What's the ultimate "family" car?
Discussion
braddo said:
What are the rear seats in a Discovery 3/4 like for comfort?
A thing I find striking about modern cars is how claustrophobic they appear to be, especially for their size. It seems to me that most rear seat passengers these days get a pretty sore deal with very high window lines and huge pillars. For kids, I suspect they much prefer being in something like a Discovery with its airy interior and very low window line so they get a great view and a feeling of space.
The current 5 series seems quite small on the inside but the worse culprits I have noticed are the new Macan, the Quattroporte, current Fiesta, A-Class Merc, Megane, Giulietta etc.
Row three in my Discovery is not as spacious as it was in the Grand Espace that it's replaced, but at 6'0" I'm fine in there for a couple of hours at a stretch.A thing I find striking about modern cars is how claustrophobic they appear to be, especially for their size. It seems to me that most rear seat passengers these days get a pretty sore deal with very high window lines and huge pillars. For kids, I suspect they much prefer being in something like a Discovery with its airy interior and very low window line so they get a great view and a feeling of space.
The current 5 series seems quite small on the inside but the worse culprits I have noticed are the new Macan, the Quattroporte, current Fiesta, A-Class Merc, Megane, Giulietta etc.
The Espace was fantastic, but the seats were a bugger to manhandle and store - no foldaway option.
Absolutely agree on the back seat thing, though - with three teenagers options are limited.
may have been mentioned but just in case
assuming only 2 kids and for me 4wd would be a must:
http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/s...
assuming only 2 kids and for me 4wd would be a must:
http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/s...
jbsportstech said:
If you cant stretch to M5 E61 touring or you need 7 seats this
>
SMAX ST POWERED 2.5
That was superseded 4 years ago with the 2.0 Ecoboost...>
SMAX ST POWERED 2.5
Supports my claim that it is the best family car in the world from the last page, however hardly the stuff of billionaires and lottery winners dreams!!!
braddo said:
What are the rear seats in a Discovery 3/4 like for comfort?
A thing I find striking about modern cars is how claustrophobic they appear to be, especially for their size.
As said above, the middle row will seat 3 adults in comfort with bags of leg room even with the front seats wound back. My brother is 6' 7" and he can sit in both the middle and rear most seats with no problem at all. Great when we go for extended family holidays.A thing I find striking about modern cars is how claustrophobic they appear to be, especially for their size.
D3 feels and is huge inside with great visibility. Basically a box on wheels.
Edited by anonymous-user on Tuesday 15th July 19:25
I have a V70 D5 very practical. Good enough for the police Probably a Bentley Flying Spur if money were genuinely no object.
With a reasonable budget I went for an XFR-S, and we've just clocked up 1500 miles as a family of 4 over the past 5 days.
It fits everything we wanted to carry with room to bring some purchases back. It's long legged enough to go a sensible distance to a tank (we averaged 29mpg ), it's comfortable and quick.
We have no need for offroading and towing a caravan is largely at odds with the whole money-no-object theme and my idea of hell having done many awful family holidays with one of those miserable things. We're a hotel type family. I find driving slowly extremly frustrating and stressful. A 'nice slow drive' is an oxymoron for me. I hate driving slow. Drive quickly and park outside an airport or nice hotel - that's how holidays should be done.
Above all, neither my wife nor I lost interest in cars or driving when we had our children so the ultimate family car needs to tick our boxes too. We have to really enjoy driving it and actually want to own it. We considered the Quattroporte and Rapide but short service intervals and sub-20mpg fuel consumption would be a PITA given our distance from dealers and petrol stations. We'd be filling up twice a week and would be having to drive over 250 mile round trips to get it serviced far too regularly. The XFR-S was the best we could do with that money given our blend of needs and wants.
The car attracts a lot of positive attention, particularly from young people. Much more so than our TVR gets surprisingly. Having some decent power is essential in the ideal family car too. The ability to overtake anything we don't like looking at the back end of with ease even when fully loaded and with full fuel is not a luxury we have when driving the old 3.0s with a fairly inadequate 230~240bhp. It just isn't enough to exploit the small gaps available in oncoming traffic when heavy, and I hate being stuck behind people who slow down for gentle bends etc.
With a reasonable budget I went for an XFR-S, and we've just clocked up 1500 miles as a family of 4 over the past 5 days.
It fits everything we wanted to carry with room to bring some purchases back. It's long legged enough to go a sensible distance to a tank (we averaged 29mpg ), it's comfortable and quick.
We have no need for offroading and towing a caravan is largely at odds with the whole money-no-object theme and my idea of hell having done many awful family holidays with one of those miserable things. We're a hotel type family. I find driving slowly extremly frustrating and stressful. A 'nice slow drive' is an oxymoron for me. I hate driving slow. Drive quickly and park outside an airport or nice hotel - that's how holidays should be done.
Above all, neither my wife nor I lost interest in cars or driving when we had our children so the ultimate family car needs to tick our boxes too. We have to really enjoy driving it and actually want to own it. We considered the Quattroporte and Rapide but short service intervals and sub-20mpg fuel consumption would be a PITA given our distance from dealers and petrol stations. We'd be filling up twice a week and would be having to drive over 250 mile round trips to get it serviced far too regularly. The XFR-S was the best we could do with that money given our blend of needs and wants.
The car attracts a lot of positive attention, particularly from young people. Much more so than our TVR gets surprisingly. Having some decent power is essential in the ideal family car too. The ability to overtake anything we don't like looking at the back end of with ease even when fully loaded and with full fuel is not a luxury we have when driving the old 3.0s with a fairly inadequate 230~240bhp. It just isn't enough to exploit the small gaps available in oncoming traffic when heavy, and I hate being stuck behind people who slow down for gentle bends etc.
cologne2792 said:
We went through a few of these. Still probably the best ride of any car ever, big enough to carry a 12 foot ladder inside with the tailgate closed, room for three kids and a months worth of stuff, DIRAVI steering which is just incredible, ride and braking compensates for load so behaves the same empty as it does fully loaded and the headlights are always at the proper height. Add in quiet, quick, extremely comfortable and 800+ miles range in the DTR versions coupled with an easily washed down vinyl interior in the MK1 - which a reviewer of the day claimed was excellent for messy families.
cologne2792 said:
We went through a few of these. Still probably the best ride of any car ever, big enough to carry a 12 foot ladder inside with the tailgate closed, room for three kids and a months worth of stuff, DIRAVI steering which is just incredible, ride and braking compensates for load so behaves the same empty as it does fully loaded and the headlights are always at the proper height. Add in quiet, quick, extremely comfortable and 800+ miles range in the DTR versions coupled with an easily washed down vinyl interior in the MK1 - which a reviewer of the day claimed was excellent for messy families.
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