Cheapest estate cars in 2025

If you’re looking for as much physical car for your money as possible, look no further than the Dacia Jogger. It offers maximum space, including the ability to seat seven occupants and it starts in the region of £19,000. That’s for a brand new estate car, which is incredible value for money.

The Jogger is based on the same platform as the Sandero, so it’s not as polished to drive as some alternatives featured here, but you do get a superb 708-litre boot that can expand to as much as 2094-litres with all of the rear chairs folded in the five-seat model.

You don’t get a reasonable amount in the way of luxury, so long as you skip the base Essential model. If you want fripperies such as alloy wheels, you'll need the Extreme trim, but all have some form of air conditioning and the upper two trims come with an 8.0-inch infotainment touchscreen.

There aren’t many small estate cars around nowadays as most have moved towards crossover SUVs like the Renault Captur. But Skoda's humble Fabia Estate is a very likeable (and practical) little car.

With the rear seats up, you get 330-litres of boot space, increasing to 1395-litres with them dropped. This is easily done, and access is easy thanks to a very low loading lip - great if you want to tempt an arthritic dog to jump in.

you'll be looking to the used market now for the Skoda Fabia Estate and an SE model starts from around £7000 for a 2016 model with average miles for its age, but to get a really flashy Monte Carlo model you'll need to budget from £9000. That comes fully-loaded - with 16-inch black alloy wheels, a sports steering wheel and LED lights for the front and rear.

The Toyota Corolla Touring Sports is similar in size to the Ford Focus or Volkswagen Golf yet manages to have an identity all its own, even one that's distinct from the Corolla hatch. If anything, we reckon the Touring Sports estate model is more handsome, more practical, and more desirable than the hatch version of the Corolla.

Like the hatch, the Touring Sports has a petrol hybrid powertrain, so you get a choice of 1.8- or 2.0-litre engines capable of up to 62.7mpg combined economy and CO2 emissions as low as 101g/km. That guarantees low running costs, yet the Corolla estate is also surprisingly good to drive for a car that majors on the financials.

On any type of road, the Corolla Touring Sports is quiet and very good at soaking up broken road surfaces with barely any disturbance inside the cabin. No wonder this wagon is so popular with private hire firms. There is a slight downside when it comes to acceleration as the standard automatic gearbox dulls the Toyota's ability at gathering pace, but it's not something we'd lose sleep over.

In fact, you'll nod off to the land of dreams secure in the knowledge the Toyota Corolla Touring Sports is a very able load lugger with generous reserves of cargo space, and that's whether the rear seats are in place or folded down flat.

Any value-conscious car buyer should pay Hyundai a visit. As with the rest of its range, the Hyundai i30 Tourer undercuts competitors on price and chucks in a load of standard equipment and a generous five-year, unlimited-mileage warranty.

It’s more spacious than a Ford Focus Estate and almost as accommodating as the Skoda Octavia Estate. It’s also significantly cheaper than them both, with prices for the Tourer starting in the region of £25,000 new. That’s for an Advance model with the 1.5-litre turbo petrol engine with mild hybrid assistance. The used market offers a wider range of engine options, including extremely frugal diesel options for higher mileage drivers.

Standard equipment includes 16-inch alloy wheels, DAB radio and cruise control - it’s hardly sparse. Upgrade to the Premium for such luxuries as electric front seat adjustment, heated front seats and steering wheels, part leather upholstery, and keyless entry and starting.

Like Hyundai, you might think of Kia as a value brand but the interior of the Kia Ceed Sportswagon feels every bit as plush as more upmarket rivals.

And just as with the Hyundai i30 Touring, you do get plenty for your money with the Kia Ceed Sportswagon - even the entry-level model (which starts in the region of £24,000) gets an eight-inch media display with Apple CarPlay/Android Auto and voice control, not to mention a reversing camera and 16-inch alloy wheels. Higher trims gain an even snazzier 10.25-inch screen with sat-nav included.

