Two car family on a budget?

[pstruck]

Right, this is a bit un-PH, but I'm on a cost cutting mission and motoring is a big part of the household expenditure, so I'd like to reduce costs.

Without going into too much detail we are a one income household, with a need for two vehicles - one family car and one daily commuter. The family car is used during the week by the wife for ferrying our toddler about (and later in the year baby nr two), weekend outings and holidays, probably no more than 8k miles per year. The commuter car covers my daily trip to work on rural A and B roads and a little urban driving amounting to approximately 12k miles per year.

Right now I'm fairly fed up with forking out loads of cash on fuel, tyres, maintenance, tax and insurance, etc. I don't want to consider going down the one car route, as where we live in not particularly well served by public transport.

What would be your strategy (not necessarily specific choice of vehicles) in this situation? Half decent estate for the family and old banger for the commute, or perhaps a 'costs peanuts to run'' super-mini for the commute? Obviously I don't want to skimp on safety etc for either, more especially the family transport. My concern with running a banger would be the cost of maintenance/ongoing repairs.

I'm not going to say what we currently have and I want any contributers to assume we are starting from scratch with a hypothetical budget of £8-10k to buy the two cars.

[pstruck]

Thanks for the repies so far. I'm in a bit of a grump and having just been hit by fairly large maintenance/repair bills for both cars, one of which is a "bullet proof" 2.4 Accord mentioned above. It seems even one of those has the ability to throw up a big bill from time to time.

I used to spend a large proportion of my income on satisfying my motoring needs, but as life priorities have changed I have no desire to spend anywhere near as much. In fact I want it to be as little as possible, but without compromising on safety, etc.

[pstruck]

SlowV6 said:

Out of interest what failed on your 2.4 Accord. I would consider keeping that btw.

Rear brakes. Ceased callipers, knackered ABS sensor. It wasn't huge bill, but enough to make me wince, especially after a similar bill on the wife's car not so long ago. Now I have another light on the dash which is likely to cost a fair bit to sort also.

The £8k budget is only hypothetical, based on the value of the two cars I have now plus a bit which I would happily add if necessary. Of course I would be happy with lower purchase cost. But for me it's not so much the purchase cost, it's the ongoing running costs which I'd like to see reduced. I guess I've just lost the love of motoring and therefore struggle to shrug off/forgive the costs. I'd love to runs something which cost me sweet FA in tax and insurance and runs of thimble full of fuel per week. I know, hand in my PH membership at the door......

There are some interesting suggestions here, but I can't help but feel that many would leave me no better off. Old Saabs for instance are indeed cheap to buy, but they are also quite good at the occasional 'big bill'. I know anything I buy will cost a certain amount in maintenance and avoiding regular servicing can lead to expensive failures.

[pstruck]

WinstonWolf said:

How far is the commute? I regularly do an eighteen mile one on a bicycle, it only takes about twenty minutes more than the car on a good day.

23 miles each way with a big damned hill in the way + I'm unfit. Suppose I wouldn't be for long though if I got off my ar$e a cycled. Trouble is I do need a car for work (business miles) sometimes also.

[pstruck]

One car might be possible, at a push, but it would be damned inconvenient. I need my own transport for work and the wife takes junior to pre-school and back three days per week - too far to walk, no bus, etc. Yes it would save a lot of money, but it's just a step too far for us. I'm not skint, just not happy spending quite so much. I'm sure we can keep two cars but with lower costs than at present.

[pstruck]

I've not done anything about this since posting it a couple of months ago, but it's still on my mind.

I'd certainly like to buy something modern, safe and hopefully reliable for the family transport. Estate, petrol and manual is a must. Would rather keep out of the top tax bracket stuff, but don't want a wheezy, slow old barge either.

Not so fussed about my daily commuter - cheaper, older maybe, low running costs, needs four seats for the occasions when the other car is in the garage (hopefully rarely) and a bit of boot space as I carry some work gear around.

Budget is £10k max for the two.