What's the ultimate "family" car?

What's the ultimate "family" car?

Author
Discussion

epom

12,293 posts

167 months

Tuesday 15th July 2014
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RS6 shirley... with a quick trip to MTM smile

IroningMan

10,285 posts

252 months

Tuesday 15th July 2014
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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.

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.

Uncle John

4,481 posts

197 months

Tuesday 15th July 2014
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The normal rear seats in a Discovery 3/4 are superb, they have stadium style seating so higher up than those at the front.

The no 6 and 7 seats in the boot are actually very good also as confirmed above. Easily take an adult for a journey of a few hours.

chippy17

3,740 posts

249 months

Tuesday 15th July 2014
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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...


jbsportstech

5,069 posts

185 months

Tuesday 15th July 2014
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If you cant stretch to M5 E61 touring or you need 7 seats this

>


SMAX ST POWERED 2.5

Dapster

7,394 posts

186 months

Tuesday 15th July 2014
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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That was superseded 4 years ago with the 2.0 Ecoboost...



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!!!

marctwo

3,666 posts

266 months

Tuesday 15th July 2014
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epom said:
RS6 shirley... with a quick trip to MTM MRC smile
Corrected.

jbsportstech

5,069 posts

185 months

Tuesday 15th July 2014
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Dapster said:
That was superseded 4 years ago with the 2.0 Ecoboost...



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!!!
Yeh but I like the 5 cylinder burble

anonymous-user

60 months

Tuesday 15th July 2014
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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.

D3 feels and is huge inside with great visibility. Basically a box on wheels.


Edited by anonymous-user on Tuesday 15th July 19:25

kutaface

36 posts

123 months

Tuesday 15th July 2014
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Subaru Legacy Twinscroll Wagon



or

Subaru Legacy GTB



Big boot
Fast when mapped
Can outperform some of the big boys
Look nice
Soak up miles
Bilstein Suspension as standard
Cheap

Edited by kutaface on Tuesday 15th July 21:11

Park'O

656 posts

180 months

Tuesday 15th July 2014
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Pit Pony

9,193 posts

127 months

Tuesday 15th July 2014
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Ax 1.4D echo, with dents. Simple, reliable, slow, and money saved for the investment in Children's Bonus Bonds.


TBH I must have been mad. Camping trips were an interesting packing challenge with 2 pre-school kids in the back, and the tent and equipment scattered around the car.

jbsportstech

5,069 posts

185 months

Tuesday 15th July 2014
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Park'O said:

It's a Honda jazz with sidling doors like the fusion the saga bunch love it

Nick Grant

5,415 posts

241 months

Tuesday 15th July 2014
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No love for the Volvo biggrin I have a V70 D5 very practical. Good enough for the police smile

Would love an RS6 though smile

jamieduff1981

8,040 posts

146 months

Tuesday 15th July 2014
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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.

Park'O

656 posts

180 months

Tuesday 15th July 2014
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jbsportstech said:
Park'O said:

It's a Honda jazz with sidling doors like the fusion the saga bunch love it
I don't care, it's highly accessible and spacious.

sulli

584 posts

225 months

Tuesday 15th July 2014
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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.
Chatting to a bloke with a mint one of these, the other week. It had 3 rows of seats (8 seater) a massive boot and a 200bhp engine! He had done a full restoration on it and despite being brown couldn't help but love it....

jaisharma

1,159 posts

189 months

Tuesday 15th July 2014
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Quattroporte for me
Though the cinqueporte of which two were made would be even better
CX is a good shout, as is a Lancia Thema 8.32 in my view

Number 5

2,750 posts

201 months

Wednesday 16th July 2014
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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.
I've been reading this topic regularly with interest and agreed with most of the offerings that have been posted, I personally have a Panamera as my family car, prior to this I had a 2011 E350 estate which as a family car really is an all round package. I much prefer my Panamera to the E350 as my daily car because it's a little bit different to "everyone" else's family car which brings me to the CX, If there was a pole for the worlds greatest family car ever then for me I would vote for the CX. It was a car way ahead of its time that was just a break from the norm when you compare it to the cars of its day. If I were a parent in the 70's/80's or early 90's then my choice of family car would have been a CX estate.




skyrover

12,684 posts

210 months

Wednesday 16th July 2014
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Park'O said:
jbsportstech said:
Park'O said:

It's a Honda jazz with sidling doors like the fusion the saga bunch love it
I don't care, it's highly accessible and spacious.
It's not exactly "ultimate" though is it?

It's a compromise