their hands with glee. 😁

[RoverFolkUs]

14 minutes ago, DSdriver said:

Van hire companies must be rubbing their hands with glee. 😁

There's a new problem, new Vivaros appear to be the size of an old Combo. Confusing!

[bezzabsa]

friends Mrs wouldn't drive his Vectra estate as it was "too big" but would drive a Vectra hatch back????? same sure shirley??? plus hatchback has less rear vision!!!

 

[DSdriver]

37 minutes ago, bezzabsa said:

friends Mrs wouldn't drive his Vectra estate as it was "too big" but would drive a Vectra hatch back????? same sure shirley??? plus hatchback has less rear vision!!!

 

I expect there was a think tank where BMW were looking at how to get women to drive larger, more expensive cars that break down a lot and the tea lady said "call them Mini".

[wuvvum]

2 hours ago, Spiny Norman said:

The idea of a Volvo estate being hard to park/manoeuvre is ridiculous. Try reverse parking a 240/940/850 wagon and then do the same in a 2 foot shorter last gen Fiesta without parking sensors and see which one makes you sweat.  And if it all goes tits-up? Well....Volvo bumpers.

That is true, but for some reason from the Gen2 V70 onwards the turning circle became absolutely appalling, and those are indeed a twat to parallel park.

[cort16]

They're popular as they give an elevated driving position and are easy to get in and out of. They also tend offer a bit more space in the cabin for a smaller sized cars.

90% of people don't give a shit about estates, saloon or such.  Most peoples cars shopping experience is how much is it, how much does it cost to tax it, how many MPG does it do, does it have android auto, can I have it in red.