It’s also good to drive with efficient petrol and diesel engines. The 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol will be sufficient for a lot of buyers, or you could go for a diesel if you cover mega miles and are happy buying used.

The Renault Megane used to be a go-to family hatch alongside the Vauxhall Astra, Ford Focus and Volkswagen Golf. That’s not the case these days, but it’s still a good choice for used buyers in practical Sports Tourer form. If you want to buy a new Renault with practicality at its core, you could look at the Megane E-Tech.

With its French flair, we think the Megane Sports Tourer is one of the more attractive options in its class. And it’s also really good value for money, with used prices starting from around £7500 for a Dynamique Nav model that's eight-years old and covered 70,000 miles.

Engine choices include efficient 1.5-litre diesels and playful 1.3-litre turbo petrols. We reckon the diesels are the pick of the bunch in the Megane Sports Tourer, especially if you’re planning on carrying a boot full of, er, whatever it is you need to lug about.

The current generation Vauxhall Astra Sports Tourer represents a significant amount of progress compared to its average-at-best predecessors. It’s now a genuinely competent alternative to the Ford Focus Estate, with efficient petrol and hybrid engine options, an all-electric version, and loads of standard equipment for the money.

It’s also very practical, with 597-litres of luggage space with the seats up and 1634-litres with them dropped down. The load area is usefully square without any stylish features or suspension turrets eating into it. It’s been designed with young families in mind and you can tell.

The Skoda Octavia Estate has always been seen as a Volkswagen Golf with a bigger boot and smaller price tag - and that’s still the case with the latest Octavia, launched in 2020.

The thing is, the latest Octavia feels so premium that you’ll question the logic in spending any more money on the Golf. There are lots of soft-touch materials and it’s incredibly refined, even with a diesel engine.

And it’s also just as practical as you’d expect for a Skoda Octavia Estate. There’s 640-litres of boot space - up 30 litres from the previous model - and a useful split-level floor for hiding valuables. Dropping the split rear bench is simple - a trademark of Skoda thinking - and frees up a vast amount of space for trips to the DIY store, or the refuse tip when such furniture reaches the end of its useful life.

Proving that you can indeed have your cake and eat it, the MINI Clubman combines fashionable looks, go-kart-like handling and a surprisingly affordable price tag. Which makes it all the more baffling that MINI has dropped this model from its current line-up. As a result, you can look to the used forecourts for a Clubman or make do with the Aceman or pay substantially more for a Countryman.

Whether you’re in a city centre or out on the open road, we can’t emphasise enough how much fun the MINI Clubman is to drive. It’ll make you feel special, too, as it’s impossible not to love its retro design and superb interior finish. Yet this is still an estate car with a nod to practicality.

The MINI Clubman starts from around £10,000 and for that you get an eight-year old Cooper model (meaning an eager 1.5-litre petrol engine) with 70,000 miles and a Classic ‘style’ (also known as a trim level). Standard equipment includes alloy wheels, black cloth seats and a multi-function steering wheel. A three-year old Clubman 1.5 Cooper Classic with 40,000 miles is yours for around £17,000.

At the same time as the new Volkswagen Golf and Skoda Octavia, Volkswagen Group’s Spanish brand launched its take on a stylish hatch-cum-estate car, namely the SEAT Leon.

Not only does the SEAT Leon Estate look the part, it’s also great to drive, while its engine line-up (similar to that of the aforementioned Golf and Octavia) means there’s a choice for everyone. All should be efficient, with none of them breaking the bank in terms of running costs.

The most affordable SEAT Leon Estate is the SE, which starts from around £26,500 and comes with 16-inch alloy wheels, LED headlights, metallic paint and an 10.4-inch touchscreen media system and 1-.25-inch digital dash display. Upgrade to the SE Dynamic (from around £28,000) for 17-inch alloy wheels, 12.9-inch infotainment screen, and metallic paint as standard. The FR models add a sportier flavour to the mix.