Moving from a Golf to Octavia wagon - a 'big' enough change?

[kamold]

Hi All,
We currently have a MkV Golf 2.0FSI Tiptronic and an A3 2.0TFSI Quattro S-Tronic.
Plus a new addition to the family - an awesome baby boy

I have loved the A3 which I've had for three years from new, and my wife loves her Golf which we got second hand a year ago.

Am thinking of getting something a bit bigger and more practical to replace the A3

Would also like to stay in the VAG family if possible as I am a big fan of the group's technologies.

Has anyone else made a similar move into an Octavia RS wagon?
If so is the addition of a longer boot enough of a change in practical day to day travels or should I really be looking to a Passat/Superb/A4 as a family wagon?

I am yet to test drive any of these but wanted some opinions from the community as well.

Thanks

[Jake02]

The extra 200+ litres of bootspace in the Octavia RS liftback alone was enough to buy one over a Golf for us basically. The Golf was frontrunner (only problem was choosing between the then-GT Sport and GTI) until I looked at the Octavia. The Octavia is certainly better than the stupid Golf wagon, especially if you want a faster version (RS) or a quick-ish manual (the Golf you can't have a 103TDI or 118TSI manual whereas the Octavia is manual/auto for every variant - if that's important to you I mean), and that's before the Octavia's boot being much bigger.

[anthony]

I was funnily enough going to say you should look at the Golf wagon...

[kamold]

Yeah the Golf wagon isn't a consideration at all for me...a bit too courier-style for my tastes (no offense to any courier drivers or Golf wagon owners)

[hooba]

Should be plenty big enough in the back, even if you have one of those SUV-like 3 wheeler strollers.

[woofy]

I have a 3yr old who was 8mths when we got the rs hatch and I now have a 4mth old as well. We all fit fine even with the return of the big pram. The wagon would just be stacking stuff up higher for us. I am thinking of a superb wagon next round though...

[Damo105]

I've got an RS wagon which I bought for practicality over the GTI. It's only had one real load test so far, which was 4 adults on a long weekend trip to East Gippsland. We had luggage for 4, food for 4 days, esky, pillows etc etc, and I could still close the cargo blind. I think the RS wagon would be plenty big enough for a family of 3 or 4. And you can always get roof crossbars for bikes etc.

I've had mine for 3 months/6000kms now, and am loving it. Such a nice car to drive.

[Brycem]

We had a golf when our first kid was born. It was plenty big enough for one child and we could easily fit everything in for weekends/weeks away. We are now on our second rs wagon and have two kids. Rear seat legroom is not amazing but the 580 litre boot is brilliant for carting around kids bikes and scooters and prams. In my view it is a golf gti with a much much bigger boot and eight tenths of the handling ability but better ride comfort. Nothing this side of 65k can touch it for performance handling and space. The superb and passat have better rear space but are more sedate beasts unless you get the v6 versions and then you are at 65k and a more frequent visitor to the petrol station.

[dArK5HaD0w]

i initially fancied a golf gti and the audi a3 2l turbo - test drove both, and loved it.

but when it came to boot space & price - i cringed. my old car (astra 2002 5-door liftback) had plenty more room than these two!
then came the pricing - by the time i specced it the way i wanted, i was easily looking at the mid 50 to early 60s!!

then along came the octavia rs. same build components, same powertrain, lots more boot space (even more than my astra), and for a lot less price with the specs i wanted

plus, not too many octavias around.....yet.

[RSOK]

Yep, what they all said! Bought the RS with my second child on the way, and the boot was the clincher over a Golf GTI, it's just considerably bigger than its cousin and able to take all the gear when we take trips away (pram + porta-cot + full size suitcase + assorted overnight bags).... it has the performance I want (when the family's not in the car with me of course ) and it has the technologies and build quality I value... I've had my wagon for just on 13 months and it hasn't missed a beat, couldn't be happier... oh and yes, as Darkshadow points out, there's not many on the road, which gives it a nice exclusivity factor, unlike a thousand Golfs I pass every month.

I also looked at Passat and Superb but unless you have lanky teenage kids occupying the backseat I don't see why you'd need the extra spend on them (or an A4).

[Inego]

I went from a Golf with our first child, to an Outback when he was fairly young, and now the Scout. The extra boot space (and it is a big boot by class standards) is plenty.

[Ocy_RS_TDi_Kombi]

An Octavia wagon will fit a mountain buggy tandem pram in the boot under the cargo blind without taking wheels off etc - the mounatin buggy tandems are very big prams too. That still leaves space under the cargo blind for nappy bags and the associated stuff you need to take. If you need more space for porta cots etc it'll all fit just slide open the cargo blind.

Admittedly the rear legroom isn't the best but I'm still amazed at the crap you can fit in the Octavia boot - even friends of ours with large SUV's (CX9's, Territory's, etc) all are surprised when they see the Ocy boot. Have even compared the boot space in a Commodore Sportwagon to the Ocy boot and more stuff fitted in the Octavia - so much for large cars........

Whilst i'm at it, I like how the Octavia boot is lined with that fabric (it's hard to describe) as opposed to plastic like 95% of other cars. After 2 years and all the crap you need to cart for kids, it still looks new with no marks/scratches. Comparing it to our other car (Citroen C4 Picasso), it has scratches etc and I'm very careful how I pack it too.

BTW does anyone know if you can buy a cargo net for an Octavia wagon? Have looked around but cannot see any.

Thanks

[kamold]

Thanks all for your valuable real-life experience. No amount of sales talk or boot volume stats can make up for that!
I'll be taking a look at the RS this week if I can find the time, sounds like it will fit the bill for the next few years nicely.

[woofy]

You can get what I had from a salesguy when my RS was being serviced and I came to see the new Superb wagon last year;

Me: The boot looks almost the same as the RS wagon, how much bigger is it, or whats the size difference.

Salesguy (sitting at his desk not even looking at me); I dunno you could get a tape measure and measure it yourself......

Unfortunately I think that guy is still there....

[jbviajero]

Whoa Woofy that sales guy sounds like a bad experience. At least he didn't lie to you though. When I test drove mine, they took it with me as a passanger to the fuel station for a refill first and said 'look how strongly it accelerates'... We were going down a steep hill.

I can add here that I've managed to get a 520L fridge into the back of my Octavia wagon on impulse, although I won't claim to have fit under the cargo blind. I think it is plenty bigger than a golf or a3 hatch.