Baby on way - another what car challenge

[oyster]

OK, have our 1st baby due next April, and it's time to replace the tiny eurobox we have.

Here's the criteria:

Massive, easy-to-access boot - I've read about the difficulty of fitting a pushchair into a tight boot in the pissing rain.

Petrol - we will only do 6k-8k miles a year in it and most of this local stuff, so diesel will be pretty useless.

Maybe between 4 and 8 years old - so some amount of modern toys but old enough for much of the depreciation to have taken place.

No worse than 32-35mpg on combined cycle - this is what we currently get.

Doesn't need to be fun - I'll have a weekend car for that.


Some of my thinking has been Honda HRV, BMW E61 520i. It's difficult because it seems the only frugal large cars tend to be diesels.

[pjdow]

Volvo V70

T5 if you really want petrol

D5 if you want a great car

R if you want something different

[JonnyO]

Honda Civic (model up to 2006).
Huge inside (almost MPV like) with a good boot.
I have the 2.0 petrol Type S and its averaging 36mpg and does 40 on a run so smaller engined variants should do even better?

[kambites]

Octavia?

[Pints]

One baby. Standard pushchair (these multi carrier all-in-1 combos are NOT necessary). Existing Eurobox.

You really don't need anything bigger with only one child.

[Nick1point9]

kambites said:

Octavia?

Or even a Superb.

[Ecurie Ecosse]

pjdow said:

Volvo V70

T5 if you really want petrol

D5 if you want a great car

R if you want something different

Indeed. Apart from the D5 part

[vxsmithers]

In my experience if you buy a bigger car you'll end up filling it with useless baby stuff you don't need. How people require so much toot to carry around is beyond me. Day bag and pram for the first year, after that you might need room for a couple of toys as well.

I get on fine with my VX220, car seat, a quinny zapp and a bag plus my three year old. Admittedly there's no room for the mrs...

You really don't need that much stuff for a baby despite what people tell you

So in other words, buy what you want to drive!

[Nick1point9]

Pints said:

One baby. Standard pushchair (these multi carrier all-in-1 combos are NOT necessary). Existing Eurobox.

You really don't need anything bigger with only one child.

it's an excuse, not a necessity!

[boobles]

Does how safe the car is come into it?

[g3org3y]

As long as you have a baby on board sticker in the rear window, nothing else matters tbh!

[aizvara]

Pints said:

One baby. Standard pushchair (these multi carrier all-in-1 combos are NOT necessary). Existing Eurobox.

You really don't need anything bigger with only one child.

Yeah, exactly as I found. We had a big travel system which could carry the detachable car seat; never used it. Never had any problems space-wise with a normal four-door saloon, I doubt a hatchback would be significantly different.

[Rawhide]

Pints said:

One baby. Standard pushchair (these multi carrier all-in-1 combos are NOT necessary). Existing Eurobox.

You really don't need anything bigger with only one child.

Yes - but why make life harder than it needs to be. Parenting is hard enough and space is handy

pjdow said:

Volvo V70

T5 if you really want petrol

D5 if you want a great car

R if you want something different

+1 - the right tool for the job durable, anonymous, loads of toys, good economy (D5) and massively comfortable

[Pints]

Nick1point9 said:

it's an excuse, not a necessity!

An excuse to buy a Volvo?

[oyster]

Pints said:

One baby. Standard pushchair (these multi carrier all-in-1 combos are NOT necessary). Existing Eurobox.

You really don't need anything bigger with only one child.

OK I don't want something bigger to carry more stuff. I want something bigger to carry stuff without having to think about how it will fit.

Also the current Eurobox is 3 door. I should have mentioned that.

[Fittster]

You don't mention budget.

What about the Honda FRV? People carrier with 3 abreast seating, no reaching to the back seats to give junior a slap if they step out of line.

[Pints]

oyster said:

OK I don't want something bigger to carry more stuff. I want something bigger to carry stuff without having to think about how it will fit.

Also the current Eurobox is 3 door. I should have mentioned that.

Then make it the E60 or E61.

Congrats BTW. You know... for getting your leg over.

[oyster]

Hmmm budget.

Total annual costs of up to about £3k excluding fuel - including everything else. Purchase price, anything from £3k up to £50k. But doubt a £50k car will cost me £3k a year all-in.

[bob1179]

I had this dilemma.

I ended up selling my 'child unfriendly' SL60 and buying a lovely old 300SE to use as our family car. It's big, comfortable and a modern child seat fits in it nicely.

Most importantly it is a nice usable classic that is a bit different to the usual boring run of the mill stuff.

[aizvara]

oyster said:

OK I don't want something bigger to carry more stuff. I want something bigger to carry stuff without having to think about how it will fit.

Also the current Eurobox is 3 door. I should have mentioned that.

It may well help to get a four/five door. I did, as a rear-facing child seat in the back of the car is a requirement for me.

However, with my very very normal saloon car I've never had to think about how baby things will fit. When we've been on long journeys, I'll admit, it sometimes takes upwards of ten minutes to pack the car.

Having said all this, I am constantly tempted to buy a Subaru Outback. I think it must be some sort of parenting instinct.