What's the ultimate "family" car?

[cologne2792]

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.

[g7jhp]

Always amuses me why people suddenly need a 'big' car when they have kids.

Guess it depends on who's driving it with the kids in.

Personally I'd choose a 5 door Golf GTI because it's big enough for two kids 9but not too big), is safe, reasonably quick and is understated.

[kambites]

I think we'd struggle with a Golf even with just one baby.

Our stroller thing takes up about half the boot of the wife's Octavia, it would almost fill a Golf's boot.

[ajcj]

Alpina B5, in the estate version if you have a dog I suppose.

Fast when you want it to be, much better suspension and damping than the Audi / M / Merc equivalents, rare enough to avoid attention, built like a battleship.

[sjc]

Some of this is laughable. I've just sold my Granturismo S MC shift, a lovely thing but not a family car by any stretch. Four big seats,but no boot space and the tendency to piss you off with stupid quirks when you're least in the mood for them. Similarly, I've just gone to Classic LeMans in a new 3 series touring 320 M-sport and we barely had room for the two people and our luggage. The most uncomfortable seats I've ever sat in to boot. A GTi will barely get a pram in. The HSV posted above is a far better proposition, having owned one for 4 years from 2001 when my kids were first born, and the TVR's had to go..
However,if you're gonna define something as a family car, then it clearly needs to do everything.
School run(sometimes with more than just your own kids), the skip run, bikes, prams, needs tough interior trim, easy for grand parents to get in/out, great for cruising on the motorway, the kids need to see out properly, dog carrier, be nice enough to feel good in on a night out,be fine in crap weather, massive boot, relaxing and so on.
In my experience, the Discovery ticks every box,and has done ours 7 years, even though I hated the idea when the wife first got it. If not,the next best thing is a very big estate.

[crispyshark]

For the purity of the driving experience and the addictive twin turbo, would have to be a B5 RS4 for me.....decision made by the heart and not the head



Not sure I'd go with the 'Layer Cake' yellow though!

[otolith]

The trouble with the high performance versions of family cars is that they tend to ride relatively poorly. I'd rather split the budget and have something more comfort orientated and something else more properly sporting.

[skyrover]

g7jhp said:

Always amuses me why people suddenly need a 'big' car when they have kids.

Guess it depends on who's driving it with the kids in.

Depends what you do with your kids and where you live

An estate car is great until you rip the exhaust off driving down muddy tracks to get to a campsite, or get stuck due to poor ground clearance/2wd

The ultimate family car is surely a vehicle that can do everything

[Jasandjules]

white_goodman said:

Money no object, what would be your ultimate family car and what's the best family car that you have owned (if any)? Lets assume 2 kids and 2 adults, so that you're not "forced" to buy a 7-seater.

When money is no object I'd have an F430 Spider and an Estate car.

[SuperVM]

I'd love a C63 or CTS-V wagon, but for the time being have both an E39 M5 and a B5 RS4. It's a hard life.

[steviegunn]

otolith said:

The trouble with the high performance versions of family cars is that they tend to ride relatively poorly. I'd rather split the budget and have something more comfort orientated and something else more properly sporting.

Quite, surely the no cost limit choice is either, this:



or this:

[Wills2]

Diesel FFRR seems to fit the bill to me.

[gizlaroc]

I just think either you lot have not actually got a family, or you never get out at all with them, just sit on here all day, all night and all weekend?

F11 touring has a crap boot space, it is managable, but you can't get 3 bikes in it with two adults and a kid as well, so a compromise.

E61 M5? After a few hours in the car the SMG and the overall feel can start to get a little annoying.
B5 Alpina is a far better bet.

Mercedes E63 estate is a good call, in S211 guise, not the newer S212 version, which is a real step backwards imho. in regards to load space and comfort.

FFRR or a Disco would be my choice if going new, but in all honesty having something older you are not worrying about keeping mint which is so refreshing, I would rather do what I have done with the older ML and buy something else fun.

[Oilchange]

Money no object, I'd have to have something special that I'd enjoy, my daughter would feel cool in and my wife would utterly hate.

[gizlaroc]

Oilchange said:

Money no object, I'd have to have something special that I'd enjoy, my daughter would feel cool in and my wife would utterly hate.

A Vauxhall Cavalier?

[kambites]

gizlaroc said:

A Vauxhall Cavalier?

Not sure if serious.

It's clearly a Vauxhall Carlton.

[LP670]

I agree with what was said earlier about not caring if it gets messy etc. so that would rule out c63 estate and the like for me because id be too precious about it. that would mean something old for me and reliability is of importance too, so an e36 328 touring or a civic vti aerodeck are my immediate thoughts. i like the cx posted above but id be concerned about the hydraulics going wrong.

[marctwo]

[Dan_1981]

M5

[Lazadude]

Work horse, able to go anywhere, quick, room for kids and buggy and shopping, great sound track, cant really look past:

http://www.twistedperformance.co.uk/twisted-sales/...