Four car garage - for a 2+2 family
Discussion
Gentelmen, I need Your advice.
I'm building a house with an actual 4 car garage. We are 2+2 family with kids who will be 3 and 8 by the time we finish (estimated Dec 2023). We currently have 3 cars: Mk2 MX5 track car that haven't seen much use in years but has sentimental value and needs to stay, GR Yaris that is a barely used fun car, and a C4 Picasso that is a family bus and my daily driver. As good as it is it should be replaced as I fear a major failure (its the 1.2 Puretech and 7 years old). Wife currently walks to work, but will have to get a daily when we move to the house. Both our commutes will be rather short and in city traffic - 2 miles one way for myself and 3 miles for my wife (I know, we should get bikes but we'll have to ferry children and we get proper winters).
What I was thinking:
1: Something mildly fun for myself
2: VW Touran for my wife
3: GR Yaris
4: MX5
Unfortunatelly, my wife doesn't really like the idea of driving Touran around town and would rather have a Captur or similar... Thats leaves me with the "big" car again...
Any ideas?
TIA.
I'm building a house with an actual 4 car garage. We are 2+2 family with kids who will be 3 and 8 by the time we finish (estimated Dec 2023). We currently have 3 cars: Mk2 MX5 track car that haven't seen much use in years but has sentimental value and needs to stay, GR Yaris that is a barely used fun car, and a C4 Picasso that is a family bus and my daily driver. As good as it is it should be replaced as I fear a major failure (its the 1.2 Puretech and 7 years old). Wife currently walks to work, but will have to get a daily when we move to the house. Both our commutes will be rather short and in city traffic - 2 miles one way for myself and 3 miles for my wife (I know, we should get bikes but we'll have to ferry children and we get proper winters).
What I was thinking:
1: Something mildly fun for myself
2: VW Touran for my wife
3: GR Yaris
4: MX5
Unfortunatelly, my wife doesn't really like the idea of driving Touran around town and would rather have a Captur or similar... Thats leaves me with the "big" car again...
Any ideas?
TIA.
Golf GTE/BMW 330e (not biased), GR Yaris, MX-5, Peugeot e-2008/Tesla Model Y/Kia eNIRO
EV is the way to go for a commuter. PHEV for a fun daily. ICE for something truly special/ weekend blaster - GR yaris and MX5. My choice would be the Model Y for the commuter and the Golf Gte for the daily
Job jobbed
EV is the way to go for a commuter. PHEV for a fun daily. ICE for something truly special/ weekend blaster - GR yaris and MX5. My choice would be the Model Y for the commuter and the Golf Gte for the daily
Job jobbed
Gentelman (and ladies!) thank You for your suggestions.
Regarding EVs, we even ordered the eNiro but then realised that even with free electricity we would have to cover ~136K miles to recoup the difference in price between the Niro and something like the Catpur which is exactly half the price of the KIA. That's just not going to happen as the car will cover 10K/year max. Not to mention the Captur can be ordered with LPG from factory. I know EV's are the future, but not in their current form.
Regarding hybrids/PHEVS, there is something that I think should be publicised more. We are beeing told they are ultra efficint in city driving - that may be true, but not for the short distances or cold temperatures. I rented a RAV4 hybrid for a weekend recently and in current temperatures (around 0*C) no matter what the battery charge the ICE will start up, with the first kilometre consumption beeing ~20L/100km (~14 UK mpg). If the whole journey is 3km/2miles long the economy goes to hell, especially if you want to heat your car/defrost the windows which will also keep the engine running even while stationary. I managed to beat my Picasso but by only 1L/100km. So, not optimal for my specific use.
Regarding daily driving a GR Yaris... As I plan to keep the car indefinitely, I want to limit the mileage I do and see start/stop traffic as a waste of a good car
Michal
Regarding EVs, we even ordered the eNiro but then realised that even with free electricity we would have to cover ~136K miles to recoup the difference in price between the Niro and something like the Catpur which is exactly half the price of the KIA. That's just not going to happen as the car will cover 10K/year max. Not to mention the Captur can be ordered with LPG from factory. I know EV's are the future, but not in their current form.
Regarding hybrids/PHEVS, there is something that I think should be publicised more. We are beeing told they are ultra efficint in city driving - that may be true, but not for the short distances or cold temperatures. I rented a RAV4 hybrid for a weekend recently and in current temperatures (around 0*C) no matter what the battery charge the ICE will start up, with the first kilometre consumption beeing ~20L/100km (~14 UK mpg). If the whole journey is 3km/2miles long the economy goes to hell, especially if you want to heat your car/defrost the windows which will also keep the engine running even while stationary. I managed to beat my Picasso but by only 1L/100km. So, not optimal for my specific use.
Regarding daily driving a GR Yaris... As I plan to keep the car indefinitely, I want to limit the mileage I do and see start/stop traffic as a waste of a good car
Michal
colin86 said:
Keep the mx5
Use the Yaris gr as your daily
Get the wife whatever car she wants
Probably this. But maybe drop the Yaris. Use the Yaris gr as your daily
Get the wife whatever car she wants
It pains me to say it, but it’s really quite nice to be able to fit the kids in the ‘fun’ car, even if it’s just to liven up the drive back from dropping them at school. It’s also really quite nice for the fun car to be able to do the longer family trips with luggage and all the gear.
For that reason I’d drop the Yaris as it’s a bit too niche when you’re a family man. I’d replace that with something performance oriented and combine it with your daily with something like an Alfa Stelvio Quad or maybe an F-Pace SVR. Maybe get some old 4x4 s
t-heap for crap winter days. So:
1. Stelvio Quadrifoglio
2. Whatever the missus wants.
3. Old Freelander 2 or similar.
4. MX5.
I’m slightly biased as I run an F-Pace SVR and a Freelander 2 for my wife and for crap winter days. I honestly don’t want for much more other than something that could be taken on track - like an MX5 or GR Yaris!
The only thing I can add is that the Touran needs a huge amount space behind it to open the tailgate. If, like me, you like to reverse into parking spaces, this can be a real problem. Mrs Magnum ruled out the Touran for precisely this reason.
Much as it’s maligned on here, the 220i “Grand Tourer” is a very practical family bus - ours is now 7 years old and still going very well.
Much as it’s maligned on here, the 220i “Grand Tourer” is a very practical family bus - ours is now 7 years old and still going very well.
A Van is a good shout. I have been using mine a bit more recently. If it had more seats and was auto I'd be quite smitten. Maybe my next Van will be my go to Vehicle. Where I live fun just doesn't seem to happen. So then size wins. But when the weather picks up I'll need to keep the cars in rotation as they dont like sitting around un-loved.
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