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Used test: Audi A4 Avant vs Skoda Superb Estate vs Volvo V60: costs
If you're in the market for a used estate, are you better off with the gargantuan Superb, or one of the smaller but more upmarket options available for similar money?...
Buying and owning
Costs, equipment, reliability, safety
After four years, the Audi A4 Avant has gone from £38,135 to around £17,000. This makes it the cheapest car here, but it has consequently suffered the worst deprecation. The Skoda Superb Estate was around a thousand pounds less expensive when new, and has reached £20,000 as a used car. It's a similar story with the Volvo V60, but its used price is £21,000.
Does the V60 earn some points back in regards to fuel economy? Well, yes, because it beats the Superb's 54.3mpg average by some margin: it can average 61.4mpg. The winner here is undoubtedly the A4, though, because it has a 65.7mpg average.
To insure, the Superb will be the cheapest, thanks to it being in insurance group 25 and therefore costing around £700 per year. The A4 is in group 27, increasing the annual premium to £741. The V60 is in the highest group (30), meaning it comes in at £816 per year.
Audi offers fixed price servicing, and a plan (consisting of two services) for the A4 will cost you £479.76. For a three-service plan of the Superb, we were quoted £876.80. For a service of the V60, a plan will cost you £350.
The Superb comes with just about every luxury you could want, including a premium stereo and a hands-free tailgate. The V60 isn’t quite as well equipped, but you could easily get away with just finding one with the Convenience Pack and calling it a day. The A4 has the stingiest kit list, although it’s by no means poverty spec.
As for safety, all get a five-star Euro NCAP rating, although the V60 scores slightly higher for protecting adults and it matched the Superb's score for assistance systems, although the Superb was tested under an older regime and if it were redone today, the V60 would do better, because it comes with lane-keeping assistance as standard.
In the latest What Car? Reliability Survey, the V60 ranked 12th out of 26 cars in the executive car class, while the Superb came 16th and the A4 20th. As brands, Skoda placed 13th out of 32 manufacturers featured, followed by Volvo in 17th and Audi in 21st.
Best estate cars 2024 – the top choices for luggage capacity
An estate car needs to be practical, but the best models are also comfortable, well equipped and affordable to run. Here we reveal our top 10 buys – and the estates to steer clear of
